Compensation for destroyed or damaged housing: who is entitled and how to get it

Ukraine has a law on compensation for damaged housing. Who is entitled to compensation, what documents are required and how the procedure for obtaining compensation works – explanations by a lawyer.

The Law of Ukraine on Compensation for Real Estate Damaged and Destroyed as a Result of the Military Aggression of the Russian Federation came into force on February 23, 2023. How to get such compensation, do you have to pay for utilities in an uninhabitable home, and what to do if you rent a house?

UNN asked Serhii Zayanchukovsky, attorney and counsel at LESHCHENKO & PARTNERS, about this.

Who is entitled to compensation

According to Zayanchukovsky, under this law, people are entitled to receive compensation:

• owners of damaged or destroyed real estate;
• customers of the construction of real estate that has been damaged or destroyed;
• owners of special property rights to housing that has not yet been completed or persons who have partially paid for its construction;
• persons who invested in construction before the entry into force of the Law of Ukraine “On Guaranteeing Real Property Rights to Real Estate Objects to be Constructed in the Future”;
• members of housing cooperatives who have fully purchased housing but have not yet registered their ownership;
• heirs of any of the above persons.

In the case of unfinished construction projects, it is necessary that at the time of the damage, load-bearing and external enclosing structures (except for translucent structures and filling of doorways) were erected and the right to perform construction work was obtained.

At the same time, he noted that the right to compensation may also be exercised by condominium associations, apartment building managers, and housing cooperatives that maintain the relevant building.

What documents must be provided to receive compensation

In order to receive compensation, the applicant must provide documents confirming the applicant’s rights to the destroyed property and photos and videos of the object before and after destruction (if any), the RNOKPP and the applicant’s passport.

The specific list of documents depends on the type of destroyed property (owned apartment, construction in progress, etc.) and is displayed when submitting an application in electronic form through the Unified State Web Portal of Electronic Services (via Diia), or provided when submitting an application in paper form by an employee of an administrative service center, social protection authority or notary.

How the procedure for obtaining compensation works

Zayanchukovsky explained that after submitting your application, the commission for consideration of compensation for destroyed property takes it into consideration and collects the necessary additional documents. Next, they inspect the property or what is left of it and, based on all this data, make a decision to grant or deny compensation.

The term for consideration of an application for compensation for destroyed real estate by the Commission for consideration of compensation should not exceed 30 calendar days from the date of submission of the application.

However, by the decision of the same commission, the period for consideration of the application may be extended for another 30 calendar days if the destroyed real estate is located on the territory of a territorial community located in the area of military (combat) operations or is under temporary occupation, encirclement (blockade) in accordance with the list approved by the central executive body implementing the state policy on temporarily occupied territories.

What are the terms of such payments

Given the number of destroyed facilities, one should not expect to receive compensation quickly. The Commission is obliged to consider the application within 30 days, but the law does not specify a clear timeframe within which the compensation should be credited to the applicant’s account.

The procedure for providing and determining the amount of financial assistance for destroyed or damaged property must be provided within one month from the date of the decision to provide it, approved by a resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. However, as the lawyer notes, the wording of the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 767 of 02.09.2020) stipulates that financial assistance to victims who are owners (co-owners), tenants of housing damaged as a result of an emergency or work to eliminate its consequences is paid by regional social protection authorities within five working days from the date of receipt of budget funds.

“Thus, a positive decision of the Commission for consideration of compensation for destroyed real estate is a guarantee of receiving funds, but only after the body that will directly make payments receives these funds in accordance with the procedure established by law,” explains Zayanchukovsky.

What a tenant should do if he or she rents a dwelling that has been damaged

According to the lawyer, if the rented property has become uninhabitable, the tenant has the right to demand a refund of the security deposit paid to the landlord and to terminate the lease.

He also added that if the rented property is damaged and needs to be repaired (but remains habitable), the tenant can negotiate with the landlord, if he or she is interested in extending the lease, to repair it in a way that is convenient for both parties.

“For example, the amount of rent for the following months will be paid by the tenant directly to the contractors for the improvement of the housing, and the payments to the landlord will be resumed after the leased property is brought into a habitable condition,” the lawyer suggested as one of the solutions.

After all, if the compensation takes a long time to arrive, the tenant will have to live in the damaged apartment for a long time, and the owner will not be able to rent it to a new tenant in such a condition.

Do I have to pay for utilities in destroyed or damaged housing?

The lawyer explained that if the dwelling is uninhabitable, it is necessary to apply to the utility providers with a statement of destruction of the dwelling to stop charging the cost of utilities. In this case, there is no need to pay for utilities from the moment of destruction of the dwelling.

The absence of such an application will result in the continuation of automatic accrual of debts for unpaid utilities, and the consumer will have to prove his or her legal position in court.

However, the Verkhovna Rada proposes to resume the accrual of utility bills after the apartment becomes habitable again.

If the housing is damaged but habitable and the utilities continue to be provided by the relevant companies, the utility bill will remain in place.

An alternative way

You can try to recover the money in court – from the direct cause of the damage. Thus, in 2023, the plaintiff filed a lawsuit in which he demanded the recovery of “non-pecuniary damage from the state of Russia (Russian Federation) in the amount of nine hundred and ninety-nine quadrillion hryvnias”. However, he did not provide proper evidence to substantiate such a beautiful figure, at least this was stated in the decision in case No. 686/26564/22, so the claim was dismissed,” the lawyer says.

However, according to him, in the 2024 case of another plaintiff, the arguments were more convincing. Therefore, the decision in the case came into force.

“The court ruled to recover from the ‘state of the Russian Federation … in compensation for non-pecuniary damage caused by armed aggression against Ukraine, money in the amount of UAH 500,000.00’ (case No. 127/14737/24),” said Serhii Olehovych.

There were also several other cases in which the court sided with the plaintiffs. For example, in 2025, the Supreme Court, composed of the panel of judges of the First Judicial Chamber of the Civil Court of Cassation, agreed with the decisions of the courts of previous instances and ordered to recover from the Russian Federation “UAH 2,420,830.92 for compensation for property damage and UAH 100,000.00 for compensation for non-pecuniary damage”.

It is clear that the reality of receiving this money is highly questionable. However, for those wishing to obtain a court decision stating the neighboring state’s obligation to compensate for the damage, this is also possible