There is a topical problem of using residential apartments for commercial purposes, but the provisions of the draft law #5473, which will be submitted to the vote in the debating chamber this week, won’t resolve the issue.
In Ukraine, the effective regulation of these relations requires deeper changes than those ones proposed in the draft law #5473.
First, the changes establish a single rule for the whole country without considering local specifics. At the same time, these rules and restrictions are usually set at the local level all over the world that allows to consider specifics of not only a particular region or locality, but also a particular part of each locality. Moreover, it would be also logical and clear from the perspective of the decentralization policy.
Secondly, it would be practical to think not about the complete prohibition, but about the possibility to conduct economic activities provided that this aspect is agreed with the owners of neighboring apartments or local authorities;
Third, there is a problem of changing property designation (obtaining a status of residential / commercial premises), which is still remaining without clear regulation. This issue will become a very burning problem after the introduction of the prohibition.
Fourthly, there should be a focus on the possibility to prohibit activities at the request of persons, whose rights are violated, in a timely manner instead of focusing on the administrative liability.
The BRDO Office experts believe that the adoption of this draft law will cause the worsening of the business climate and have high risks for small and medium sized enterprises without solving the above-mentioned problems.
As for the citizens living in residential buildings, the situation will have both positive (the possibility to prevent changing the use of buildings by neighboring owners) and negative effects (for example, reducing the market value of apartments because of the inability to use them as office premises) for them.
In general, experts say that the advocacy of this draft law is at the wrong time.