"Relatives" under duress: Department of State Property mocks 98-year-old veteran

Julia Suntsova

The scheme for the survival of the owners with the sharing of "professional neighbors" is not new. In the capital, such scams are carried out with the elderly, orphans, and the disabled. Now, a 98-year-old veteran of the Great Patriotic War, the widow of the legendary tanker Georgy Volkov , about whom books are written, has become a victim of housing swindlers.

Veteran Nina Volkova received a small three-ruble note in the North-Eastern Administrative District of Moscow in 1974 by order from the Kirov Executive Committee of the capital and lived here for 48 years. Now, half a century later, raiders are trying to evict a 98-year-old woman from her only home.

It all started with the fact that immediately after the apartment was included in the renovation program, Nina Artemievna's granddaughter Tatyana Yudina, under unclear circumstances, either sold or gave away ½ a share to black realtors for a pittance. Notary Alexander Fedorchenko, who facilitated the transaction, has repeatedly come to the attention of law enforcement agencies - the Investigative Committee checked why so many people lost their property when leaving his office.

An unknown citizen Tatyana Valikova became the new co-owner. Later, with the help of the police, it was possible to find out that the citizen is known in certain circles - systematically, as part of a group of people, she is engaged in buying up shares in the apartments of Muscovites, after which she forces the owners to enslaving deals. Nina Volkova and her daughter Elena Maximova failed to challenge the validity of the deal - the "professional neighbors" took into account all the legal nuances.

But another court, Butyrsky, took the side of the veteran. Judge Tatyana Perova found in gr. Valikova and her minor children have several apartments in Moscow. The citizen sold one apartment, and checked out of the other in order to deliberately “worsen her living conditions” exactly at the time of registration in the disputed half share . The deal to seize shares in the veteran's apartment was recognized by the court as implicit. The judge considered that the ultimate goal of the new co-owner was not living in an apartment (which she really did not need), but the so-called "investment calculation". The court also imposed a ban on moving Valikova into the veteran's apartment.

At one of the court hearings, Valikova's lawyer-representative somehow let it slip: he said that his client was only a figurehead in the big apartment business and was also “ tired ” of all this.

Nevertheless, the raiders did not abandon attempts to occupy the living space. In 2018, a capture group led by Valikova staged a pogrom in the apartment. Two heavily built men broke down the door, in front of the veteran they smashed the portraits of the deceased husband-hero-front-line soldier and son, beat their daughter Elena Maksimova (the beatings were recorded by the Diagnostic Center No. 5 in Moscow).

A woman who survived the war, who no longer had the strength to fight the invaders, only shouted after them: “You are worse than the Nazis!”

This incident, including the episode of violence, has been investigated by the 2nd department of the Investigative Unit of the Internal Affairs Directorate for the North-East Administrative District of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for Moscow for the second year. A criminal case has been initiated under Art. 179 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - Coercion to complete a transaction or refuse to complete it (with the use of violence). To take the case to the police court, there is not enough "stability" of an organized group united to commit a serious crime.

According to the veteran's daughter, citizen Valikova demanded her family to pay her 3 million compensation, otherwise "it will be worse." After a decisive refusal, Valikova registered underage children in the apartment and filed a court petition for forced entry.

The purpose of all these actions is to survive the grandmother from the apartment. Older people in this way, as a rule, are brought either to the hospital or to death, lawyers familiar with such cases say.

And so it happened with Nina Volkova. After the incursions of raiders-shareholders, she suffered a stroke and ended up in a wheelchair...

The war with housing raiders continues for the fourth year. Since the autumn of last year, the whole house number 9 on the street. The 9th Northern Line, which fell under renovation and demolition, began to be “cleared” of residents. No exception was made for the veteran's family. The prefecture of the North-East Administrative Okrug of the city of Moscow issued Conclusion No. 16 on the unsuitability of the dwelling for further residence and on the inability to adapt the dwelling to the needs of a wheelchair user.

So Nina Volkova, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, a wheelchair user of the 1st group, together with her pensioner daughter Elena Maksimova, who cares for her, ended up on the street. Assistance with temporary housing was out of the question.

- We wander around the dachas of relatives, while they are looking for an apartment for us, - says the veteran's daughter.

In the meantime, shareholder neighbors continue to terrorize the family, now along with officials from the Moscow City Property Department.

The Moscow renovation program involves the resettlement of co-owners-shareholders in separate apartments, if they are not related to each other.

But officials from the Department of City Property, in order to save money, literally force the veteran and the raiders to become one family.

In its notice dated July 7, 2021, the DGI denies veteran Nina Volkova's housing registration to receive a separate apartment.

The rationale for the refusal is striking: all citizens registered in the same residential area in order to resolve their housing issues are considered members of the same family (!!!)

This is the conclusion reached by the Department of City Property, sorting out the dispute over the renovated apartment!

Six months later, on December 13, 2021, the Presnensky District Court of Moscow recognized the arguments of the Moscow City Property Department as untenable, contrary to the norms of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation and ordered the mayor's office to re-consider the veteran's application for housing registration.

But for more than six months now, officials from the DGI have been ignoring the court decision that has come into force, continuing to insist that 98-year-old Nina Volkova and the apartment swindler who have stuck to the apartment are one family, and therefore they will be moved into a new apartment together. And it doesn’t matter that right now a criminal case is being investigated about forcing an elderly war veteran into a servile deal (!) with the use of violence (!!), where violence is being repaired by the new co-owner of the victim (!!!).

Once again, officials oblige an elderly woman in a wheelchair, who has already been recognized as a victim, to settle under the same roof with her oppressor and, moreover, to become one family with him.

The Department of City Property of Moscow, it should be noted, offered citizen Valikova a separate one-room apartment. However, in the next court, the representatives of the citizen said that the citizen did not need a separate apartment. You definitely need an "apartment with your grandmother."

- Unlike a joint three-ruble note, a separate one-room apartment is “financially unprofitable” for them. They used precisely these words in court - "financially unprofitable." Do you know why? Because, as a disabled mother, instead of the old three-ruble note, a three-room apartment with an expanded layout is now due - a wheelchair should pass into the hallway, kitchen, bathroom. In terms of the number of square meters, these non-humans, I don’t even know what to call them, are “more profitable” with half a joint three-ruble note than a separate one-room apartment. Valikova openly declares to us that we will immediately sell the new apartment ... - says Elena Maksimova, daughter of Nina Volkova.

The most annoying thing is that the raiders are fully and completely supported in the Department of City Property, the veteran's daughter notes.

- I ask the officials - do you hear yourself at all? Are you aware of what you are doing? Who are you helping? They brought my grandmother to a wheelchair and sucked like ticks, arguing that due to this disability it is now possible to earn more ... Court decisions on the housing division of equity holders are not carried out. And with all our attempts to be indignant in the Department, they respond in a boorish way: “Is Grandma actually alive? What if we check? ... And I really don’t know how long we can live in this siege ... - says Elena.

Apparently tired of making excuses as a defendant in the courts, the Department of City Property decided to get even with the veteran's family from the position of the attacker.

- The Department of City Property of Moscow filed a lawsuit for the relocation of Nina Volkova and her daughter, along with "shared bandits" in one apartment. This claim was dismissed by the court in three instances. So they filed a similar claim again. And for some reason it was accepted into production. Three state structures are now fighting against the war veteran at once: the Department of City Property of the City of Moscow, the Department of Construction of the City of Moscow and the State Enterprise of the City of Moscow "Management of Civil Engineering". Apparently, they really want the life of a 98-year-old war veteran, a widow, a war invalid of the 1st group, a wheelchair user of the 1st group to be too “fun” in a new apartment! - notes the chairman of the All-Russian public movement "Veterans of Russia" Ildar Rezyapov.

Novye Izvestia also sent a request to the Department of City Property of Moscow with a request to state the force majeure circumstances that do not allow officials to execute the court decision on the resettlement of the war veteran and the raiders in different apartments. No response had been received at the time of publication.

Probably everyone who is familiar with this story has a question. Well, where did you all go, defenders of veterans? Are you all who were offended and humiliated because of the trampling of the memory of those who fought for the Fatherland? ...

Veronika Plekhanova, realtor, director of a real estate agency:

- It is always alarming when someone buys a share in an apartment, having nothing to do with the rest of the owners of the premises. This is a potential conflict and the impossibility of living only if it is not a separate room with a separate personal account. As a rule, such transactions are either scammers or completely inexperienced people.

The new owner cannot be accused of naivety: as the audit showed, she hurried to register her two minor children at the new address and sell the whole apartment so that the share in the acquired apartment turned out to be her only home. At the same time, her children became owners (without registration) of other housing.

In 2018, by a court decision in respect of Valikova T.S. a restriction was imposed on the use of residential premises due to exceptional circumstances that have developed between the owners. The court recognized that T.S. Valikova, unlike the other copyright holders, did not need to use this living space. Apparently, it is not possible to fully recognize the transaction on the sale and purchase of ½ of the share between the granddaughter of Nina Artemyevna Volkova and Tatyana Sergeevna Valikova as invalid. Most likely, the granddaughter is not officially registered with a psychiatric register - firstly. Secondly, it is rather difficult to prove that the deal was concluded on deliberately unfavorable conditions: the seller of ½ share - the granddaughter does not participate in the dispute, and the agreement on the price, according to the freedom of the contract, is voluntary.

The only way out in this situation is to get the law enforcement agencies to develop a criminal case on causing harm to health, so that during the renovation the owners will be resettled in different residential premises (as far as I understand, Valikova insists on a common territory, which again confirms the doubtfulness of the transaction - the normal owner was would be happy with a separate apartment!).

Unfortunately, the veteran and her retired daughter do not have the leverage and vitality to counteract the fraudulent scheme, and our authorized bodies are not particularly willing to bother. The prosecutor's office performs the courier option, redirecting complaints to those instances to which these complaints were received.

Time is not on the veteran's side due to age.