Territorial Real Estate Complexes and New Legislation on Common Shared Ownership

The article analyses the meaning of the new norms of the Russian Civil Code on common shared ownership of common property of owners of real estate (buildings, structures and land plots) included in territorial complexes. It concludes that the norms of § 2 of Chapter 16 of the Civil Code cannot be considered as a legal basis for the emergence of shared ownership of common property in territorial real estate complexes. The norms of the Civil Code serve as the basis for the emergence of common shared ownership only for owners of premises and parking spaces in buildings and structures. For other real estate complexes consisting of buildings, structures, land plots, either a special law is required, which in this case acts as the basis for the emergence of shared ownership, or a joint expression of the will of all property owners — a transaction. At the same time, Art. 259.1 of the Civil Code opens up the possibility of carrying out such transactions, defines the conditions under which they can be concluded, and the characteristics of the object of such transactions — the common property of the owners of immovable things. The author criticises the conditions provided by law for the emergence of shared ownership of common property — the definition of the boundaries of the common territory and the physical or technological connection of the complex’s objects — and believes that such a condition should be the presence of common property. The proposal for the development of legislation is to establish a unified legal regulation of relations in any territorial real estate complexes, abandoning special laws on certain types of such complexes.