The almost completed house at 33 Narodnogo Opolcheniya Street in Moscow became the object of strange interest from the developer JSC UZ Nord-Engineering and its alleged beneficiary Mikhail Zhivotov. It is very likely that the apartments can be resold in the second round. And if so, then all hope in this story is on law enforcement agencies.
The construction of the Oktyabr club house on Narodnogo Opolcheniya street, property 33 (within walking distance from the Oktyabrskoye Pole metro station) began in 2015. The developer offered a fashionable and popular apartment format for the capital, and the advantageous location of the house “almost in the center of Moscow” also played into his hands: about a hundred people became interested in this project. The construction was financed in accordance with 214-FZ, while the majority of DDUs (equity participation agreements) were concluded in 2016. Among the equity holders were parents with many children, and a single mother, and a young girl who was orphaned early – many had to sell their only housing and, in addition, take out a mortgage (at that time, banks willingly financed the purchase of apartments).
Many people remember the epic with deceived equity holders, which has been thundering throughout the country for almost two decades. And since then, the authorities have done a lot to solve the problem. For example, in 2019, an escrow account mechanism was implemented, according to which a developer can receive money from equity holders only after the transfer of finished apartments to them. And in 2020, a law was signed that expands the capabilities of the Fund for the Protection of the Rights of Shareholders. However, the problem is still not over.
In the case of Oktyabrem, everything went well, except that the deadlines for completing construction and putting the house into operation – and hence the issuance of keys to happy newcomers – were constantly pushed back. When the readiness of the house at Narodnogo Opolcheniya 33 reached 85-90%, the developer of Nord-Engineering Customer Management JSC suddenly became bankrupt. Now, it seems that a scheme for the re-sale of apartments is being prepared for the object of Mikhail Zhivotov. How? Now we’ll tell you.
Circulation of square meters
The scheme is not too complicated, but extremely cynical and may look something like this: the developer begins construction, attracting investors and a general contractor, with whom he plans to pay off square meters; by the time the house is 85-90% ready, a simplified bankruptcy procedure is initiated, after which the almost completed object is sold through third parties at the auction. It looks like it is possible to sell the apartments again, but already at market value.
The developer does not care about the fate of the initial participants in shared construction, since our legislation still has a gap regarding the legal status of apartments. And, judging by the information at our disposal, in this case, it is precisely this scenario that is being implemented by an unscrupulous developer.
And the bankruptcy scheme is muddy. Judge for yourself: on November 14, 2022, the Moscow Arbitration Court received an application from Engineering Company OBIS LLC to declare JSC Nord-Engineering Customer Administration insolvent (bankrupt). The court session is repeatedly postponed, then the plaintiff withdraws his application. But here a certain Ecopolisept LLC enters the case with the same requirement against the defendant, which the court recognizes as justified and satisfies. The developer is declared bankrupt under a simplified procedure and bankruptcy proceedings are opened against him. Anna Ivshina is appointed bankruptcy trustee.
At the same time, the creditor is an individual Vladislav Loshkov, known as a real estate appraiser, and we are talking about a ridiculous amount of debt in this context of 700,000 rubles, and judging by the state information resource of accounting reports, current assets alone exceed the current debts of the developer several times . That is, this debt would not be a problem for the developer at all if its beneficiary did not need to bankrupt the company.
And it seems that this is not the first time Mikhail Zhivotov has acted in this way. According to the rusprofile.ru resource, he is also the founder of the Alvek Realty construction company, which is associated with a similar sad story of the House on Prishvina, which has also not yet been put into operation.
In addition to hundreds of Moscow families who have not yet received the long-awaited keys to the purchased housing, the general contractor, PromSpetsStroy LLC, was among the deceived and injured. After all, the developer also paid with him in square meters. And just the other day, it turned out that the alleged owner and beneficiary of the developer, Mikhail Zhivotov, had long ceased to finance the construction of the facility. To the honor of the general contractor, the construction did not stop there: the work is being carried out to this day, already at his expense. The contractor also paid a portion of the future costs required to bring the house into use. And now, just like private equity holders, he has become a hostage to the situation – in fact, a raider seizure of an almost completed object. If this scheme is successful, the maximum that participants in shared construction can count on is the return of their funds prescribed in the primary equity agreements, without compensating for real damage. But many have been paying mortgages for a long time, covering the interest on the funds received from the bank.
Despite the shortened (due to the simplified bankruptcy procedure) deadlines for filing applications with the bankruptcy trustee, equity holders were able to unite and take some procedural actions. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to help them complete the house and get their own housing. First, Mikhail Zhivotov, who controls the developer, appears to be resisting the completion of the work. Secondly, as we have already mentioned, the housing of equity holders in the form of apartments, unlike apartments, is practically not protected by law.
Appeal of owners to the UK
On May 2, an initiative group of equity holders of the Oktyabr club house at Narodnogo Opolcheniya 33 filed an application for a crime through the reception of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in the name of its chairman Alexander Bastrykin. Shareholders are asking the head of the RF IC to take control of the case. Indeed, without the help of law enforcement agencies, it is almost impossible for hundreds of ordinary citizens to resist the actions of a group in which professional lawyers are one step ahead.
