Banknote certificate: Russians will be banned from buying housing for cash
The Prosecutor General's Office supported the introduction of a ban on real estate transactions for cash. Earlier, such an initiative was made by deputies of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing and Communal Services from United Russia. The security forces considered that cases of remote fraud are common in Russia today, so it is necessary to tighten the legislation. This includes extending the registration of real estate rights or suspending it for up to 20 days if signs of a questionable transaction are detected.
Control over real estate transactions
The introduction of a ban on real estate transactions for cash was supported by the Prosecutor General's Office. This follows from the response of Anatoly Razinkin, first deputy of the department, to Svetlana Razvorotneva, deputy chairman of the Committee on Construction and Housing from the United Russia faction, who had previously put forward a legislative initiative to introduce such a restriction.
In a document that Izvestia has, it is reported that due to the prevalence of remote fraud in real estate transactions, the deputies' proposal to adopt a special law establishing rules for the provision of intermediary services is supported.
"The issues to be regulated may include the organization of the work of realtors, mandatory requirements for them: higher education, no criminal record for economic crimes, etc. Since the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and the law on consumer rights protection establish only the framework nature of compensation for damage to the injured party, it is important to determine the limits of liability, including material, for poorly rendered intermediary services, as a result of which the participant in the transaction lost his home," Anatoly Razinkin said in his response.
In this regard, the Prosecutor General's Office considers it important to explore the possibility of forming a special compensation fund, through which victims of the actions of realtors have the right to claim damages. In addition, the document supports amendments to the federal law "On State Registration of Real Estate" to increase the deadline to 20 days (today up to 10 days through Rosreestr, up to 12 days through the IFC) or to suspend the registration of real estate for cadastral registration if signs of a questionable transaction are detected.
"With the introduction of such adjustments, it is possible to consider the creation of an integrated information exchange system between Rosreestr and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to prevent illegal actions in the commission of suspicious transactions," Anatoly Razinkin suggests.
In addition, the Prosecutor General's Office considers it relevant to introduce mandatory notarization of transactions to verify the consent of elderly people (over 65 years old) to sell apartments.
Most often, pensioners, people with addictions, mental illnesses, and so on become victims of fraudsters. In particular, they may be sold an apartment at an undervalued price, and the cash may turn out to be fake. In addition, there is no guarantee that the house will not be sold to several buyers. Therefore, experts recommend making payments through a letter of credit or electronic registration services.
— The bill banning housing transactions for cash did not appear out of thin air. This is one of the steps towards creating an entire system for the security of the purchase and sale of real estate in Russia. The fact that it is necessary is confirmed by the sad statistics," Svetlana Razvorotneva, the author of the initiative, explained to Izvestia.
According to her, in 2022, the Prosecutor General's Office recorded more than 6 thousand crimes related to the deprivation of citizens of apartments, in 2023 - more than 8 thousand. If we talk about the damage, it amounts to tens of billions of rubles annually and its amount is constantly increasing, the deputy stressed.
— That is why other measures have been developed, including the legal regulation of real estate activities, as well as a proposed procedure for freezing funds from the sale of apartments on the seller's account to protect him from fraudulent activities. After all, people who are deceived by scammers begin to understand this only after some time, for example, after talking with relatives. But this mechanism will not work in the case of transactions for cash, so they are proposed to be banned," explained the deputy, noting that this makes the housing market more transparent and secure.
According to her, the proposed initiatives are currently being reviewed by the government and interested departments.
Izvestia sent a request to the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Construction and the Central Bank with a request to comment on their attitude to the proposed changes to the legislation.
Why will people stop buying houses with cash
It makes sense to support the initiative to ban cash payments in order to increase the security of transactions, Maxim Fedorchenko, president of the Association of Construction Organizations of the Novosibirsk Region (ASONO), coordinator of the National Association of Builders in the Siberian Federal District, told Izvestia.
— For seven years now, transactions on the primary market have been carried out only for cashless payments. And this system is working successfully. It can also become a work scheme for the secondary market," the industry representative said.
Sergey Smirnov, senior partner of the Vysotsky Estate network, on the contrary, believes that the proposed measure to ban transactions for cash will not solve the problem with fraudsters in any way.
— It should be understood that until now, some of the owners believe only in cash. Immediately after making transactions, they withdraw these funds from bank accounts, and then they can transfer them to fraudsters. I can tell you a specific case from practice. Last year, a woman came to us who insisted on a cash deal. We insisted on a secure payment system. Her money went to the bank, and the next day she went and withdrew funds from the account and eventually gave them to the scammers," the business representative explained.
At the same time, he noted that most of the real estate transactions are already carried out by wire transfer, and with the passing of the generation that is accustomed to paper bills, it is gradually moving towards the fact that there will be no transactions for cash.
"Today, buyers are increasingly using more modern methods of financing, such as settlements through letters of credit, through special accounts opened with banks, and through notary deposits," agrees Dmitry Khalin, CEO and Managing Partner of Intermark Urban Real Estate.
According to him, even if the buyer initially has cash, he usually puts it in a bank account first and uses a letter of credit for further payments.
— As for the suspension of registration of rights, the issue is more serious, since now the general trend is for the registration period of transactions to be shortened, and the participants in the transactions are used to it. For example, notarial registrations are increasingly being used, which can reduce the time up to one day. And if, at the request of any law enforcement agencies, the deadline is extended by 20 days, then this, of course, will come as an unpleasant surprise to the participants in the transactions, and even if after such an inspection it turns out that everything is in order, the other side of the transaction may seriously strain itself simply based on the very fact of such an inspection," said a business representative.
In his opinion, this rule can hurt the market quite painfully, lawmakers need to be extremely careful in this matter, and there must be very serious grounds for introducing such blockages, and not just doubts and suspicions that arise from law enforcement officials.
— To some extent, the initiative will help in the fight against fraudsters, although we see that attackers are also becoming much more technologically advanced and, as a rule, the reason for fraud is not that cash is used in transactions, but that in the future the seller can use this money in some way incomprehensible to normal In a reasonable way, he transfers them to different accounts, where the money is then lost, or he withdraws it in cash and then transfers it to someone,— Dmitry Khalin explained.
Large businesses in the real estate sector may not be interested in the proposed measures, as they slow down the procedure for selling housing, but it is necessary to proceed from the interests of consumers as a weaker side, said Oleg Pavlov, head of the Public Council at Rospotrebnadzor, head of the Public Consumer Initiative.
According to him, if reasonable restrictions increase the level of security, then, of course, they should be considered and accepted. The real estate industry is extremely sensitive: any mistakes or problems directly affect citizens. On the other hand, the tightening should not lead to difficulties in operations, he concluded.
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