Compensation for destroyed real estate: the procedure for resuming consideration of applications will be clarified

If your apartment or house has been destroyed due to hostilities, terrorist acts or sabotage caused by the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, you can expect compensation. A special commission under the local authorities considers the relevant issues. In some cases, the application may be suspended.

To improve the issue of resuming consideration of applications for compensation for destroyed real estate, the Verkhovna Rada registered a draft law dated 25.09. 2024 No. 12071 «On Amendments to Article 7 of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Compensation for Damage and Destruction of Certain Categories of Real Estate Objects as a Result of Hostilities, Terrorist Acts, Sabotage Caused by the Armed Aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, and the State Register of Property Damaged and Destroyed as a Result of Hostilities, Terrorist Acts, Sabotage Caused by the Armed Aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine’ regarding certain issues of resumption of consideration of applications for compensation for destroyed real estate».

The document proposes to supplement the law with provisions to prevent repeated suspension of consideration of such applications. It is also intended to simplify the procedure for familiarizing victims with the decisions of the compensation commissions. Thus, if today the commission notifies its decision «in the manner in which the application was submitted», the draft law changes this to «in the manner specified by the applicant in the application and sends a copy of the decision to the applicant».

This legislative initiative was examined by the Ukrainian National Bar Association's Human Rights Committee. The lawyers noted that the current Law on Compensation contains crucial provisions that guarantee the protection and defense of human rights. Therefore, any changes under no circumstances can worsen the situation of individuals, complicate the procedure for applying the rules or create problems with the interpretation of such rules.

Article 7 of the Law, which is proposed to be amended, generally regulates the suspension and resumption of consideration of applications for compensation for destroyed real estate. In particular, it establishes the following grounds for suspension of consideration of an application by the commission:

1) failure to submit or incomplete submission of documents (information);

2) the Commission has documented information that the recipient of compensation or his/her heir has been served with a suspicion of committing a criminal offense under Section I «Crimes against the foundations of national security of Ukraine» of the Special Part of the Criminal Code.

The main idea is that in order to facilitate the restoration of violated human rights, the Commission does not refuse to consider the relevant application if there are grounds, but only suspends its consideration so that the relevant grounds can be eliminated.

Given that these grounds may in some cases be eliminated by the applicant himself, it is crucial that such an applicant is duly informed of the decision and its content, including the reasons that prompted the Commission to suspend consideration.

Therefore, in this case, the problem of legislative regulation is the method of informing the applicant about the suspension of consideration of his application and sending him a copy of the decision.

The methods of submitting an application are established by part 2 of Article 4 of the Law - an application for compensation for the destroyed real estate may be submitted to the Commission:

1) in electronic form - by means of the Unified State Web Portal of Electronic Services;

2) in paper form - through an administrative service center, social protection authority or notary.

At the same time, as the authors of the draft law correctly noted, the provision on notifying the applicant in the manner in which the application was submitted does not take into account possible changes in the applicant's circumstances, which may complicate the receipt of the notification.

At the same time, the applicant's receipt of a copy of the decision is a fundamentally important step, given that the person should be able to find out the grounds for the decision and the opportunity to quickly remedy the situation and, if possible, exclude the existence of the relevant circumstances.

Therefore, the change in the form of notification of the decision made by the Commission is justified and will contribute to the protection of human rights, the UNBA Committee is convinced.

As for the suspension of the application, all the circumstances that may lead to such a decision are immediately known. However, when these circumstances completely disappear, the procedure is resumed, which generally excludes the possibility of the same grounds reappearing. Therefore, the proposal to introduce a ban on repeated suspension is also appropriate, as it will facilitate the speedy restoration of violated human rights.