ANNUAL REPORTOF UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS 56 2.1. Right to housing During 2019, the Commissioner received 673 reports of citizens on violation of their property rights, some of which concerned housing rights. The citizens claim that the government does not provide them with proper living conditions, they have to live in houses that need urgent overhaul, are dilapidated and/or in emergency condition. CHAPTER 2 Observance of housing rights of citizens in the context of deterioration of the housing stock Deterioration of the housing stock constructed in the mid-last century and lack of resources in the owners of such housing to overhaul it has become systemic. According to the State Statistics Committee, as of 1 January 2019, total housing stock of Ukraine amounts to 993,299,000 square meters. 93.7% of it is privately owned, 4.9% is in community ownership, and 1.4%, in state ownership. Over 60% residential buildings were built back in the Soviet times by typical series (up to 1970), and according to effective legislation, they require modernization. It is necessary to emphasize that 45,600 houses are considered dilapidated and in emergency condition, totalling to 4,305,200 square meters. Therefore, realization of the right to housing that meets the sanitary and technical requirements by the co-owners of houses considered as outdated housing stock is a critical issue. Key reasons are the deterioration of housing stock and low level of financial capacity of owners to repair the apartment buildings. According to Article 10 of the Law of Ukraine “On Privatization of State Housing Fund” # 2482-XII of 19 June 1992, territorial communities and the state that owned apartment buildings prior to their privatization were obliged to finance their repair and facilitate organization of repair in the procedure determined by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. At the same time, according to the Law of Ukraine “On Particularities of Exercising the Property Right in Apartment Buildings” #417-VIII of 14 May 2015, the obligation to carry out the current and major repairs of joint property of apartment buildings was transferred to its co-owners – i.e., the citizens. However, as the co-owners of houses lack necessary funds to finance the major repairs, the legislation of Ukraine does not provide solution to this situation and, therefore, the repairs are not carried out, which leads to a violation of the rights of the co-owners of houses to proper and safe living conditions. It should be noted that the problem of depreciation of the housing stock will be further especially exacerbated in the settlements where the residential buildings were actively constructed together with local economic mainstays 40-60 years ago.