In Sochi, 144 families are rejected their housing rights

Residents of a 144-apartment block in Sochi can found themselves in the street overnight. While the authorities refuse registering their rights for real estate, referring to the fact that the house has not been commissioned, the apartments are registered to other people.

Several hundreds of persons have officially inhabited the house in Iskra Street for 17 years, in spite of the fact that the building is considered unfinished and non-commissioned. During all these years the residents cannot get their documents on the right to possess their apartments.

"Nobody has even looked whether the premises can be used for safe residence. People are living in a nonexistent house, without elevators, without documents on using their apartments, without the right to lease, exchange or privatize them," Valery Suchkov, Chairman of the Association of Housing Proprietors' Fellowships, said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

At the same time, local officials assert that the residents of the house had moved in illegally. "Some ten years ago these people occupied the apartments in unfinished house at their own will," said Valery Podpovetny, chairman of the Sochi City Assembly. According to his story, the Sochi residents, who had claimed for apartments in this house, simply barricaded the then chairman of the local district executive committee and held him as hostage until he issued orders on the apartments to them, although the flats were not put on the city balance as the house had not been finished yet.