Termination of ownership rights to destroyed housing

In October 2022, a missile strike hit and completely destroyed one of the sections of a multi-storey apartment building in a residential district of Zaporizhzhia. The main impact was on the apartment where a woman was staying. Based on the circumstances, survival was considered impossible. However, while emergency and search operations were still ongoing, the woman was officially listed as "missing."

Khrystyna, the woman’s daughter, wanted to receive her inheritance and apply for compensation. To do this, she had to legally declare her mother deceased and went to court. Based on the court decision, she was able to get a death certificate from the civil registry office and contact a notary to start the inheritance process. But Khrystyna was not aware of an important legal rule:

According to Article 47(2) of the Civil Code of Ukraine, heirs of someone who is declared deceased cannot sell or transfer inherited property for 5 years.

Because of this, the notary issued a certificate of inheritance but placed a five-year restriction on selling the destroyed apartment.

Once she had all the necessary documents, Khrystyna applied to the Compensation Commission and successfully received a housing certificate to buy a new home. However, to use this certificate, she needed to officially terminate ownership of the destroyed apartment—which wasn’t possible due to the restriction set by the notary.

As a result, state registrars repeatedly refused to terminate the ownership, saying the restriction was still in place.

Khrystyna turned to a lawyer from the NGO "STEP," which works in partnership with the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) in Zaporizhzhia. The lawyer, Danilo, carefully studied the laws and developed a legal strategy. He showed that ownership had effectively ended when the home was destroyed, so the restriction should not prevent official registration of this fact.

Not agreeing with the registrar’s refusal, the lawyer submitted a complaint to the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. In the complaint, he explained why the registrar’s actions were not in line with the law.

As a result, the Ministry cancelled the registrar’s refusal and ordered that the problem be resolved.

Thanks to the legal support, Khrystyna was able to officially terminate ownership of the destroyed home and use her housing certificate to receive compensation.

Her story sets an important example: an existing restriction is not a valid reason to deny the termination of ownership of a destroyed property.

(*) Name changed for privacy.

This assistance was provided by NGO “STEP” in partnership with the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), with financial support from the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund.