In Novovorontsovka, the court denied a resident of Mykhailivka recognition of ownership of a house that was destroyed by Russian shelling. The man could not prove that the building belonged to him.
As stated in the court decision, the man applied to the court to officially formalize ownership rights to a dwelling in the village of Mykhailivka in Beryslav district.
According to him, in 1993 his grandmother gifted him a house with an area of 53.5 sq. m. At that time the parties concluded a written agreement, but the man never registered it with the state registrar. He did not live in the house itself.
In March 2024, as a result of artillery shelling of Mykhailivka, the dwelling was destroyed. The documents for it burned along with the property.
The man was unable to restore the title documents through the Novooleksandrivka village council, because from April to October 2022 the village was under occupation, and Russian troops destroyed the local archive.
After reviewing the case, the judge fully dismissed the claim. The court explained that under the 1993 legislation, gift agreements for real estate required mandatory notarization or certification by the village council secretary. The plaintiff did not provide any copies of documents or archival certificates to confirm this.
The only indirect evidence was an entry in the household book of that time, where the deceased grandmother’s surname was crossed out and the plaintiff’s name was written in with the note “Changes made pursuant to the gift agreement”. However, the court noted that it is impossible to establish the date and grounds of this inscription, and the entry itself after 1992 is not confirmation of ownership rights.
In addition, the man had no witnesses and did not provide documents proving family relations or his grandmother’s death to claim the property as an heir.