The “authorities” appointed by Russia refuse to recognize the owners of real estate, even through the courts, since the transactions were executed before the occupation.
This was told by the owners of apartments in house No. 70 on Belyaev Street in the Russian-occupied Melitopol, Zaporizhia region of Ukraine. They recorded a video message to the “federal authorities”, the prosecutor’s office and the Investigative Committee.
“There are more than 30 of us. And each of us acquired housing in an honest way — under shared-equity construction contracts and under purchase and sale agreements. Our house at Belyaeva Street 70 was almost ready for commissioning even before the start of war, which is confirmed by Ukrainian documents and photographs from those years. After the region came under the control of the Russian Federation, we continued to register our rights. Some of us received technical passports, paid the state duty, and signed contracts with the Russian gas service and with Energy Retail. There were also those who lived in their apartments and paid utilities. In 2023, we submitted an application to the Ministry of Property and Land Relations with a request not to recognize our apartments as ownerless. A refusal response was received to our applications only a year later. And while we were waiting for a response, the house was already fully registered with the government of the Zaporozhye region, as evidenced by an extract from the Federal Register. The people who lived in the house were asked to vacate their homes, and the utility contracts were terminated. During the work on the so-called completion of the house, the roof was completely removed, which is why the upper apartments, which were renovated, were flooded. There is a record of these damages,” the apartment owners said in the appeal.
They added that they had already made a video message to Putin a year ago, after which the occupation “authorities” advised the apartment owners to go to court.
