The key facts
- The apartment is first sold to an intermediary, who quickly resells it 'for investment purposes'
- After the first owner's bankruptcy, the financial manager may challenge the original transaction
- The good faith of the final buyer is assessed separately: actual payment, circumstances of the transaction, absence of ties to former owners
A new variation of the 'Dolina scheme'
A buyer of an apartment on the secondary market may lose their home if one of its former owners is declared bankrupt. Lawyer Dmitry Khrulev spoke about this in a comment to Gazeta.ru, describing a new variation of the so-called 'Dolina scheme'.
How the scheme works
According to Khrulev, the apartment is first sold to an intermediary, who soon resells it, citing investment purposes. After the first owner's bankruptcy, the financial manager may challenge the original transaction and demand the return of the home in order to settle with creditors. As a result, it is the final buyer who ends up at risk, even though they took no part in the original sale.
What depends on the buyer's good faith
The good faith of the last buyer, the lawyer explained, is assessed separately: what matters are actual payment, the circumstances of the transaction, and the absence of any ties to the former owners. He advised keeping the contract, banking documents, the transfer deed, the listing and correspondence, and then discussing with the parties to the dispute the possibility of keeping the apartment or receiving compensation.
A related risk: a transaction without the consent of all owners
Earlier, Life.ru notes, buyers were also warned about another risk: selling an apartment without the consent of the other owners can result in losing the home. Before a transaction, it was recommended to check the seller's marital status, the composition of the owners, and compliance with the rights of minors.
