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- Find a crook: the number of sentences for real estate fraud has increased dramatically
Find a crook: the number of sentences for real estate fraud has increased dramatically
The number of sentences for fraudulent real estate transactions increased by 15% over the year, analysts told Izvestia. Most often, such cases involve fake intermediaries, fake lawyers, forgery of documents, fake loans secured by real estate, as well as fictitious transactions to cash out the parent capital. Experts believe that the introduction of mandatory notarization of all real estate transactions could reduce the number of such crimes. The information about the deception schemes used by scammers is in the Izvestia article.
How scammers work
A steady increase in confirmed crime in the real estate sector has been recorded in Russia, the Analytical research center told Izvestia. Business. The right." Since 2018, almost 13.3 thousand sentences have been handed down for fraud with such property — these are the decisions of the court of first instance, which were subsequently left unchanged.
In 2025, almost 2.6 thousand sentences were recorded, which is 2.5 times higher than eight years ago. More than 95% of decisions involve transactions in simple written form, that is, without the participation of a notary.
Most often, sentences were handed down for crimes in the provision of services and in the framework of business activities, including the work of pseudo-intermediaries and false lawyers. There are also frequent sentences for the sale of real estate by those who do not have ownership rights to it. The number of court decisions where such fraud scenarios occur increased by 15% in 2025 compared to 2024 and 3.3 times compared to 2018.
"Forgery of documents is in second place," the authors of the study said. "There were 12% more sentences under such schemes last year, and twice as many as eight years ago."
Completing the top 3 scams related to the financial sector. These are, for example, pseudo-loans secured by real estate and mortgage fraud. In 2025, there were 11% more sentences under such schemes compared to last year and 1.9 times more than in the whole of 2018.
Also among the common schemes are fictitious transactions for cashing out the mother capital, and the transfer of counterfeit funds. Telephone and Internet fraud are singled out separately.
There are also schemes related to insufficient or unqualified legal verification of an object — this is real estate that was sold with encumbrances and or in the absence of ownership rights. For example, sellers deliberately concealed the existence of collateral, arrest, prohibition of registration actions, as well as legal disputes.
"As a result, the buyer formally acquired the object, but cannot freely dispose of it," the analysts explained. "He faces the risk of foreclosure, the inability to register, eviction, or lengthy court procedures."
By the end of 2025, Moscow, the Moscow and Leningrad regions, St. Petersburg and the Krasnodar Territory became the anti-leaders in sentences related to fraud in the real estate sector.
What schemes do criminals use?
Notaries also confirm the trend towards an increase in cases of real estate fraud. For example, they often stop attempts to mislead the owner or put pressure on him when making a donation agreement, the press service of the Federal Notary Chamber (FNP) told Izvestia.
They clarified that the attackers "rely" on the victim's controlled behavior: a person is intimidated, goaded, deceived or pushed to transfer money or make a deal as soon as possible.
Not all real estate crimes reach the stage of court sentences, the FNP noted.
The lack of mandatory professional control at the stage of signing documents allows fraudsters to exploit the legal illiteracy of citizens, said Vladimir Kuznetsov, chairman of the All-Russian Trade Union of Mediators.
— A simple written form of the transaction does not ensure proper verification of the parties' legal capacity and the truth of their intentions. This makes such transactions extremely vulnerable to criminal attacks and unlawful challenge," he said.
In his opinion, the increase in the number of sentences against real estate fraudsters indicates the formed market of "gray" legal services. The expert also drew special attention to the growing number of crimes related to the use of modern technologies.
Vladimir Kuznetsov warned about another scheme — criminals produce fake passports and certificates of ownership and power of attorney using the data of the real owners. For example, in January 2026, a verdict was passed in Sevastopol for such an act — a group of lawyers specialized in stealing the property of the deceased, forging documents on ownership and court decisions.
How to reduce the number of crimes
The increase in the number of sentences in real estate fraud cases may be related to an increase in the detection rate of such crimes, says Sergey Uzdensky, lawyer and managing partner of the law firm Mushailov, Uzdensky, Rybakov and Partners. He also believes that there is an accumulated effect of investigations into previous cases: such criminal cases traditionally last for years.
Most of these cases are related to the actions of unscrupulous intermediaries — the so-called "gray" realtors and pseudo-realtors, the expert confirmed.
An additional factor in the growth of statistical data has also become the complexity of the real estate market: mortgage instruments and government support measures are now widely used. This creates more opportunities for abuse and, as a result, increases the number of criminal cases, Sergei Uzdensky believes.
For a long time, the market has been trying to replace deep legal expertise with speed and an outwardly convenient transaction route, said the director of the Analytica Research Center. Business. Pravo" by Venera Shaidullina.
— But in real estate, an error occurs not at the stage of housing search, but at the stage of legal verification of the identity, will of the parties, title, encumbrances and powers, — said the expert. — Therefore, for example, an attempt to regulate the legal checks of market participants through consumer service rules looks more like a step in the opposite direction. This does not strengthen the legal expertise, but, on the contrary, leads to its templating and an increase in errors.
Susana Kirakosyan, an expert at the research center and head of the Subcommittee of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation on business development in the field of residential real estate management, explained the increase in confirmed crime in the real estate sector by the fact that fraudsters use the most vulnerable points of the transaction. We are talking about a simple written form, insufficient legal verification, substitution of the meaning of documents, forged documents, pressure on the parties to the contract.
— That is why more than 95% of the episodes confirmed by verdicts are related to transactions without the participation of a notary, — she said.
According to Venera Shaidullina, it is possible to reduce the number of crimes only by switching to a model of mandatory professional legal verification. Currently, it can only be provided by notaries due to their legal status and access to government services. Susana Kirakosyan agreed with this: the notarial check creates a full-fledged preventive barrier.
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