The legal nature and mechanism of protection of the right of first refusal in joint shared ownership

Abstract

The article is devoted to an urgent and practically significant problem arising during the realization of real rights to common property — the right of first refusal. A significant number of court cases and the presence of facts of their appeal testify to some problems in the effectiveness of the regulatory framework governing this sphere in questions of its interpretation. In this article, the essence of the right of first refusal as the official power of a participant in joint shared ownership, which entails a decrease in the number of participants in joint shared ownership and an increase in the size of the share of some of them, is considered. Since the realization of the right of first refusal leads to the transformation of a legal relationship or to its liquidation, the article analyzes in detail all the risks associated with its implementation. The most typical causes of its violation are singled out, among which are the improper performance of a share by the seller of the obligation to notify the other co-owners of the sale of the share, or in its sale to an outside person before the expiration of the period, and its protection is considered. Particular attention is paid to the issue of reimbursement of expenses incurred by the buyer, who is not a co-owner, when transferring the rights and obligations of the buyer to the participant in joint shared ownership.