Explains Vira Kozina, Head of Asset Management Consultants for the USAID DOBRE Program.
Vera Kozina: We are talking specifically about residential property. Because compensation for businesses is regulated separately. This is a completely different procedure. A citizen of Ukraine who is not subject to sanctions and whose property was damaged as a result of hostilities that occurred after February 24, 2022 can receive compensation for damaged property. We are talking about relatively minor damage. This can be damage to apartments and residential buildings up to 200 thousand hryvnias, and there can be more serious damage. If they are more serious, up to 350 thousand in an apartment and up to 500 thousand in a private house. With such amounts, compensation will be paid in two stages.
You can apply for this compensation from any part of Ukraine. Or even outside of it. You can submit an application online. Any ASC or notary who deals with this in Ukraine can help with this. But this application will be considered based on the location of the property.
Such compensation cannot currently be claimed by a person whose property is located in a temporarily occupied territory or in a zone of active hostilities. It is clear why. This money has a specific purpose - repairs. In the temporarily occupied territories, we currently do not have adequate state control over the processes that are currently taking place in those territories. Therefore, it is impossible to do this there under international law. And in a zone of active hostilities, it is dangerous and makes no sense to make repairs.
Currently, foreigners and stateless persons cannot claim such compensation.
How is compensation done?
Vera Kozina: For damaged property, a person submits an application through the "Diya" application, ASNAP, notary. This application is entered into the register of damaged and destroyed property of the commission. The commission processes the application, checks whether there are enough documents, and conducts an inspection of the property. Next, the registration procedure takes place.
It can be very fast or not so fast. It depends on whether all the documents are there, whether there are any disputes, whether the information provided is truthful, or whether something needs to be checked.
Application via «"Act"» It is very easy to apply. It takes a few minutes. Problems arise in cases where a person does not have proper property ownership.
Tetyana Troshchynska: What is the difference in the procedure or specifics of compensation related to destroyed property?
Vera Kozina: Here, compensation is already subject to property that has been damaged by 80 percent or more and whose restoration is impractical or impossible for technical or economic reasons.
It differs in that, firstly, the legal regulation is different. Law 2923, Resolution 516 and 600 already work here. Cabinet of Ministers. There are no restrictions on amounts. Here, the cost of such compensation is calculated on a special calculator. It can be very significant. There are several types of compensation options: for property that is not yet completed and for property that was fully operational and was already in operation. If we talk about apartments in apartment buildings, then there is only one option - a housing certificate. The cost of housing is estimated using certain methods. Everything is calculated automatically. With the help of a certificate, a person can purchase an apartment or a private house in any market (secondary, primary, construction). If we talk about manor-type houses, then there can be 2 options: a housing certificate or monetary compensation.
How compensation works in practice
Vadym Tyapayev, head of the legal department of the Balaklia City Council of the Kharkiv region, tells the story.
Vadym Tyapaev: The Balakliya territorial community has suffered significant damage and destruction as a result of Russian aggression since the declaration of martial law. In general, we can say that from March 2 to September 8, the city of Balakliya itself, as the center of the community, was under occupation.
About 6 Starostyn districts were also occupied for almost half a year, as was the city of Balakliya. Active hostilities were taking place in the territory of eight Starostyn districts at that time. Currently, the community is in a zone of possible hostilities, but there are cases of repeated shelling.
Of course, during this time, significant damage and destruction occurred in the community's housing stock and social infrastructure facilities.
So, out of 251 apartment buildings, 175 were damaged, which is almost 70%. Of which 3 were completely destroyed, 82 houses were moderately damaged, and 90 had minor damage.
Regarding the private sector. 3423 residential buildings suffered damage of varying degrees. This is 23%. Of which 191 houses were completely destroyed. 1361 were moderately damaged, 1871 houses or 54% had minor damage.
We have been actively working since May 2023 with a commission for providing compensation for damage to destroyed houses. As of February 23, 2024, we had submitted 2856 applications, of which 2829 were accepted for work and considered. That is, about 28 applications are still in progress. But this is a normal process. The commission receives from 50 to 60 applications during the week.
Tetyana Troshchynska: What documents should a person submit in order to receive compensation?
Vadym Tyapaev: We are guided by the Law of Ukraine No. 2923 of February 23, 2023 on compensation for damaged and destroyed property as a result of Russian aggression. And directly on compensation for damaged property, here we use the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers No. 381 of April 21, 2023.
In order to submit an application, an individual installs a mobile application, and if this is not possible, then he/she applies to the ASC and there they help her fill out the application. The main thing is to make sure after submitting the information notice that the register of damaged property has pulled up data from the State Register of Property Rights to Real Property. Since this is one of the main conditions for providing compensation, the property must be registered in accordance with the statutory procedure. If the information is not pulled up, it is necessary to contact the Central Registration Center, establishing documents, passport data and re-registering, re-registering the property in the State Register of Property Rights. Which, in our experience, takes about 5 days. Then she opens a current account to receive compensation funds and forms an application for compensation payment from "Diya". The application is not complicated. General data is submitted: last name, first name, patronymic, date of birth, contact details, address of the damaged property. The most important thing is the consent of the co-owner, if there are several co-owners of the object. If this issue is not agreed upon at this stage, you will have to do it later and notarized.
Igor Kashchavtsev, Deputy Mayor, shares the experience of the Chuhuyiv urban territorial community.
Igor Kashchavtsev: The approximate number of people we have is up to 40 thousand. That was before the start of the full-scale invasion. From the first minutes of the aggression, we were in the combat zone. The community was under fire. Rocket strikes, planes, artillery. The community suffered significant damage.
Today, we have over 2,500 applications from citizens for compensation. These are mainly category I, II, and III damages.
Category I is minor damage. For example, windows, doors, minor damage to roofing material.
II — this is damage to buildings from 40 to 80%. This is significant damage to roofing material, interior walls, windows, doors. The total number in percentage of all building elements — up to 80%.
More than 80% is already category III. This is considered a destroyed object. Completely destroyed, or destroyed by more than 80%.
That is, at present we have over 1,900 objects damaged in Category I, 400 objects damaged in Category II. Category III - 58 objects. This is what we have recorded.
Since May 30, 2022, a commission has been operating in accordance with Resolution 473. This is our local commission, which records damage, draws up relevant acts, and enters these acts into the register of damaged and destroyed property.
In 2023, we formed 2 commissions. They were formed in accordance with the order of the head of the Chuguiv City Military Administration in May. The commission members received appropriate access to work with the register of damaged and destroyed property. It is called the RPZM register. Each commission member plays a separate role. Someone simply enters data on the object, others make calculations, the so-called checklists for damaged objects. There are people who immediately enter information after passing the commission, data on the provision of compensation or refusal and according to what, what documents, all this happens.
To date, we have received 846 applications directly. 38 meetings have been held during the entire period of the commission's work and 682 decisions have been made so far. This is what concerns damaged property. 484 applications have been satisfied, and people have already received compensation, that is, compensation in the amount of 45 million 333 thousand 264 UAH has been accrued. These are the funds that people in categories I and II use to restore their homes.
In parallel with the commission on damaged objects, we have a commission on destroyed real estate objects. We received 56 such applications. But the thing is that there were a lot of applications where people believed that their object was destroyed, ruined and would be considered in category II, that is, completely destroyed. But when the commission went to the site, it was found that 28 applications were filed incorrectly, and people actually had category I and II damage. We refused to provide compensation to these people and provided them with an explanation. They applied to the commission again.
For completely destroyed objects, we have satisfied 27 applications to date. 29 million 812 thousand 849 hryvnias have been allocated for the indicated objects. All these decisions have now been entered into the system, and people have received certificates for receiving new housing.
I would like to add that today, thanks to the great work of the developers of the program "«isRecovery»", additional functionality has been launched to allow people to restore real estate objects directly in the territory where the object was destroyed.
Tetyana Troshchynska: What are the most typical problems when processing compensation?
Igor Kashchavtsev: Today, there are ongoing problems that, unfortunately, have not been resolved.
Firstly, the problem of filing an application for absence remains unresolved smartphones. That is, if a person has an old-style push-button phone, he cannot download "Diya", and he cannot submit an application. If a person cannot submit an application, we will not be able to consider the object. This is the first.
Second, there is still no notification option in "Actions" regarding the completion of these restoration works. Local governments are now faced with very large responsibilities. Both conducting commissions, and monitoring, and these functionalities. I think these options need to be introduced into the program now so that people have the opportunity to notify us of the completion, so that we can check all this later.
Thirdly. We understand that the compensation programs went into effect in May, August, and September 2023. By now, some have already rebuilt their houses, etc. Law 2923 has been amended to provide compensation for people who rebuilt at their own expense. At present, the part of the program with compensation for independently performed repair work. That is, changes were made from January 1, 2024, but they only promise that all this will be operational sometime in May of this year. I would like to speed it up.
Fourthly. Lack of understanding. Lack of understanding of the payment terms after the decision to provide compensation is approved. That is, there are no clear deadlines for when to expect the funds. People apply a lot, some receive within a week, some within two, and some even a month. And this is not stated anywhere and who do people apply to? To us, because we directly conduct these commissions.
This publication was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Decentralization Delivers Better Results and Efficiency (DOBRE) Program. The content is the responsibility of the Ukraine Crisis Media Center and Global Communities and does not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
