Lenders are leaving Ukrainians without apartments: how the schemes work and why everyone is at risk

Ukrainians are left without apartments not only because of black notaries. Now the housing is taken by creditors. By signing the agreement, Ukrainians themselves agree to pledge their property. At the same time, sometimes creditors create conditions that make timely repayment of the debt impossible. How circuits work and what everyone needs to know

Black notaries and realtors are already a thing of the past: how they now take away Ukrainians’ apartments

Cases where an apartment was registered using false documents because the registrar deliberately violated the law and took part in a raid are rare. Outright crime on a significant scale is already a thing of the past. Although this also happens. For example, at the end of last year in Kyiv, two men who tried to take possession of a pensioner’s apartment using false documents were informed of suspicion of fraud. And even before the full-scale war in the Donetsk region, a policeman was exposed who threatened a man to sell his apartment for 50 thousand UAH, while the real price was 12 thousand dollars.

Much more often, Ukrainians are thrown out of housing because of loans. There are a number of companies that provide loans secured by real estate. Such companies actively place their advertising, and their websites are easy to find on the Internet. One example is Royal Standard Group. In messages they offer a loan secured by an apartment from 18% per annum in hryvnia, but this is the minimum rate. At the request of the National Bank, the company published the terms of the loan. They say that the real annual interest rate reaches 400% per annum.

At the same request of the National Bank, an example of a typical agreement was published on the website. It is proposed to conclude an agreement with Gelex Finance LLC. The conditions comply with current legislation, and one of the paragraphs clearly states: if the money is not returned, the company has the right to “foreclose on the pledged property.”

The register of court decisions contains a lot of cases in which dissatisfied clients are trying to appeal the terms of the contract with the specified LLC. For example, last year in the Lviv region (case No. 456/2541/22) the courts tried to recover UAH 207,620 from the client. At the same time, he took only 120 thousand hryvnia. The rest is interest and penalties. And in Kyiv, case 756/16876/23 is in court: the LLC took away an apartment with a total area of ​​45.5 square meters from the debtor. m. He took out a loan, but did not pay it on time.

Lawyer Svetlana Sarazha says: many of the companies that are now engaged in loans secured by housing previously bought from bankrupt banks the right to demand the return of foreign currency mortgages.

“They made their money on this, then the surviving LLCs switched to factoring (an operation where the first creditor assigns the rights to claim the debt. - Ed.). And some, having such experience behind them, are now providing loans secured by real estate,” says the lawyer.

Sarazha represented the interests of one of the clients of the company, which provided a loan against the security of an apartment. According to her, sometimes an agreement is drawn up between individuals, and instead of transparently stating the interest, they increase the loan amount (by law, an individual cannot earn money on loans).

There are two options: some companies transparently communicate the terms of the loan, while others create conditions so that the loan is difficult to repay. In particular, both on the Galaxy Finance website and on other websites where the name of this LLC is indicated in the documents, you can easily find all the conditions: the amount of annual interest, repayment terms, threats of being included in various registers, threats to get rid of collateral, etc. etc. That is, the client has every opportunity to weigh the risks and refuse such an agreement if he is not sure that he will be able to return the funds on time.

A bad example: when the loan provider misleads the borrower and creates a condition that excludes repayment of the debt. For example, several years ago the Main Directorate of the National Police exposed a group of individuals who provided loans to Ukrainians without licenses. “At the same time, conditions were artificially created for borrowers to fail to complete transactions and re-registration of ownership of real estate was carried out with their subsequent sale,” says the NPU statement.

One of the debtors contacted the editorial office and complained about the illegal actions of the creditor and the seizure of the apartment. The debtor asked his mother to secure her apartment as collateral. The lender did not check the pensioner’s income and provided her with 200 thousand UAH, which she transferred to her son. The son was late with the payment for two months, and now they are trying to re-register his mother’s apartment near Kiev (to take the deposit to pay off the debt). Already when writing the material, the debtor refused to give his name and the name of the company in the publication, citing the fact that this could interfere with agreements on debt restructuring. However, this case proves: due to low financial literacy, Ukrainians continue to take out loans secured by housing and lose their real estate.

How to protect yourself

The main thing is to contact a lawyer before signing the contract, Sarazha is sure. This should be a lawyer or lawyer who has relevant experience. Often people, when they take out loans, count on a certain income, and if this income disappears, they have no plan for what to do. You need to contact a specialist, study the contract, weigh all the risks,” says Sarazha.

If you have already signed an agreement to secure an apartment and your home is taken away, an experienced lawyer will be able to try to fight for housing. If this is your only apartment, then during martial law certain restrictions apply. It will be difficult to evict you just like that. Moreover, according to Saraja, creditors always agree to negotiate. Sometimes they agree to restructure the loan without foreclosure.

Realtor Maxim B., working in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, says: in his 10 years of practice, there were at least two cases when apartments bought by Ukrainians were then arrested due to a fraud investigation. That is, scammers take possession of the property and immediately sell it. Then the investigation begins, prosecutors go to court and demand that the property be seized. As a result, the new owner cannot sell it, and in some cases, even use it.

“I would advise you to carefully understand what kind of apartment you are buying. In my practice, there are two cases when colleagues sold apartments, and then they were arrested from the new legal owners. If there is a criminal case for fraud, even if you legally bought a stolen apartment and paid full price for it, the home will likely be seized. And then there will be many problems. Therefore, I would also advise you to check very carefully the housing you are buying. Contact realtors, make an extract from the register of rights to real estate, ask your neighbors,” the realtor advises.

Both realtors and lawyers agree: the best option is to refuse to cooperate with dubious intermediaries, and coordinate every important action with professionals