Nadezhda V. Filipenko

Flats, non-residential premises, parking spaces, land plots for gardening and land plots in residential schemes are well-known, understandable, and widespread property in Russia. However, the rights and obligations inherently linked to the ownership of such objects are far less obvious to average Russian person: participation quota in common property, the obligation to maintain it, the right/obligation to participate in decision-making regarding such property, the obligation to refrain from construction interference in common property, not to occupy common spaces, to comply with common property use conditions, and so on. This article explores Russian legislation devoted to a special type of property that arises when parts of real estate are allocated for independent economic purposes, belonging to different individuals — individual (private) property — and parts of common use —“common property of real estate owners”. The paper proposes to term this legal regime “sectional ownership,” to develop a corresponding legislative framework based on the concept of condominium scheme, in order to eliminate the ambiguity of the definition of “common property of real estate owners” and to clarify the legally significant relationships between individual (private) and the common property in the scheme, between real rights, and between the owners of real estate (to underline the existence of co-ownership community). Additionally, the article attempts to systematize the manifestations of sectional ownership in Russian law.