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Ulviyya Shahin

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The problem of undocumented houses, which has been under discussion for many years in the country, remains unresolved. It is reported that there are nearly 500,000 undocumented individual houses in the country. Steps are being taken towards formalizing these houses.

One of these steps was related to the registration of these buildings. Registration of undocumented houses began several years ago. However, there are still some houses without initial documentation, and steps have yet to be taken to address their issues. The owner of one such house states that despite it being their personal property, they were registered the someone else's house.

Aynur Orucova, who was deported from Armenia to Baku and has been unable to obtain documents for the house she built for over thirty-six years, has reached out to us seeking a solution to her problem.

She mentions that in 1988, her family was deported from Armenia to Baku. They currently reside in a personal dwelling they built in the Binagadi district, Xutor town.

"Despite more than thirty-six years passing, I still cannot obtain documents for the house I built and cannot register my children in that house. I have complained to relevant authorities multiple times. As you know, without registration, your ID card is considered useless. From leaving the country to going through all domestic procedures, your ID card information is required."

Orucova states that without registration, the ID card is deemed useless, hindering them from undergoing any procedures.

"We have members of our family who work and go to school. The system couldn't even accept my child into school because the ID card wasn't active, forcing us to register at a distant relative's house. We can't find a solution to our own house problem. Where do we go, who do we complain to?!"

Orucova has faced numerous difficulties due to the lack of documentation for her home.

"We have applied to many institutions to solve the problem. It was not possible to solve the problem through the court. They say there will be a decree from the President regarding this issue, and then the matter will be resolved. We have heard about this decree for fourteen years now. But there has still been no progress. Through your means, I appeal to the relevant institutions to show us ways to resolve the issue. How long will this continue?!"

We have forwarded the citizen's problem to certain addresses.

We present the statement provided by the State Service for Real Estate Issues under the Ministry of Economy to Azernews:

"In accordance with the requirements of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan 'On State Registration of Real Estate', the State Cadastre and Registration of Real Estate, a public legal entity, is the institution that registers the rights of individuals and legal entities on real estate based on legal documents determining property rights.

The basis for registration is Article 8 of the Law 'On State Registration of Real Estate', as well as the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan No. 439 dated January 13, 2015. Citizens can directly apply with the relevant documents to the "ASAN Service" centers, or to the territorial administrations of the public legal entity "State Cadastre and Registration of Real Estate" in places where these centers are not operational, without the need for any intermediaries.

Therefore, in the first stage, the necessary initial documents required by the law should be available so that applications can be made to the "ASAN Service" centers for obtaining the certificate."

Nusrat Ibrahimov, director of "MBA Consulting Group" and an expert in real estate issues, stated to Azernews that the inventory of these houses must be completed first:

"But today, the inventory is only about thirty percent complete. The rest remains. That is, when it will be completed in full is uncertain. There are open issues for solving this problem. The number of undocumented houses in the country, the technical condition of these houses, and many other questions remain unanswered.

According to the expert, this must be clarified first:

After all of these answers are provided, it must be calculated how much funding is required for solving these problems for each area. How many of these houses need to be relocated, how many need to stay, what infrastructure, land communication, street, address problems they have, etc. All of these must be clarified first, and then the process of documenting these houses can begin. However, today, only about thirty percent of this work has been completed. Therefore, it is not possible to move on to the next stages until this first stage is completed. All of the citizen's reported issues will also be resolved. This will happen when this first stage is fully completed.

According to N. Ibrahimov, all of these and similar areas are dilapidated objects:

"That is, all of these areas are dilapidated objects in principle. Therefore, documenting them is still considered impossible. There are too many undocumented houses on the Absheron Peninsula. Discussions on these undocumented houses have been going on for many years. I believe that at some point, this issue will be resolved. Because it has been over thirteen years that these discussions have been ongoing. Every year, it is said that this issue will be resolved. There is a need for significant funding to solve this issue. Today, however, a significant portion of the country's budget is directed towards reconstruction efforts in Garabagh. Still, it is considered impossible to solve these problems. Therefore, there is no solution other than waiting. I believe that after the Karabakh issue is fully resolved, these problems will be resolved on their own. However, it is currently difficult for this problem to find its own solution anytime soon."

Real estate expert Elnur Azadov highlighted a certain discrimination related to this issue in his statement to Azernews.

"There is a decree signed by the Azerbaijani President on January 13, 2015, No. 438. It is stated in that decree that in our country, it is possible to register properties based on certain documents and obtain certificates. This gives reason to believe that the legalization of illegal buildings, based on a specific list, may continue in the future.That is, this list will expand further, and it is not possible to grant amnesty and provide legal documents for properties without initial registration in the country's current situation, and it is unlikely to be planned in the near future. Indeed, there is a certain discrimination here.

The issue related to the creation of a joint portal by the State Property Service and the Ministry of Justice was also touched upon.

"On January 30 of last year, these institutions held a briefing, and they have already started working together in this direction to improve the business environment in the country, based on the relevant decree of the country's leader. If I'm not mistaken, work in this direction has been initiated by these two state institutions based on that law signed in 2016. Indeed, no announcement was made initially regarding the registration of undocumented homes."

"In short, to carry out any documentation work for illegal buildings by the state, at least initial documents issued by any institution at any time are required. That is to say, in general, the recognition of residential buildings that are completely illegal, without any legal basis, not registered by the state, not listed in any registry, and built entirely illegally, is not currently considered by the government. The situation is as follows. The statement provided by the State Property Affairs Service is as follows."

E. Azadov also put forward his own proposals for solving the problem.

"In my opinion, this process should be implemented in stages, and the only way for government agencies to work in this direction is at this level. That is, there are a considerable number of real estate funds in the country with initial documents, and work should be carried out in the direction of obtaining certificates, that is, obtaining ownership, to reduce their volume. In subsequent periods, the government may take certain steps to amend the law on how undocumented residential funds and other funds can be granted amnesty by law and recognized. In the current situation, however, there is no legislation allowing the registration and recognition of buildings without any legal documents. This is unequivocally the case."

"In our legislation, in a manner prescribed by law, construction work is not allowed in agricultural designated lands in general. This means that no certificates can be issued for houses in rural areas within the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan. That is, the designation of all houses built and to be built there as agricultural instead of residential areas must be generalized and their designations changed, and then documentation work can be carried out in this direction with them. There are already too many such houses in the country," expert concluded.

We can only advise the citizens facing this problem to be patient and wait for solutions.

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