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- Under the roof of her home: a Russian woman returned her apartment stolen by fraudsters
Under the roof of her home: a Russian woman returned her apartment stolen by fraudsters
A resident of Kislovodsk has obtained through the court to cancel the sale and purchase of her apartment, which she was forced to sell by fraudsters, according to the decision of the court of appeal (Izvestiya has it). Several loans were also issued to the victim. The court of first instance refused to cancel the contract, but after a psychological examination of the woman managed to prove that she made the deal in an insane state. In periods of emotional problems, it is easier for fraudsters to push the victim to rash decisions, experts say. Therefore, buyers should always check the state of the property owners before the transaction.
How fraudsters take away real estate
Stavropol regional court returned to the resident of Kislovodsk Natalia Shevchenko apartment, which she sold under the influence of fraudsters. The proceedings lasted more than a year, with the court of first instance rejecting the claim of the victim, but its decision was challenged.
In 2023, as follows from the case materials, Natalia Shevchenko found a site where there was an advertisement for investment earnings. There the criminals left a phishing link to pass registration. After that, the woman twice "replenished the balance of the profile" for a total of about 600 thousand rubles. However, the funds were not displayed in the application - as investigators found out, allegedly in order to credit them to Natalia Shevchenko, she first transferred them to the "manager". A criminal case was initiated on this fact.
After that, the "manager" and his accomplice (in the court documents he appears as Volkov M.) promised her some income from the sale of securities. For this purpose, the woman was forced to take out three loans for more than a million rubles, and was also convinced that the funds from the sale of the apartment could be invested.
In January 2024, the sale of Natalia Shevchenko's apartment took place, but afterwards the woman appealed to the Kislovodsk City Court, claiming that she had not intended to sell the property and was forced to do so fraudulently.
During the investigation of the criminal case, the police found that Volkov had access to calls, SMS and all messages of the victim. He had, among other things, her screen sharing feature connected.
In March 2024, the court of first instance dismissed Natalia Shevchenko's challenge to the transaction, considering the fact of deception unproven. In particular, the court took into account that she received the funds from the sale of the apartment in installments.
"Thus the statement that she did not intend to sell the apartment, is unreliable and aimed at misleading the court, as well as the police", - follows from the case materials.
The petition for a psychiatric examination for Natalia Shevchenko Kislovodsk city court rejected, as in January 2024 the woman after a long treatment passed a medical commission. At that time, the doctors found that "at the time of the examination, she was without formal mental disorders."
Why the court changed the decision
During the appeal proceedings, Natalia Shevchenko insisted that she was not going to sell the apartment and signed the purchase and sale agreement only under Volkov's influence. And after the transaction, she immediately went to the police, claiming that she was not feeling well.
The judicial board appointed a complex examination, which found that Natalia Shevchenko at the time of signing the contract suffered from mental problems in the form of organic emotional-labile asthenic disorder. She had headaches, dizziness, shakiness when walking, fatigue, increased anxiety, resentfulness, irritability with emotional-volitional disorders in the form of passive submissiveness and suggestibility to stronger personalities, lack of independence in decision-making "with reduced cognitive, critical and prognostic abilities".
As a result, the appeals court sided with the victim and ruled to annul the transaction and to recover from Natalia Shevchenko 4.2 million rubles in favor of the buyer.
Vladimir Kuznetsov, Chairman of the All-Russian Union of Mediators, explained to Izvestia that in this case it was a question of challenging the transaction on the grounds of misleading the seller, which in legal science and practice is called a defect of will.
- This means that at a certain point a person was not fully capable of realizing his actions and their consequences, and another person took advantage of this position, - said Vladimir Kuznetsov. - The error of the trial court was that it did not appoint a forensic examination, which was qualified by the appeal as a gross violation. The appellate court appointed such an expert examination, and its results confirmed the existence of a defect of will on the plaintiff's side.
The case shows that "judges are human beings too and sometimes make mistakes that can affect the life of a litigant," emphasized private practitioner Nijat Muradov.
- The plaintiff was lucky that the appeals court agreed with the arguments of the appeal and reconsidered the case, otherwise she would have been left without an apartment," he said.
Psychologist Natalia Naumova explained that to determine sanity, the psychiatric commission asks a series of questions to determine whether a person is lying or not.
- There is a clear series of questions that allow to determine whether at that moment the person was actually in such a vice of will and did not realize what he was doing. For example, was under hypnosis, was in a state of "shutdown",- said the expert.
According to the expert, when a person is in a state of reverie, he has a lot of difficulties and worries, it is easy to subject him to suggestion. At first, fraudsters try to dispose to themselves - to praise, to take a person "in the team", to promise support, and then begin to manage.
How to protect yourself in transactions with apartments
In practice, when making transactions with sellers of retirement age, it is recommended to request a certain list of documents confirming the mental state of the seller, his capacity, emphasized lawyer, General Director of "Razio Consulting" Natalia Golosnova.
- Unfortunately, now for a bona fide buyer buying real estate on the secondary market is becoming increasingly risky, - said the expert. - Since it is necessary to take into account many points, so that later the transaction was not recognized as invalid and did not apply the consequences of its invalidity: it and the possible bankruptcy of the seller, and the transaction made with maternity capital, and primarily transactions with age sellers.
The Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow is considering a similar case. In 2025, it may rule on the counterclaims of singer Larisa Dolina and the buyer of her apartment Polina Lurie. In August 2024, the popular artist became a victim of fraudsters - she received calls allegedly from law enforcers who warned the singer that her savings and property in danger.
Larisa Dolina believed them, sold her elite apartment in 236 square meters in the center of Moscow for only 112 million rubles (at a price of at least 180 million rubles), gave the courier attackers money, as well as transferred to a number of cards. In addition, she gave the fraudsters several tens of millions of rubles more from her own savings.
When the scam was uncovered, Dolina refused to move out of the sold apartment and filed a lawsuit to recognize the deal as bonded. In turn, Lurie filed a lawsuit to evict the singer, her daughter and granddaughter from the sold apartment. On Monday, January 13, the next hearing on the proceedings should be held.
