When purchasing apartments or other real estate, you should be especially scrupulous and attentive, especially if the purchased objects are part of a secondary fund. The most important point is to make sure that there are no encumbrances on the apartment you are purchasing.
The experience of specialists involved in real estate transactions indicates that the facts of the sale of secondary housing properties that have certain encumbrances are quite numerous and widespread. Experts emphasize that encumbrances represent a restriction of rights that prohibits various types of property manipulations in the field of real estate. The list of encumbrances is quite lengthy. The most common of them include:
- seizure of property;
- life annuity;
- mortgage credit lending;
- guardianship obligations;
- trust management;
- belonging of housing to historical or cultural monuments;
- easement.
In the case of purchasing encumbered square meters, the new owner, along with them, receives the encumbrance imposed on them. This happens even in cases where these circumstances are not mentioned at all in the articles of the purchase agreement.
Registration of the main part of the encumbrances is necessarily carried out by the state, and a note about them is made in the housing certificates. However, there are some exceptions. These include, for example, refusal to carry out privatization, the presence of unaccounted heirs, and other situations. Such facts relate to implicit encumbrances.
Taking into account all the information presented above, experts strongly recommend collecting as much information as possible on the apartment you intend to purchase.
Under what circumstances are encumbrances placed on an apartment?
The circumstances for imposing encumbrances are provided for by law. These include, in particular:
- purchasing living space using funds received on credit;
- obtaining a loan accompanied by collateral of a home;
- paying for an apartment in installments;
- being in a state of arrest;
- acquisition of an apartment, accompanied by its alienation.
How can you find out whether there are encumbrances on the apartment you are purchasing? When this question arises, you should remember that:
In accordance with Russian laws, all encumbrances placed on real estate must be registered and reflected in the Unified State Register of Real Estate.
There are two ways to check for encumbrances – free and paid.
How to find out for free about the presence of encumbrances on an apartment (online information)
To find out for free about the imposition of encumbrances on the apartment you are purchasing, just go to the Rosreestr website. This portal is a means of displaying always up-to-date information contained in the Unified State Register of Real Estate, but, unfortunately, the information there is updated rather irregularly.
So, to get information for free online, you should do the following:
- go to the Rosreestr website;
- enter the address of the apartment being purchased or its cadastral number, and then click on the “Generate request” button;
- On the next page of the site, obtained by clicking the “Generate request” button, you should check whether the required address is indicated there. If this address does not exist, this means that there is no information about it in the Unified State Register of Real Estate. If the address is displayed, then you need to click directly on it;
- After going to the next page, you need to click on the “Rights and Restrictions” link. After this click, the required information will be received, which will make it possible to find out about the presence of encumbrances on the apartment. If the corresponding line is empty, this indicates their absence. Otherwise, there will be specific information indicating that the purchase of housing may be unacceptable or dangerous
A visit to the Rosreestr website is attractive because it is free and promptly provides information. However, you should be prepared for the fact that the information may turn out to be irrelevant and mislead you, fraught with big mistakes.
Where to get a reliable certificate of absence of encumbrances on an apartment
When looking for an opportunity to find out whether there are any encumbrances on the apartment you are purchasing, and in an effort to obtain completely reliable information, you should think about contacting the MFC. This institution will be able to issue you with the appropriate extract from the Unified State Register, the information from which will be completely reliable and relevant. 
This method of obtaining the necessary information is also quite convenient, since a completely finished document is issued on average half an hour after it is ordered. The only drawback is that the service is paid. Its cost is 250 rubles. However, these fairly small expenses are quite possible, since having reliable information will allow you to make the right and informed decision about a very expensive purchase - an apartment, life in which should never be overshadowed by any troubles.
Before making a real estate transaction, it is better to learn more about it. This way you can protect yourself from unpleasant surprises. Fortunately, today it is possible to check an apartment for encumbrances online. This simplifies the procedure, allowing you to get the information you need without leaving your home.
What are the encumbrances?
Modern legislation of the Russian Federation obliges all encumbrances to be recorded in the USRN extract.
On a note: Information about encumbrances can be provided only by judicial authorities or other structures that have such rights.
After the relevant information is received, the Cadastral Chamber records the fact of encumbrance as a separate item in the USRN extract.
The following types of encumbrance are distinguished:
- Availability of real estate collateral in the banking structure.
- The fact of renting an apartment.
- The presence of a lien on real estate.
- Renting housing to third parties through the official owner of the apartment.
- Registration of third parties in the apartment.
Reasons why it is important to be aware of encumbrances on your home
Any real estate transactions, including donation, purchase, sale and inheritance, imply the conclusion of an agreement. This document must indicate all terms and conditions and other actions.If an encumbrance is imposed on the apartment, its owner is obliged to warn the other party to the transaction about this. However, unfortunately, this does not always happen. There are cases of deliberate concealment of the fact of the existence of an encumbrance, which makes it possible to profitably sell problematic housing.
In this case, a certain person may, for example, buy an apartment with an “unpleasant surprise”, which he learns about after the transaction is concluded.
In this situation, you have to sue the former owner and prove the fact of fraud through him. And the claim can take quite a long time to be considered. It turns out that in this case the new owner of the problem apartment loses a lot of time and, in addition, financial resources.
For this reason, before purchasing a home, you need to check for restrictions. You can do this online without wasting extra time and physical effort.
Thanks to the Unified State Register of Real Estate, created in 1998, it was possible to return all actions carried out with real estate to the law. In addition, fraudulent activities by third parties were minimized.
Rosreestr managed to combine into one database databases regarding any property right in the Russian Federation, including premises in new buildings, old houses, Khrushchev buildings and others.
What should a potential buyer do before purchasing an encumbered property?
- Personal application to the authorized bodies in order to obtain information about people who have lived in the apartment in question over the past ten years. Close attention should be paid to disabled persons and minors, as well as persons who left due to military service, training in another locality, or serving time in prison. The last three categories of people have the right to use housing for life. That is, there is, for example, a risk that the new owner of the apartment will after some time find in his home a person who has returned from prison and who can legally use this living space. If the above categories of people are the owners of the apartment, the concluded transaction will be annulled by the court in their favor.
- Request from the owner a technical certificate for the apartment and compare its plan with the actual layout. When buying an apartment, the redevelopment of which has not been legalized, all obligations, along with fines, the obligation to redo documents, and sometimes even the return of the original layout, are transferred to the new owner.
- Order an extract from the Unified State Register to identify encumbrances.
- It would not be superfluous to find out whether the apartment is involved in some kind of legal process, whether there are any property disputes with persons who may have claims to this property.
How to check the rights of those registered in the apartment?
How to find out if there are third parties who have rights to the apartment you are interested in?
To do this, you need to request an archival (extended extract) from the house register.
It will contain information about all persons who were registered in the apartment for the entire time of its existence, their degree of relationship with the owner, the dates on which they were registered, when and where they were discharged.
What can be added to the purchased property?
Let's take a closer look:
- Mortgage. The law states that housing purchased with a mortgage cannot be sold unless the bank gives its consent. The deal cannot be concluded without this. If the bank agrees, the home can be sold, but the debt for it will remain, and the new owner will have to pay it.
- Arrest. If it is imposed, the apartment will not be able to be sold, since registration actions will be prohibited.
- Rent. The fact that the owner of the apartment has changed is not a reason to change the lease agreement. That is, it will be saved. When buying real estate, you need to remember that their rental will not be reflected in the extract from Rosreestr. For this reason, the new apartment owner risks finding himself in a situation where he will not have the opportunity to fully manage his property and receive a decent income from it. It would be better if the potential buyer himself checks the rental availability of the property he is interested in. A good option is also to indicate in the purchase and sale agreement the sanctions against the former owner in the event of the transfer of an apartment with this encumbrance.
- Real estate lease agreement. The new owner can decide for himself whether to terminate this agreement or change it. The tenant must be notified in writing 30 days in advance, after which he will be required to vacate the living space. That is, this restriction will be lifted.
Checking an apartment for encumbrances via the Internet
You can get information online about whether there are encumbrances on your apartment, as well as registered rights, by receiving it from Rosreestr.
Information will be provided free of charge. However, this will not be an official statement, but an information card containing various useful information. The owner's personal information is not indicated on this card.
Let's look at how to check for encumbrances by receiving an information card step by step:
- Go to the official website of Rosreesstr. It will open in a new window.
- In the window that opens, indicate the address of the apartment in the required field. If the address you entered does not match the address in the Unified State Register, you will not be able to get the result.
- After entering the address, you need to click at the bottom of the “Generate request” window.
- Next, you will see the information found, where the cadastral number, conditional number and address will be indicated. You need to click on the address.
- Next, a new window will open with detailed information. There will already be the characteristics of the apartment, the form of ownership, the presence or absence of registered rights, as well as the date the information was updated. You need to pay special attention to the latter (if it differs greatly from the date of viewing, the information can be considered conditionally reliable). It is also recommended to check the indicated area of the apartment with the actual one so that there are no discrepancies. But the most interesting tab of the window that opens is the “Rights and Restrictions” field. Clicking on it will open a new window.
- The new window will provide information about all copyright holders and the dates of registration of their rights, the presence or absence of encumbrances on the apartment, indicating their type, as well as the participation of the apartment in transactions. If an apartment is often involved in transactions, and for a short period, there is reason to be wary.
Video on the topic
If you decide to check the apartment yourself, then you can do this by following the instructions. Checking an apartment involves checking documents, the property and the owner’s data using official databases. First, it is necessary to check the owner’s full name with data from the cadastre so that the seller has the right to sell. If the real owner of the apartment is standing in front of you, then make sure that the apartment is not under arrest or other types of encumbrance, to do this, order an extract from the Unified Registration Registration Office in which there will be a special notes column, read them carefully and study the document.
The third step is to check whether the apartment is pledged; to do this, we check it using the FPN database, and it is also worth contacting the FSSP service and checking the housing according to the register of enforcement proceedings, and the owner for open court cases. It is recommended to check the owner against the register of persons suspected of crimes.
The verification procedure is a very important step, since in 2017 more than 14,000 cases of fraud in the purchase of real estate were registered. Be sure to check the apartment yourself or order a full inspection through this service.
Sometimes the property being sold has a so-called encumbrance. This imposes restrictions on him that prevent him from using the property to the fullest. How to find out if there are restrictions on real estate and what to do about it is described below.
As already mentioned, an encumbrance is a restriction on transactions with an apartment. They must be included in the register. The following types of restrictions exist:
- Mortgage - if the housing was purchased with earthly funds.
- Collateral - housing was left as collateral.
- Rent - housing is purchased by the seller in installments, or there is a clause in the contract under which payment for the apartment is made with a deferred payment.
- Seizure - the property has been seized by order of the court or bailiffs.
- Trust management - the apartment is sold under an alienation agreement. For example, transfer of ownership is possible only after the death of the owner. Or the contract contains other conditions.
How can I find out about an existing transaction restriction?
To do this, it is enough to order an extract for this property. To do this, you must use one of the following methods:
- Send a request through the official website of Rosreestr.
- Use other resources.
- Visit the Rosreestr branch directly.
- Through MFC.
All listed services are paid, payment is carried out according to tariffs established by law. This can be done using online services, through bank payments.
You can sell your home with encumbrances
Sometimes it happens that an encumbered apartment needs to be sold. This can be done only in one case - carefully comply with all the requirements for the process. For example, the consent of the owner and the person who placed the encumbrance on the housing is required. Consent is provided in writing.
At the same time, a third party in the person of Rosreestr is also involved in the case. Since all transactions must go through him, his employees will carry out legal verification of the purity of all documents. And if restrictions on the transaction are identified, they must be indicated in the notification.
It is also required that the seller notify the buyer in advance about the existing restrictions, otherwise the contract is considered invalid, since the requirements of the law were not complied with by one of the parties.
A special requirement for the object of the contract if one of its parties is a minor citizen. In this case, another participant is added - the guardianship department. An official representative of the minor must also give consent to the transaction.
Therefore, it is advisable to remove all existing encumbrances from it before completing a real estate transaction.
It is also necessary to know that a certificate from Rosreestr stating whether or not there is an encumbrance on the apartment is valid only for 30 days. Then you will have to order it again. Therefore, it is recommended to order it as close as possible to the expected transaction date.
The encumbrance can be removed at the request of the owner or the government agency that imposed it.
Step-by-step check of real estate for restrictions online
Today you can check any real estate for restrictions or encumbrances through the official resources of government bodies, in particular, on the Rosreestr website. To work with databases, minimal information about the object is enough - its address data.
Let's present instructions for working with the Rosreestr electronic database step by step:
- We open the Rosreestr portal - https://rosreestr.ru/site/.
- Open reference information on real estate - this section is located at the bottom of the page.
- In the form that opens, select a search method, for example, having only address data, enter them into the fields of the search questionnaire by checking the appropriate search type, or use the cadastral number.
We create a request and send it to be checked against the database.
In the newly opened form, you must click on the address of the object, which will appear in hyperlink format.
Step - we get the result.
How does encumbrance work?
An encumbrance is a restriction on the performance of certain legal actions with a real estate property. So, for example, a restriction may be expressed in the inability to sell housing or donate it. The essence of the restrictions depends on the type of encumbrance.
For example, a mortgage as a form of encumbrance does not make it possible to carry out any types of transactions with the object without the consent of the mortgagee, which in this case is the bank.
An encumbrance in the form of arrest generally excludes the possibility of carrying out any legal actions with this object. Thus, even when writing a will, heirs may have difficulty registering the object. Their responsibility will be to pay all debts of the testator to creditors, after which the encumbrance will be removed. Otherwise, the apartment will be sold through auction, and the heirs will also receive its value after settlement with creditors.
How to remove encumbrances
Considering that the encumbrance represents a certain kind of obligation in relation to third parties, the removal of restrictions is possible only after their fulfillment.
- Termination of obligations.
- Early repayment of mortgage.
- Death of the encumbered object.
- Selling an object to repay a debt.
All types of encumbrances are reflected in the Rosreestr databases, and in order to make changes, it is necessary to submit documents proving the fact that restrictions have been lifted. They may be orders to lift arrests, a certificate of mortgage payment or repayment of other debt.
