Rostov developer loses court case over street lighting

Rostovskoye JSC, which is developing the Suvorovsky residential district, lost a court case against the city administration of Rostov-on-Don and the Oktyabrsky district administration over street lighting on Vavilova Street. The company claims that the lighting is ownerless and that the city should take it over. The city is not generally opposed but wants to do so according to its own procedures.

According to case materials, the dispute concerns street lighting networks on Vavilova Street from the intersection with Petrenko and Sosnovaya streets, including a bike path and one children«s playground. The total length of the outdoor lighting route is more than 4.5 kilometers.

These networks were built by Nika LLC (construction company) from Anapa, which, like Rostovskoye JSC, is part of the Kuban group of companies VKB Novostroyki. Both companies state that this street lighting does not belong to them and that its construction «is a consequence of the implementation of the comprehensive development program for the Suvorovsky microdistrict,» but it is not related to apartment buildings. It illuminates a bike path in the park, the road on Vavilova, and a children«s playground in a square on that street.

Despite its name, Rostovskoye JSC is registered in Krasnodar Krai. The company ended 2024 with revenue of 194.6 million rubles ($2,162,200 at current rates) and net profit of 16 thousand rubles ($178 at current rates). According to the latest data from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (as of 2015), 86.5% of the company«s charter capital is owned by Kubanskaya Marka JSC. Both companies share the same general director — Marat Stepura. According to SPARK data, that company»s revenue in 2024 amounted to nearly 2.2 billion rubles ($24,444,400 at current rates), with net profit of nearly 500 million rubles ($5,555,600 at current rates).

Rostovskoye believes that the street lighting is therefore ownerless, and that the city should take it over and maintain it.

«Believing that the administration«s inaction, expressed in its failure to register the ownerless property and accept it into municipal ownership, is illegal, the company filed the lawsuit with the claims under consideration,» the lawsuit states.

In response, the Rostov authorities said that the lighting is not ownerless. Since Nika built it at its own expense, it belongs to Nika. It even emerged that the company had previously intended to transfer the lighting to municipal ownership but failed to provide all necessary documents. Moreover, the lighting did not meet technical requirements and the design. Therefore, the city can only accept it into ownership after all defects are fixed.

The Rostov administration argued in court that there is an established procedure for transferring property to municipal ownership. And with its lawsuit, Rostovskoye is trying to circumvent it by presenting the situation as if the lighting on Vavilova is nobody«s. The court agreed and denied the Suvorovsky developer»s claims.

As the deputy director of Rostov«s Department of Housing and Communal Services Artyom Arutyunyan earlier explained to 161.RU, the city intended to take the disputed lighting onto its balance sheet anyway, but only in the established order, that is, after all defects are fixed by the previous owners. He explained that Rostovskoye wants to get rid of these objects to avoid bearing maintenance costs. Earlier, 161.RU reported on the issue.