Chernihiv residents protest against apartment raiding: police cover up “black” realtors

On July 25, 2012, a protest action by Chernihiv residents who were victims of apartment raiding took place outside the walls of the Chernihiv city police department, demanding that law enforcement agencies effectively investigate fraudulent transactions and corruption cases, as a result of which citizens are deprived of their own homes and thrown out onto the street. Including with the help of people “in uniform”.

People with banners demanded punishment for the perpetrators, and were also outraged by the inaction of police officers, who are also involved in illegal real estate transactions. The action was co-organized by the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights.

Human rights activist Volodymyr Opryshko comments on the situation:

“Today, in Ukraine, in particular in Odessa, Mykolaiv, Donetsk, and recently in Chernihiv, there is a situation where gangs of “black realtors”, using gaps in the legislation, seize private property.

The following scheme is most often used: when, for example, 13 apartments are bought at auction for debts, which are mainly unpaid bank loans, through the court. Of course, at an understated price, the assessment is made by the state enforcement service, for several thousand hryvnias – the real price reaches about 10-15 thousand.

Then, using psychological pressure – self-replacing locks, settling homeless people, etc., they force the owners to move to apartments with a much smaller area, or to some suburban settlements.

They also use other schemes, when, playing on a person’s weaknesses – such as drug addiction, alcoholism, giving them a drink or giving them some poison, they force them to sign documents and these sick people are left homeless.

Often, these stories end in conflicts, or even death.

The problem is that the State Executive Service and law enforcement agencies have shifted the solution to the problem of debt collection from those who owe on loans to “black” realtors. Today, two or three “black” groups operate in Chernihiv. For example, one of them, a certain Maksymenko, owns about 200 real estate properties. Someone is “protecting” him, providing him with funds.

How to solve this issue? It is necessary to initiate changes in the legislation, because law enforcement officers cannot even use the Criminal Code, because there is no mention of this phenomenon.

The head of one of the serious Chernihiv real estate companies shared his vision of the problem:

“The work of such “realtors” threatens those Chernihiv residents who buy and sell apartments. Usually people themselves are to blame for the fact that misfortune happens to them. Trying to reduce expenses, they turn to some acquaintances who know something, somewhere. An unknown person comes, promises to help, he solves the issue, but with maximum benefit for himself, and as a result you remain the loser.

“Black” realtors are a kind of “sanitary workers of the city”. Let me give you an example, the apartment turned out to be divided into two parts, one of them belongs to a student boy, the other to an athlete who is trying to evict the student from the apartment. The intellectual offers to sell the apartment for 30 thousand dollars, and divide the money in half to stop the conflict, the kickboxer refuses. So the student has no choice but to turn to the “black” realtors, they bought his share for 5 thousand, and instead of him they moved in two girls with a “white ticket”. In the end, the athlete will be forced to move out of the apartment, because constant screaming and fighting do not add to his health.

Also, those who want to sell an apartment very often suffer because of their gullibility. The “blacks” come to them, presenting themselves as members of some committee, a public organization for protection against banking arbitrariness. Having gained the trust of their future victims, they receive original documents from them and independently sell the apartment.

As for the police, very often people, out of habit, see hope and protection in law enforcement officers, trust them, and provide documents. Some law enforcement officers use this for profit, trying in alliance with “black realtors” to seize real estate of socially vulnerable segments of the population and sell it profitably.

Or another example, any precinct officer has a database that lists potentially “problematic” residents of the district – drug addicts, drunkards, unemployed, seriously ill, single grandmothers. And then anyone who needs such a database can buy it for 300 dollars.

Forecasting the development of the situation on the real estate market, it can be argued that without changes in legislation and the activities of the state enforcement service, there is no reason to hope for improvement in the near future.

Based on materials