The key facts

  • The landlord is responsible for housing defects under Article 612 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, even if unaware of them
  • The tenant may demand a refund of the deposit, payment for unused days, and disinfection expenses
  • If the landlord is an individual entrepreneur or legal entity, compensation for moral damages and a fine of 50% of the awarded amount are possible

Housing defects — the owner's responsibility

Discovering cockroaches or mold in a rented apartment can be grounds for early termination of the lease and a refund of the security deposit. Lawyer Alla Georgieva told Moskva 24 about this; her explanations are cited by Gazeta.Ru and Life.ru. According to the lawyer, the landlord bears responsibility for defects in the leased property even if he was unaware of them when concluding the contract — this is provided for by Article 612 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The requirement to hand over the housing in proper sanitary condition applies even without a special clause in the contract, although such a clause can be specified separately.

When the deposit cannot be recovered

The exception is a situation where the owner warned in advance about insects, mold, or other similar problems and stipulated in the contract that they do not constitute grounds for termination. By signing such an agreement, the tenant confirms that they accept these conditions, Georgieva noted.

Claim and court

If there was no warning and no such clause in the contract, the tenant can move out and send the owner a written claim. In it, they can demand termination of the contract, a refund of the deposit, and reimbursement of part of the payment for the period when the tenant no longer lived in the premises. If the owner refuses, the dispute is resolved through the courts: in addition to the principal amount, the tenant may claim interest for late payment under Article 395 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, as well as compensation for disinfection expenses if they paid for it themselves. If the housing is rented out by an individual entrepreneur or a legal entity, the tenant may additionally claim compensation for moral damages, and the landlord may be fined 50% of the amount awarded by the court.

A similar case in Moscow

Life.ru recalls a previously described case: a Muscovite moved out of an apartment near the Patriarch's Ponds because of cockroaches and demanded the return of a 99,000-ruble deposit. The man paid 100,000 rubles a month for the housing, but even professional treatment did not help get rid of the insects.