Housing cooperative "Best Way": customer reviews, developer reliability, review of branches

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Before discussing the activities of the Best Way housing cooperative, reviews should be considered very carefully, not only from those people who joined the LCD, but also from independent experts. At all times, especially in the current conditions of the global economic crisis, solving your own housing problem is such an important step that it is extremely dangerous to do it without comprehensive theoretical preparation. Therefore, it is best to start by studying, as they say now, materiel: concepts, terminology, legislative acts and even the history of the issue.

What is cooperation and cooperation. Or what we are considering

When a person faces a specific task that requires a solution that he cannot cope with alone, they come to the rescuefamily, friends, associates. This is how the cooperative movement was born in the eighteenth century - through much trial and error. The tasks before the cooperators in each case were different, but people always united to solve them voluntarily. This is the main sign of the cooperative movement. The principles of joint activity have hardly changed over several centuries: housing cooperatives are built on the same conditions today, as in the eighteenth century in England - consumer cooperatives. However, on what principles the construction of the Best Way housing cooperative is based, the reviews are not silent, and it must be admitted that the differences are cardinal.

Somewhat earlier than the English version, the cooperative movement appeared in France, its basis was production, even earlier in Germany the first cooperatives of peasants and artisans were created. However, it was in England that the closest to modern housing was born. And Russia, of course, did not stand aside: the path of cooperative construction brought us some experience over the 170 years of its existence, it was complex and difficult - from the Decembrists in the Trans-Baikal wilderness with their consumer cooperative to today's worries with subsequent joys or sorrows. In the Soviet Union, housing cooperatives existed, but in a very limited number, since the state itself was engaged in providing housing for the people, without giving ownership of real estate. Since the collapse of the USSR, the situation has changed dramatically, which is why such associations as a housing cooperative have received wide opportunities for existence."Best Way".

Reviews say that when joining any community of cooperators, you must have an initial capital for the first installment, which is usually much more significant than subsequent ones. The issue is resolved either by a loan taken from a bank, or by a huge willpower that allows you to accumulate funds to buy a share for a future living space: after all, there are now such an unimaginable number of temptations that most often only memories remain from self-discipline. Judging by the many reviews about the Best Way housing cooperative (we will not say now that all of them are very similar to each other even in rhetoric), it is proposed to make savings according to an individual schedule with a first share contribution of ten thousand rubles. You can save as long as you like, depending on the strength of the desire to get your own home. Here you can already cite a number of negative reviews about the Best Way housing cooperative, but it's better not to rush things.

This association declares incredibly low interest on allocated funds - from 0% to 2% (if the period is up to ten years). A package of documents in order to become a shareholder does not need to be collected, a passport is enough. The work of the residential complex is positioned as transparent, since each shareholder has a personal account directly on the website of the housing cooperative. Negative reviews about "Best Way", however, deny any transparency. However, the conditions listed above should already alert a prudent person, and he will be even more alarmed by the proposed possibility of transferring his own share to any member of the cooperative or evento an outsider. And you can get fully paid housing anywhere in the country, regardless of geography. How is this possible? Strange, almost fabulous conditions. All this is very similar to financial organizations for quick money loans, only they are received not by the client, but by the subsidizing organization. So, the housing cooperative "Best Way" - is it a scam?

"I'm glad to be deceived" and is this the case

Own square meters - isn't this the main dream of the majority of the modern population, in whatever country they live in? Our state gives every citizen the right to realize this dream in accordance with the Constitution, laws have already been created and regulated by which one can exercise one's right. One way to get ownership of real estate is to create a housing cooperative. These are now non-profit organizations that exist as a kind of consumer cooperative, where the Housing Code of the Russian Federation is strictly observed in providing members of the association with square meters. The housing cooperative "Best Way" is no exception. This organization also operates so far purely within the law.

Objects are bought or built in the same way with cooperative money, without the participation of credit institutions, where the percentage is usually too significant. This means that the housing cooperative receives almost half the price. Mortgages don't work that way. This is the main advantage of any housing cooperative. This also includes the absence of intermediaries, which are as expensive as tax deductions. The housing cooperative "Best Way" offers additional and very attractive opportunities that increase the benefits of this choice a hundredfold. For example, the same offers to save money with their help for a share contribution and buy real estate anywhere in the country.

Some offers look very tempting: for example, getting an apartment, subject to a contribution of only a third of its actual cost. If the construction is with equity participation, the shareholders of the residential complex "Best Way" accept the object from the developer. Work is also underway with maternity capital, with subsidies for housing. Legal due diligence is provided for each transaction. However, there is one feature of work that is characteristic only for the LCD "Best Way". Shareholders must be active. They move faster in line. What is the activity of shareholders? And the fact that they must constantly engage in recruiting new members to the cooperative "ZhK" Best Way "". At this point, any sane person should be on their guard.

Immediately understand the complaints of shareholders that housing can not be obtained. Most likely, these people were not active enough. Cases are also mentioned when the share is paid in full, and the shareholder himself and his family have long been living in the received square meters, and the ownership has not yet been formalized in the Best Way residential complex. Reviews of cooperative workers next to each such complaint refute the above, but, nevertheless, the very appearance of such accusations should already be alarming. The bank can issue large amounts of credit, the cooperative - no. Usually on a mortgage, as a down payment, there is an amount of 30% of the total value of this property. All housing cooperatives are forced to take more - from 50%. But this is not the LCD "Best Way". The reviews claim that he is ahead of the rest - both banks and other cooperatives, because he offers more favorable conditions to his depositors.

Real estate without a bank - is it real?

Acquires real estate for the shareholders of the residential complex "Best Way" with certain guarantees. For example, a guarantee of compliance with the Civil Code and the Housing Code, which are in force throughout the Russian Federation, as well as under the control of the state and the general meeting of shareholders. Actually, the share account is located in the Sberbank of the Russian Federation, as stated on the website of the cooperative. Actually it is not. He is not there. The site even says about close cooperation and presentations held at the offices of Sberbank. The desired is presented as reality. This is not the only inaccuracy: at the bottom of the main page is a certificate from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which has never been issued by it.

In addition, the return of all share contributions is guaranteed - 100%. However, the former contributors of the Best Way Housing Cooperative from Ufa write something different in their reviews. The first entry fee (2,000 euros!) and membership fees of 1,000 rubles, which were paid monthly, are not returned to a person who decides to leave the cooperative. If the monthly payment is overdue, tangible pen alties are charged plus another 1000 rubles. But this is not the most surprising.

Having received the desired living space, a member of the cooperative will not be the owner until the full repayment of the debt, this apartment or house is framed on the Best Way Housing Cooperative. In Ufa, as well as in other cities, very often payments are calculated for ten years. What will happen if the union does not live to see this happy moment? At any time, the owner - the "Best Way" housing cooperative (in Irkutsk, Ufa or any other city - there is only one charter) can evict the shareholder by selling or leasing this apartment or house.

The shareholder does not own a living space, a lot of money has been invested, and it is problematic to return it from an organization that has ceased to exist. Moreover, to take ownership of the property that has not been fully paid for, if all payments are made out as payment for rent (and this is how it happens everywhere). Even if payments are made in full, all state fees are not paid by the Best Way Housing Cooperative in Moscow or Ufa, St. Petersburg or Irkutsk. Attention: otherwise, if the payments are not made in full, the shareholder also pays the fees.

The tools of this cooperative's work are also interesting: no other uses network marketing methods, but here they are the basis. The shareholder simultaneously with the entry becomes a consultant and marketer, studying and promoting the services of the cooperative. It is due to these business qualities that his queue for housing will not stand still. If you don't bring new members, you won't get anything. The charter of the housing cooperative "Best Way" does not allow the dissolution of the cooperative, ifat least one of its members will be against it. However, organizations of this type necessarily cease to exist sooner or later, because the pyramid cannot be built indefinitely. And in the event of a collapse, share contributions will not be returned. Particularly affected will be those who entered the cooperative later than others. The legislation of the Russian Federation provides for the return of share contributions, but are these laws always followed?

Reviews of lawyers about LCD "Best Way"

In addition to numerous discussions of the activities of this cooperative in the groups of social networks "VKontakte" and "Facebook" (the names of the groups "saying": "No to scammers and pyramids!"), the Internet has a sufficient number of professional assessments from lawyers and economists. Anatoly Filippenkov, President of the Union of Small and Medium Businesses of the Sverdlovsk Region, speaks of an increase in the number of fraud cases in this area.

He argues that rates of 2 or 6% per annum simply cannot exist at this time in either a commercial or non-profit organization, and also warns that you need to be careful about "free cheese" because it probably a mousetrap. And LCD "Best Way", the charter of which provides for a constant increase in the number of shareholders, has all the signs of a financial pyramid. Its success depends directly on how many people they manage to recruit, because the "common pot" must be constantly replenished, otherwise people will get tired of waiting. And the explosion can happen at any stage. That is why commercialreal estate is better to buy in other ways.

Why does the cooperative need such a devastatingly low interest rate? Actually, it's not like that. In order to understand this, you simply need to study the terms of the loan in much more detail. These numbers - 0% or 2% - are an excellent way to lure the gullible. In reality, it is much higher, because in addition to the contribution (and this is a minimum of 35% of the value of the property), each participant monthly contributes 11,000 rubles (in some branches - 12,000): ten of them are a share fee, and 1000 or 2000 are membership fees).

The housing cooperative "Best Way" still does not know when it will transfer the property to the shareholder, but it has already been using its money from the very beginning and does not deduct any interest for this use. Literally all lawyers who are not dependent on the activities of the cooperative say the same thing: this scheme for acquiring housing may turn out to be fraudulent for shareholders, since there is a high probability that the pyramid will fall apart, even if the organizers of the cooperative do not disappear to no one knows where, taking the money accumulated in the pool, from the general cash register.

What shareholders write in reviews

First of all, the conditions are listed under which membership in the Best Way Housing Cooperative is possible. In Irkutsk, reviews at the city forum did this most fully. Point by point:

1. Any citizen over the age of 16 can join the cooperative.
2. You will need a passport.
3. Select the desired property.
4. Pay entry fee 2,000Euro.

5. Pay 35% or 50% of the cost of the selected object.

   The remaining amount will be added by the cooperative. The rate will depend on the contribution made: if 35% of the cost is paid, it is 6% per annum, if 50% is paid - 2% per annum. (Apparently, the Irkutsk representative of the cooperative did not say anything about the 0% rate.)

6. Further, share contributions are made monthly - at least 10,000 rubles, and membership fees - 1,000 rubles.
7. All invested money is accumulated in a single account, in a "common pot", until the amount allows you to buy real estate in turn. Typically, co-op members wait six months to a year.
8. The selected object acquires the housing cooperative "Best Way" as the owner.
9. After 10 years, the shareholder pays the debt to the cooperative, but begins to use the property much earlier.
10. With the repayment of the debt, the property will be issued to the shareholder in the property, not earlier.

Negative reviews about the housing cooperative "Best Way" (St. Petersburg) are mostly represented by lawyers who were involved in the discussion by buyers of housing who are not sufficiently knowledgeable in housing legislation, looking for the most budgetary and least risky way. There are much fewer negative reviews than positive reviews, which, however, are very similar to custom-made, "fake" ones. The opinions of lawyers, oddly enough, speak of the same thing, although they consider the phenomenon from various angles. The conclusions, however, are the same. According to all experts, the project seems extremely attractive, but it must be remembered thatall such schemes are just a product of the crisis and are filled with significant financial risks.

What strangers write in reviews

There are a lot of reviews from re altors from different cities, and these are experienced people who are looking for real estate deals themselves. However, from the reviews it is clear that they most often fail to make deals with the Best Way housing cooperative. From Tomsk they write that no one helped them choose an object, they hardly did it on their own, then they paid a 2,000 euro membership fee, back in January 2018 they signed an agreement after paying 35% of the cost of the chosen housing. Then the waiting began. Six months later, advice was received from "experienced" members of the cooperative: a queue can be bought for 130,000 rubles, which was done. However, until now the queue has not moved, and there is no transparency with this issue, as well as specifics in the answers to questions.

Reviews are written with bitter humor from St. Petersburg, where the activity of the cooperative is called legalized money taking: the company exists on contributions, does not make profit on anything, only redistributes the contributions of shareholders from the bottom up - isn't this a pyramid?

"I wonder what will happen if the contributors at the bottom level run out?" ask Muscovites who are exploring ways to buy real estate. - "But this must happen someday! What will the next apartments be bought for?" And they draw parallels with mortgages, which exist within the framework of the law, but the Best Way housing cooperative is a hoax, it works as if according to the law, but without any framework. No specifics, only promises.

Ekaterinburg laid out all the grounds for distrust literally on the shelves:

1. There must be documents for the purchase of land. They are not here. The course of work should be clear; for this, an online video camera is usually installed. This is also not. There is also no way to check the construction in person.
2. There should be sales from real estate agencies, and large ones. They don't exist either.
3. When selling, you must be guided by Federal Law 214, as all large construction companies do.
4. When buying from a consumer, property should appear. If this does not happen, then there was no purchase. And if a mortgage is a property with an encumbrance, then the Best Way housing cooperative is a promise of property after purchase. There can be no property without an extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate in the name of the buyer. And this means that there was no purchase.

Housing or housing savings cooperative?

Many reviews raise the question: why is the company called a housing cooperative, but works according to all the rules of another type of cooperative association - a housing savings association? According to FZ-349, in a housing cooperative, all its members take part in the acquisition and maintenance of an apartment building. According to Federal Law-215, a housing savings cooperative involves the voluntary pooling of share contributions to meet the needs of shareholders in residential premises.

In the agreement on membership in the housing cooperative "Best Way" not one item is completely copied fromFZ-215. Doesn't this mean that the company functions as not just a housing, but a housing savings cooperative? However, the State Register does not mention a housing savings cooperative with that name. A lot of such uncomfortable questions are raised on the Internet, which cannot be covered even with the same positive reviews. The fact is that "accumulative" is not just a word; such a cooperative differs from a housing cooperative in completely different rules. For example, information must be entered into the State Register of Legal Entities about everyone who applied for membership in this organization, and only after this procedure can he be considered a shareholder.

Inconvenient questions

cooperative membership. And there are a lot of questions here. For example, how did it happen that a contribution of 35% of the cost of housing (and this is often millions of rubles!) Is not at all a guarantee of obtaining the desired property? A person languidly waits in line until the required amount of money accumulates in the "common pot". Moreover, one must be an "active shareholder", otherwise the queue will not move forward. And even if it advances until the moment of obtaining an apartment, the property will be registered with the cooperative as the owner.

It's funny to read that the employees of thiscompanies do not make a purchase on the rightful owner just because they save him from paying taxes. But they don’t save from a monthly membership fee of 1,000 or 2,000 rubles! It is this scheme that shows that the cooperative will be the real manager and owner of this property. That is, he is free to ask for the release of housing at any time in order to sell it, mortgage it, rent it out. And before the promised registration in the property, the participant of the cooperative has to wait about ten years. This is a very long time, anything can happen.

How not to suspect fraud, if at every step the company's employees allow it in one or another concentration? As already mentioned, Best Way residential complex is not a partner of Sberbank of Russia and used its logo on its website without permission, about which the copyright holder made an official statement. It should be noted that many not very clean companies use this maneuver: they strengthen their reputation against the backdrop of the largest bank in the country. But in this case, the trick failed, and the bank protected its own interests so as not to mislead its customers. Unauthorized use of the logo of the Savings Bank of Russia on the website of the residential complex "Best Way" was stopped and was accompanied by an official press release.

Associated activities

LCD "Best Way" also has additional offers for its shareholders. For example, the company stated that it cooperates with several not-so-well-known investment enterprises, thanks to which the members of the cooperative receivethe opportunity not only to buy a home is profitable, but also to earn good money. It mentions Hermes Managemet Ltd. This company in the name of each member of the cooperative opens an account in an Austrian bank, where you can transfer funds earned by attracting new members to Best Way at 25% per annum, and payments are made entirely in foreign currency. Does it need to be clarified that deposits with such a yield cannot exist in Austria at all, as all the interviewed participants in the financial market claim. How can you open a deposit in a bank abroad without being present in person? After all, it is necessary to provide all data on the origin of funds.

Professionals in the financial market are more than sure that the housing cooperative "Best Way" is full of signs of a typical financial pyramid. And the most important sign is the condition for acquiring housing for one member at the expense of the contributions of others, who, in turn, will wait for replenishment of finances from new ones who have just joined the cooperative. And this flow must be continuous. The so-called "bonus" scheme is also inherent in all pyramid schemes without exception, when participants, attracting new members, receive interest from their entry fee (in this case, it is 240 euros).

Conclusions: how not to be left homeless and without money

Lawyer Dmitry Lebedev believes that the acquisition of all real estate only from accredited developers is also suspicious, as it is a certain scheme. When the pyramid collapses, the cooperative will calculatethe property that was purchased. This means that it will have to be taken away from those who did not have time to pay off to the end. Whoever has time - well done, but the lion's share of contracts was concluded for ten years, and the cooperative has existed for only four. The documentation was mentioned above, it will not be able to confirm that the LCD owes something to someone: the contributions are made in the form of rent for the apartment in which the shareholder lives. Judging by the sale and purchase transaction, the owner is a cooperative, not a contributor living in an apartment.

Many experts also say that usually the goal of such organizations is to collect large sums from the maximum number of members. The prospect is this: when the right moment comes, the cooperative ceases to exist. The management is on the run, having taken all the money, the shareholders are left without an apartment and without money. The schemes implemented by the cooperative fit this scenario almost perfectly. The organization does not offer risk protection to shareholders.