The Moscow mayor's office campaign against unauthorised buildings

At the end of January the website of the Moscow mayor's office reported that this year the State Inspectorate for Real Estate (GIN) will expand its fleet of quadcopters to 25 units. The measure is aimed at finding unauthorised buildings, and the quadcopters will detect 90% of the illegal structures. Moskva.ru asked the experts how the remaining 10% will go unnoticed, where in Moscow there are the most unauthorised buildings, and what they are for.

According to Mikhail Ivanov, general director of the construction company Perspektiva, the most common kind of unauthorised building is a retail unit, a kiosk or a pavilion.

"And these are not always structures that can be put up quickly. There are also buildings of a fairly solid construction, and even shopping centres of several storeys. Unscrupulous business people erect such buildings, or reconstruct lawful buildings without permission, for example turning a kiosk into a pavilion and a pavilion into a mini shopping centre", he said, noting that the arrangement is usually used to make a profit by letting to businesses that trade without a licence.

Sergei Pivovarchik, managing partner of the law firm Consul Group, noted that people skip prior approval not only because they do not wish to make substantial payments to the budget. Some simply do not know that the approvals are required.

And some have bought a property with an unauthorised replanning that was never regularised, and do not even know the risks they are running,

Sergei Pivovarchik reports.

Demolishing an unauthorised building is not, however, as simple as it sounds. Ivanov explained that dense urban construction, and important engineering services or metro lines close by, stand in the way.

Pivovarchik explained that the only information the quadcopters cannot obtain is about internal alterations. They will not notice the conversion of technical floors and rooms, or the building of mezzanines. Finding changes of that kind will remain the task of the GIN.

Alexander Tsyganov, head of the department of mortgage housing lending and financial instruments of the real estate market at the Financial University under the Government of Russia, added that trees, or anything else that blocks the view, may get in their way, but members of the public will not.

According to Ivanov, the greatest number of unauthorised buildings is found in the South-Western, Eastern, Southern and Central administrative districts, and the smallest number in the most outlying districts of Moscow, such as the Zelenograd district and the Troitsky and Novomoskovsky district.

"As a rule, the places that attract buildings put up without permission are those with a heavy flow of passengers, metro stations and large transport interchanges. In recent years, moreover, more and more unauthorised buildings have been found in industrial zones", he said.

Everyone who was asked considers fines an effective way of dealing with unauthorised buildings. Pivovarchik also considers that the procedures for approving them, and for regularising them, need to be made more effective and easier to use.

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