HOUSING CODE OF RUSSIAN FEDERATION IS NOT NECESSARY

Life has shown the real importance of valid housing laws, instead of simply declared guarantees of its realization. Destruction of socialist system of economy and legislation occurred in a historically short time. Housing law decayed from 1990 (the Law on property in the USSR) till 1994 when the project of a new Housing Code was published, and Part I of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation was introduced. Art. 212-213 of the Civil Code stated, '' The Russian Federation recognises private, state, municipal and other forms of property. The amount and cost of property owned by citizens and legal bodies is not limited.''. Introduction of the new Housing Code since March 1, 2005 has caused mass protest actions under slogans '' Down with the Antisocial code'', Anti-housing, Anti-national, etc. Such a reaction should have been anticipated, during the Code concept discussion, but it did not happen and, as a result, the new Housing Code was a strong social irritant. The wording of the Code was very careful (Article 1), still it became obvious that the state shifted off the control over the most essential right of citizens. Real guarantees of a constitutional right to dwelling, listed in Article 1 of the Housing Code of the RSFSR disappeared, too. Some of the guarantees, as a matter of fact, contrasted into obstacles and restrictions. At present, there are no high rates of development of state and public housing fund based on State Planning, no fair distribution of dwelling under public control. The former guarantee of the low rent and utilities payment seems a mockery. Experts criticise the structure and content of the current Housing Code. Claims to the authors of the project are caused by two circumstances: first, ignoring certain important conclusions of the Soviet science on housing law, and, second, aspiration to react to the problematic issues of practice with a substantially political character. The quality of regulatory material in the current Housing Code of the Russian Federation is not efficient, as it is abundant in norms of different branches of law, duplicating them. There is an impression that the authors of the project included the positions about payment for premises and utilities (Articles 153-160), about powers, state control, and others in the Code, on purpose, somehow to neutralize the negative effect of the basic thesis: the state will not grant dwelling.