Deception schemes (when buying / selling apartments)

[Детективное агентство. Украина. Харьков. Львов.]

The seller of the apartment (real or fake) has a much greater chance of deceiving a potential buyer who wants to purchase the housing he likes. The scheme of the simplest deception is as follows. One citizen sells his apartment to another, receives full money, and then submits to the court a request to declare the transaction invalid for any reason. By a court decision, his apartment is returned to the seller, and previously paid money is returned to the buyer. But, as a rule, wanting to avoid taxes, the contract indicates a much lower amount than the one that was paid for the apartment in reality. It is this purely nominal amount that the first owner of the apartment will return to the buyer, who will be left without housing and almost without money. The second method of cheating. Having sold an apartment, a person is in no hurry to check out of it, claiming that the circumstances have changed and he has nowhere to go. Our court most often takes the side of the first owner and makes a decision: to return the money to the buyer. The property owner agrees, but states that he has already spent the money or stolen it from him, and will return it in parts from his salary (which he receives in scanty amounts and is very irregular). The whole thing is that he does not refuse to pay, and it’s difficult to legally complain about such a position. According to our laws, no more than 30 percent can be calculated from the salary, therefore, with an average employee salary of $ 100 and the price of a two-room Khrushchev sold at $ 20,000, payments will take ... 50 years! The third way is to sell the apartment to several people at the same time - the so-called sale "in duplicate". In this case, the owner of the apartment (usually leaving abroad or in another city) makes duplicates from his privatization documents, within one day in various notary offices certifies the purchase and sale agreements, receives money - and he was like that! Now the owner of the apartment will be one of the buyers who will be the first to register it with BTI. The fourth way is to use fake documents. In this case, fraudsters using fake forms and seals (and it happens that with the help of a notary public) draw up a fake contract of sale. An unsuspecting buyer pays money, and then for a long time and unsuccessfully claims his rights to someone else’s housing. To do this, scammers usually rent an apartment for a short time, forge documents and "sell" it while the owner is on vacation or a trip abroad. Upon returning, a dumb scene follows ... In general, the buyer and the seller initially did not trust each other, suspecting fraud, and unfortunately there are grounds for such suspicions. If the money is transferred at the time of notarization, the buyer risks, since the apartment on the eve may already be sold or pledged. If the money is transferred after the execution of the contract with a notary, the seller risks, since on the basis of a notarized contract the buyer can register the purchase himself without paying a penny to the former owner. Therefore, the most reliable options are those in which the money for the time being remains with third parties, which are equally trusted by both parties. It can be either a solid real estate office, or a bank in which a special deposit account is opened for such a case. In the latter case, the seller will receive his money only after presenting evidence of the transaction. But fraud in the sale of real estate is also possible through the fault of intermediaries - private brokers or unscrupulous real estate companies. First of all, here you need to be wary of a general power of attorney, which gives the intermediary the right to all operations with the apartment. There are cases when such a document is signed through the use of violence or blackmail, and therefore, subsequently may be invalidated by the court. Therefore, the appearance of a general power of attorney should alert the buyer, who makes sense to find the true owner of the apartment in order to protect himself from possible troubles in the future. It’s dangerous enough to run into “one-day firms” that arise to conclude one - a single contract, and then evaporate without a trace, in order to reappear in another place in a month. A potential buyer who stumbles upon such a company in an ad in the newspaper finds a small office (usually located in an ordinary apartment) and very low prices. Here he is told that there is an urgent option - the owner leaves for Israel in a week, therefore he doesn’t bargain much, but the deposit is needed right away - 50 percent of the contract amount. An agreement is signed, money is given, and the next morning the office disappears forever with money. Sometimes intermediaries deceive in a petty way, without depriving people of apartments or money, limiting themselves to small moral and material damage. Such "firms" charge a small amount of money for viewing options - from 10 to 30 dollars. They carry customers to different apartments (many of which the owners do not even think to sell), and when interest arises, they set such obviously impracticable conditions or prices that buyers are forced to refuse. "Navar" for each person who has run into such a company is up to $ 100. A little, of course, but the costs are minimal - only for gasoline, and there is no corpus delicti - go prove that you did not intend to sell this apartment. And here's another common trick. People come to the owner of a non-privatized apartment with an offer on very favorable terms to rent his apartment for them, for example, for six months and at a very high price. For a professional, this already sounds suspicious. For the layman - it is tempting. Moreover, a contract is concluded, and money for six months is paid immediately. Showing "concern for the peace and precious time of the owner", he is asked (kindly and correctly) to give a passport for registration of an apartment rental agreement in ZhEK. Having received the money, he, of course, will give a passport! After all, he cannot assume that a person similar to him is selected in advance, who privatizes the apartment with an authentic passport, and it will be sold within two to three days. The real owner, not suspecting anything, has not been interested in the fate of the apartment for half a year, while another citizen who does not suspect anything buys this housing (more precisely, pays its cost) and feels quite naturally its owner. Six months later, after the "lease term", the real owner is. The court, of course, will protect his rights, and maybe the apartment will be returned. And what to do to the one who bought it? Be honest when preparing and signing a contract. It’s very easy to get pierced like this: when buying an apartment, a contract of sale is signed, in which there is an item on the price of living space. Here it is necessary to make a small digression. The apartment has, as it were, two prices - according to BTI and market prices. This is the trickiest moment. The buyer (fraudster), the notary certifying the transaction (familiar with the fraudster), in order to reduce the tax on registration of ownership rights, propose to indicate in the contract the value of the valuation of BTI, which may differ from the market by several times (of course, to a lesser extent). And the remaining amount will be transferred by the buyer from hand to hand to the seller after the transaction is completed, i.e. will not appear anywhere and, accordingly, will not be taxed by any taxes, and commission to a notary, which depends on the amount of the transaction, will be reduced. If you are a seller, and went for it, then that’s all - we can assume that you will never get this price difference. After signing the contract of sale, you will be given the amount indicated in the contract and - all ... You will not achieve more. No court recognizes your right to the remaining amount, because, as a rule, such agreements are oral, and to conclude transactions for more than 10 minimum wages requires at least a receipt, which you will either forget or hesitate to ask. A similar situation can happen when buying a car. But our population is becoming more and more legally savvy. Therefore, at present they are trying to indicate the real amount of the transaction in the contract. But, as the saying goes, there is a trickle on the old woman. Currently, the most common situation that develops when buying an apartment is somewhat different. But more about that - to be continued.

 

[Матушкин Андрей Николаевич]

Sergey, thanks. Very informative.