Demand to demolish burned-out house in Sochi discourages residents

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Residents of a house on Tsyurupy Street in Sochi that burned down nine years ago have received lawsuits for its demolition. They believe that the demand is related to the activities of the developer who built a multi-story building dangerously close to their house.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" wrote, in 2016 a fire occurred in apartment building No. 4 on Tsyurupy Street. According to the authorities, the wiring caught fire in the artist's studio, but the residents of the building are sure that the responsibility for the fire should be borne by the developer, who built the multi-story building dangerously close to the house.

On September 16, the residents of the building on Tsyurupa Street in Sochi, which burned down nine years ago, unexpectedly received a lawsuit to demolish it. The hearing is scheduled for October 1, and the defendants include families who lost their homes in the 2016 fire.

The lawsuit "to eliminate obstacles to the use of the premises" was filed by S. N. Polosina, a resident of a new building that was erected dangerously close to the house. At the same time, the website of the Central District Court of Sochi indicates that the plaintiff is Arsen Sadatiyorov, that is, the developer himself, while the defendant is the Sochi city administration, and the third party is the Office of the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography for the Krasnodar Territory of the city of Sochi. The fire victims themselves are not listed as defendants in the case file.

In the lawsuit, Polosina demands that the 12 families who lost their homes due to the fire "tear down their emergency building within two months" or allow her to tear it down at their expense.

According to the fire victims, they see this as a conspiracy between the developer, the administration, and the plaintiff. "After nine years of waiting, they want to finally deprive us of housing and compensation," they told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The fire victims claim that the land under their house was manipulated by the mayor's office, Rosreestr, and the developer; in particular, the cadastral numbers were changed, which allowed a high-rise to be built where the old house stood. "If the court forces us to tear down the house at our own expense, [the developer] will build another high-rise here and start working again," the residents believe. On the plot with the cadastral number 23:49:0203024:43 with an area of 2100 square meters there is currently a new building and the ruins of a burnt house.

They are sure that the fire in 2016 was arson. However, law enforcement agencies ignore their appeals and refuse to investigate possible corrupt actions of officials.

Among the defendants in the case are brother and sister Andrey and Yulia Puzanov. "First they took away our land, then we lost our house because of the fire. We still haven't received any compensation. And now they are trying to force us to demolish the ruins at our own expense," they wrote in their latest appeal to law enforcement.

Lawyer Evgeny Dobrovolsky, who is not connected with the case, considers the lawsuit to be manipulation. "This is an attempt to shift responsibility from the municipality and the developer to the residents. In 2022, the Central Court of Sochi already ordered the administration to provide the fire victims with apartments, but the decision has not yet been executed. Residents need to file counterclaims, request documents recognizing the house as emergency and involve the administration as a co-defendant,” he told a “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.

According to him, the three-year period for enforcing the court’s decision has already expired, and it was at this moment that the new claim appeared.

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