La création des copropriétés en Russie

Russia’s body of law has gradually been revised in parallel to the institutional rupture following the collapse of the USSR. New legislation on property, specifically housing, was adopted in the 1990s. These legislative texts institute private property, joint tenancy, easements and other institutions of private law, but they are open to interpretation. This legislation has gradually become consistent through a usage that depends on older practices related to housing. The Russian experience during the last decade of the 20th century illustrates how the new legislation has become the law of the land by moving beyond the context of its initial proclamation into the field of application, where facts and literal rules, together, are put to the test of reality. Vanished Soviet institutions, such as “building superintendents”, have been used to alleviate the impact both of the failure of current reforms and of the absence of structures capable of guaranteeing the collective dimension of privatized buildings. Since 2000, local authorities in Moscow have, for financial reasons, pushed toward privatizaing collective real estate and establishing joint tenancy; but they have difficulty giving up housing policy in dealings with the city’s inhabitants. This article focuses on changes during the period from the start of privatization till the adoption of the new housing code.