“There is no death certificate”: a father with many children defends in court the right to receive housing after the death of a child

In Naberezhnye Chelny, the large Orlov family has been seeking housing for more than eight years.

According to the head of the family, Andrey Orlov, in 2013 they found themselves in a difficult life situation and they had to sell the apartment, which they had acquired back in the early 2000s.

“In 2013, we had to worsen our living conditions.

We accumulated a rent debt of 300,000 rubles, and we couldn't pay it off on our own.

According to the laws of the republic, if we have debts for housing and communal services, we cannot receive child benefits, ”says RT Orlov.

“We sold our house, rented an apartment to live in, and invested the rest of the money in a family business, in a bakery.” 

That same year, Orlov says, he and his wife learned about a regional program to provide apartments for large families in need of better living conditions.

According to the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Tatarstan dated December 18, 2007 No. 732 “On additional measures to provide housing for large families in need of improved housing conditions”, families with five or more children can receive a housing certificate.

At that time, the Orlovs had seven children, and they could apply to be included in the waiting list.

“It's a very good program and it suited us.

The only thing is that due to low funding, many families could stand in line for 10-15 years.

But we thought that if so, maybe our bakery would bring us more income, and we ourselves could afford to buy an apartment faster, ”said RT Orlov.

Preferential queue

In 2017, the tenth child was born in the family, but their turn never came.

However, now the Orlovs could apply for their inclusion in the preferential queue.

The fact is that, according to the decree of the government of the republic, families with ten or more children have the right to receive an extraordinary housing certificate.

In October 2018, they received a letter from the administration of the Central District of the executive committee of the municipality of the city of Naberezhnye Chelny.

However, there was not an invitation to receive a housing certificate, but a refusal.

According to the document (available to RT), the family could not get housing due to separate registration.

“The whole family lives in a rented apartment and leads a common life, but the hostess agreed to register only me - not everyone wants to register children, and even in such numbers,” says RT Orlov.

The wife and children were registered with the wife's parents.

As a result, because of this nuance, we were refused.

• © Photo from the personal archive

According to the man, they began to resolve the issue of registration, but a tragedy happened - the youngest son became seriously ill.

“He was then a year old.

He caught a cold, the disease turned into meningitis with complications, ”recalls the father of many children.

The boy developed cerebral edema, and he fell into a coma.

In January 2019, before considering a claim to correct a clause of the propiska decree, Orlov's son died.

“This lawsuit ended on May 30, 2019, the Constitutional Court decided that we were right and ordered the regional cabinet of ministers to correct the decision,” says Orlov.

“But despite this, we were informed that they would still be excluded from the preferential queue.”

According to him, the officials considered that in connection with the death of the child, the Orlovs had lost the right to an extraordinary right to receive a housing certificate.

Not for myself

The family applied to the Ministry of Construction, Architecture and Housing and Communal Services of the Republic of Tatarstan with a request to change the resolution.

“There are few families with ten children in the region.

According to the decree, only 1% of families from the number of the general queue receive an apartment in an extraordinary manner.

If, for example, there is no such family this year, let a family with nine children or one with eight children receive an extraordinary right, ”Orlov suggested.

However, the officials did not support his proposal and in February 2020 announced that they would not make changes to the decree, since “this would entail a violation of the housing rights of large families.” 

In November 2020, Orlov again went to court to declare unconstitutional the clause of the rules that a family should have ten children at the time of receiving housing.

But due to the coronavirus situation, the case was delayed.

In February 2022, the Constitutional Court considered his complaint.

As RT was told in the press service of the court, the decision will be announced in March.  

According to Orlov, now he is seeking justice in court not for the sake of himself and his family, but in order to help other families.

The fact is that in April 2021, a daughter was born in the family, and now the Orlovs are again eligible for the preferential program.

According to the man, this year his family should receive the long-awaited certificate.

Didn't provide documents

The press service of the Ministry of Construction, Architecture and Housing of the Republic of Tatarstan told RT that for 2022, 623 large families are included in the queue under the regional program, including three families with ten or more children.

The department confirmed that the Orlovs are included in the list of recipients of housing certificates for 2022 and are in line at number three.

The press service also explained that the family was included in the list of recipients of housing certificates for 2018 as having ten or more children, but then the head of the family asked to be excluded from the queue.

Later it turned out that he provided forged documents.

“In 2019, it turned out that in order to obtain a certificate as a matter of priority in 2016, 2018, Orlov A.V.

unreliable documents were presented on the birth of two daughters on December 14, 2015: Orlova Lada Andreevna and Orlova Vesta Andreevna, who did not exist in nature.

The birth certificates of these children were fraudulently obtained by the Orlovs, ”the press service told RT.

Orlov himself explained that the claimed birth certificates were provided for the children they wanted to adopt.

When that failed, he withdrew his application for a certificate.

Also, the Ministry of Construction of the Republic reported that they did not exclude the family from the queue due to the death of a child.

“The story of Orlov A.V.

about the exclusion of his family from the "preferential queue" in connection with the death of his son do not correspond to reality.

The death of his son in 2019 is known only from the words of Orlov A.V.

Death certificate in the accounting records Orlova A.V.

absent," the press service of the department explained.

Orlov himself assures that he provided officials with a complete package of documents.

The administration of Naberezhnye Chelny told RT that at the time of the Orlovs' application, ten children lived in the family.

There were no twins named Lada and Vesta among them.