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- I assure you: people are massively losing their homes due to fraud by fraudsters of pensioners
I assure you: people are massively losing their homes due to fraud by fraudsters of pensioners
The State Duma proposed to carry out mandatory legal expertise when certifying real estate purchase and sale transactions. Such an initiative has been sent to the Ministry of Justice. The proposal arose against the background of increased cases of fraud: hundreds of Russians were left without new apartments due to the fact that elderly people sell their real estate, transfer money to scammers, and then contact the police. As a result, the courts return their apartments, and bona fide buyers are left with nothing. For example, in Kazan, a family with two children is forced to live in a communal apartment, although they have invested all their savings in buying a new apartment. For more information about how pensioners and their customers become victims of fraud and how to protect themselves from fraud, see the Izvestia article.
"We lost money because Grandma decided to play spy"
Against the background of the massive termination of purchase and sale transactions with bona fide buyers due to the actions of fraudsters in Russia, it was proposed to expand the functions of notaries when registering documents. In particular, they will be required to conduct a legal review, certifying the contract.
This initiative was made by Alexander Yakubovsky, a member of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing and Communal Services. He sent his proposal to the Ministry of Justice (available in Izvestia). In addition, he stated the need to develop and establish a standard for checking the "purity" of the property before certifying the transaction.
— I receive appeals from citizens related to the loss of ownership of residential premises by bona fide buyers as a result of challenging transactions with sellers, including the elderly, — said the deputy. — In current legislation, when certifying a transaction, a notary verifies the identity and legal capacity of the parties, the existence of property rights and encumbrances, as well as compliance with the form of the contract.
However, Alexander Yakubovsky stressed, there is currently no mandatory comprehensive legal review of the property, including an analysis of the history of legal transitions, the existence of legal disputes and other circumstances that could lead to challenging the transaction.
The current situation has led to hundreds of conscientious buyers being left homeless. Thus, Dinar Akhmadullin spent almost 5 million rubles on real estate in the Moskovsky district of Kazan. Officially, he, his wife and two small children are registered there, but for 2.5 years they have not been able to get into the three-room apartment they bought. They have to live in a communal apartment of 8 sq. m.
"It's hard, of course, to want to live in your own apartment, according to your own rules," Anastasia Shcherbatenko, the wife of Dinar Akhmadullin, told Izvestia.
After purchasing a home, it turned out that the former owner had become a victim of telephone scams. The Akhmadullins bought an apartment, which the pensioner sold under pressure from criminals. The woman went along with them — she sold the apartment, received the money and transferred it to a "secure account". When the circumstances of the deal came to light, it was terminated, but the family of Dinar Akhmadullin was left without housing and without money.
— We earned this money with sweat and blood, — Anastasia Shcherbatenko noted. — We lost all the money because Grandma decided to play spy.
Another victim, Olga Petrkina, a resident of Biysk, Altai Territory, told Izvestia that in February 2024 she bought an apartment in the city center for almost 3.5 million rubles, but she never got inside.
— I bought an apartment for cash. The deal was done through the MFC, without an agency, the seller Svetlana Semenova insisted on this. It didn't bother me at the time. The woman answered all my questions, showed me all the documents, where everything was in the apartment," Olga recalls.
After the woman refused to let her into the apartment, Olga Petrkina appealed to the court. For almost two years now, she has not been able to obtain the right to enter her own home.
— The first court, which considered my application, sided with the seller. Then I filed an appeal. Another court has already considered it and also ruled against me,— the victim complained. — At the same time, the seller does not hide that she bought a certificate from a neuropsychiatric dispensary. She openly stated this at the trial.
Despite the fact that so far the court has sided with the seller, the buyer does not lose hope that she will be able to obtain compensation for the funds spent on the purchase of an apartment. The seller did not refund her money for the apartment.
— The woman claims that she cannot return the money to me because she gave it to a fraudster. He was caught, but he denies everything. At the same time, she initially imagined this man as a friend of her friend who helps her with the sale of the apartment," Olga Petrkina said. — But I will fight to the last. I believe because I'm not the only one affected. Besides me, 75 other people in Russia found themselves in a similar situation.
She learned about the number of victims in similar circumstances from a thematic community on social networks.
Why do the courts side with sellers
Another victim was Nino Tsitlidze from Moscow. The woman told Izvestia that she had not been able to get into the apartment she had bought for four years. She took out a mortgage to buy an apartment for 30 years and is now paying off a housing loan that she doesn't actually have.
— I was choosing an apartment to buy with a mortgage through a large bank. I had a mortgage approved, I looked at more than ten apartments and settled on this one, since it had been owned by the same family for more than 20 years," she explained. — The seller Natalia Ivanova showed everything and submitted the documents for the property. We signed a purchase and sale agreement at the bank branch. But after that, she never gave me the keys to the apartment.
A week after the deal was concluded, according to the woman, the seller set fire to the military enlistment office in the north of Moscow, arrived at her former apartment and stated that she was not going to leave it, as she had sold her home at the behest of scammers.
After that, Nino Tsitlidze went to court.
— The court first decided in my favor to evict the former owner from the apartment, but refused to recognize the transaction as invalid, — she said. — The seller at the court sessions asked why my family and I did not think that she would deceive us.
The former owner of the apartment filed an appeal against the decision of the court of first instance, asking to recognize Nino Tsitlidze as an unscrupulous buyer.
Andrey Bannikov, Vice President of the Russian Guild of Realtors, noted that most of these cases occur in large cities.
The most famous precedent in such trials was the case of singer Larisa Dolina. In 2024, the People's Artist, under the influence of scammers, sold a five-room apartment in the prestigious Khamovniki district of the capital. When the deception was revealed, the People's Artist was able to return her property through the court.
Larisa Dolina
"The more such cases there are, the more the judicial community will be inclined, within the framework of the uniformity of judicial practice, to make a decision in this way," said Konstantin Barsukov, adviser to the president of the Guild of Realtors of Moscow.
Fraudulent real estate transactions in Russia have indeed become widespread, Ekaterina Kosareva, managing partner of the VMT Consult analytical agency, confirmed.
"Elderly people, pensioners, remain a particularly vulnerable group, who are being dragged into criminal schemes by scammers under the guise of "assistance," "social programs," or "profitable investments," she said. — As a result, not only the deceived citizens themselves suffer, but also conscientious buyers who lose their homes, money and often end up in debt.
What is the reason for the surge in fraud
Experts note that the increase in the number of such crimes is due to the activation of foreign call centers operating from Ukraine and the CIS countries. They are aimed at Russian pensioners and vulnerable groups of the population.
—The attackers act according to proven scenarios: they convince victims to issue power of attorney, sell an apartment, take out a loan or transfer funds to supposedly secure accounts," Ekaterina Kosareva added. — After making a deal, older people often realize that they have become victims, go to the police or declare themselves bankrupt. Meanwhile, bona fide buyers who have made a deal according to all the rules are deprived of housing.
The problem is compounded by the fact that the current legislation still leaves a "window" for invalidating transactions if it is proved that one of the parties acted under the influence of deception.
"The main reason for the increase in the number of such cases is the activity of organized criminal groups and the lack of vigilance of citizens," the expert noted. — The number of scammers has been off the charts lately. Call centers that work with databases of the elderly and act through psychological pressure are especially dangerous.
At the same time, the Central Bank of Russia is consistently strengthening measures to combat such crimes. The regulator implements mechanisms for early detection of suspicious transactions, requires banks to pay increased attention to real estate transactions involving elderly clients, and actively interacts with law enforcement agencies.
In order to prove their good faith in a situation with fraudsters, it is not enough for a buyer to simply submit documents confirming the purchase of real estate, Konstantin Barsukov noted. It is important not to neglect the legal expertise of the transaction, which can be initiated independently.
— The buyer must be careful. Of course, he should seek legal expertise from specialists and then receive an opinion on it. But even this measure will not give one hundred percent guarantee that the buyer will be recognized in good faith," Konstantin Barsukov emphasized.
It is worth paying attention to the nuances of the transaction, he added.
— For example, if a real estate object is sold significantly below market value, then any court can then say that this should have alerted the buyer, — the expert noted.
Buyers should check the purity of real estate transactions first, said lawyer Vladimir Shalaev, partner at Law Group LLC. This can be seen in the extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
— If the sale is made by proxy, you need to understand on what basis the transaction is actually taking place, and whether the seller is interested in making it. It is advisable to contact him and get his confirmation," he said.
If the buyer is not ready to do this on his own, he can apply for an expert examination to a notary, this is in his interests, the expert emphasized.
"But legal expertise will not help to completely eliminate the risks for the buyer, because they are impossible to predict," added Vladimir Shalaev.
In addition, if a citizen is faced with a situation where the bank has approved a questionable transaction or a transfer of funds under an obviously fraudulent scheme, he has the right to complain directly to the Central Bank, Ekaterina Kosareva added.
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