The law shall come into effect on January 1, 2017. Certain provisions, among them those pertaining to the requirements with regard to a charter capital of a developer, a surety agreement and escrow accounts, shall come into force starting from July 1, 2017.
Excerpts from an interview given by Nadezhda B. Kosareva, IUE President, to a web portal Строительство.RU:
— Nadezhda Borisovna, how would you outline the amendments?
— These are structured, mainly, around four thematic blocks. The first one focuses on how to strengthen the requirements to developers and control over them. Specifically, a requirement regarding the charter capital of a developer has been changed. It has been recommended that the requirement be based on an established formula.
The second block of requirements concerns the disclosure of information about a developer. It stands to mention, in this respect, that from now on a developer shall be obliged to maintain the official website in order to disclose the auditor’s opinion, we have just talked about, a project declaration and other documents. The project declaration, by the way, appears to be extended and unified.
The third block concentrates on dealing with banks via a mechanism of so-called escrow accounts.
And, lastly, the forth block of amendments specifies other forms of securing the assets of individuals: insurance, a bank guarantee and so forth. In pursuance to the President’s assignment issued following a meeting of the State Council on Urban Planning, a fund shall be established before December 1, 2016. The fund shall accumulate the assets transferred by developers for the purpose of completing real estate objects in case of bankruptcy of a developer.
— What implications may the new law have for the residential development market?
— In my opinion, the document appears to be a rather well-balanced one, and not only in what it concerns the protection of rights of an equity holder. The document, specifically, includes the proposals of developers in regard to the so-called consumer terrorism. I believe that the law shall give a new impetus to the market development and revive interest in equity construction that somehow faded amid crisis.
