“Legality of destruction of illegally installed buildings” — Tatiana Tereshchenko for Delovoy Peterburg

The Committee for the control of the property of St. Petersburg does not just dismantle and remove illegally installed stalls and other buildings in his opinion, but deliberately destroys them. How are legitimate these actions?

Tatiana Tereshchenko, head of the analytical division of "Prime Advice":

Of course deliberately destroying someone else's property and causing property damage is unacceptable. Inviolability of private property and protection of violated rights in court are guaranteed by the Constitution of Russia. 

But first of all it is necessary to determine whether such property exists from a legal point of view. To protect your rights to property, you must first legally acquire it.

The civil code contains the concept of unauthorized construction. In particular buildings erected on the land without obtaining the necessary approvals, permits or in violation of urban planning and construction norms and rules. Who carried out the unauthorized construction does not acquire the right of ownership, that is, legally there is nothing to protect.

Such constructions are subject to demolition. Their actual owner according to the decision of authorized body is obliged to eliminate the allowed violation in due time. Therefore, any movement of the stall or other structure (which is technically possible), as a result of which the situation formally changes, and in fact the violation is not eliminated, is more like abuse, and not the proper execution of legal requirements.

In this sense, the "physical" destruction of the site does not seem to contradict the requirements of the demolition of the unauthorized construction, the ownership of which is not legalized. Therefore, in general, such tactics on the part of state bodies is possible. However, it is necessary to investigate in each case, in order not to wishful thinking.