Ukrainians' apartments are being taken away by scammers: what schemes are in place and why everything is at risk

Ukrainians are losing their apartments due to loans secured by real estate. In some cases, debtors themselves violate the terms of the contract, and in others, unscrupulous creditors create such conditions that it becomes impossible to repay the debt.

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 disclosed the essential terms of the loan. They say that the real annual interest rate reaches up to 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 LLC "Geleksi Finance". 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.”

And in the register of court decisions there are a bunch 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.

There are two options: some companies are transparent about the terms of the loan, while others make the loan 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 of losing collateral, etc. d. 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 for non-fulfillment of transactions and re-registration of ownership of real estate objects was carried out with their subsequent sale,” says the NPU statement.