Without the ownership: Crimeans risk losing cars bought in Ukraine

This is reported by Kommersant, citing human rights activists. We are talking about those who entered into financial leasing agreements with Privat-Leasing, Porsche Leasing Ukraine and others, even before 2014, when Crimea was annexed to Russia.

In May 2014, Ukrainian banks left Crimea, and the inhabitants of the peninsula lost the opportunity to pay off their debts in these credit institutions, which means they could get the car and register it.

At the end of 2015, a law was adopted that stipulates that only accredited Russian companies that have acquired debts have the right to demand repayment of debt on Ukrainian obligations. As for the leasing companies, they did not sell their loans, and therefore obligations to them in the Russian Federation are considered terminated. It is noted that in the case of an ordinary loan, there would be no problems - in this case, the cars themselves, which are issued to the borrower immediately, would act as collateral. In leasing, a car is the property of the bank until payment is made in full.

After the Crimeans turned to Russian President Vladimir Putin during one of the direct lines, the authorities tried to develop a mechanism that would allow them to register their cars. Based on Decree No. 399 on simplified registration of vehicles, in the absence of documentary evidence of ownership of the vehicle, residents of Crimea receive temporary registration documents for five years. In this case, the vehicle passport is not issued.

Now the five-year term released by the decree is coming to an end. Initially, it was assumed that the inhabitants of the peninsula will be able to formalize the ownership of the car through the courts, based on the provision of "acquisitive prescription". However, the Crimean courts are in no hurry to recognize the ownership rights of owners of leased cars.

Thus, more than 10 thousand cars cannot be registered with their buyers. In addition, the methodological recommendations of the traffic police state that with the end of the temporary registration regime, the car can be completely confiscated.

Earlier, Viktoria Zhukovskaya, a lawyer and coordinator of the Matter of Honor human rights committee, spoke about the problems of Crimean motorists.