Sergei Bakeshin commented for DP on the attempt of the seller of real estate in the Yard Residence apart-hotel to litigate a number of contracts with the final buyers of the apartments

Maxima Legal’s team is supporting a lawsuit which, according to experts, may have a significant impact on the real estate market. “Yard Stroy” LLC seeks to invalidate a number of agreements with individuals, on the basis of which the latter purchased apartments in the apart-hotel Yard Residence. Sergei Bakeshin, Counsel, Head of Dispute Resolution and Insolvency Practice at Maxima Legal, representing one of the purchasers of the properties, helped Delovoy Petersburg to understand the specifics of the case.

In 2019, “Yard Stroy” LLC and the developer of the apartment hotel “Yalta” LLC entered into share participation agreements in construction, at least part of which was not paid. The final buyers of the apartments signed assignment agreements with “Yalta” LLC, and it was at this point that payments were made to both legal entities. In 2021, Svetlana Belomytseva, the owner of “Yard Stroy” LLC, who is also the full-blooded sister of “Yalta” LLC owner Andrei Koshkin, filed a lawsuit on behalf of her company to challenge the transactions with the final buyers, claiming that they were transactions with interested parties that caused damage to the plaintiff. The businesswoman pointed out that she was not a director of her company at the time of the transactions and learnt about them later, and the damage was justified by the non-market price of the assignment agreements. According to Belomytseva, the fair value of the apartments should be substantially higher. The Commercial Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region rejected all claims. The judges concluded that there was no evidence that the transactions were unprofitable for the plaintiff or they were not presented, and pointed out, in particular, that “Yard Stroy” LLC had made a profit on the results of the transactions. One of the decisions is being appealed for a year now.

“Despite the fact that the market value of prices of similar apartments was confirmed by valuation reports, including those made before the conclusion of the contracts, the appeal court appointed an expert examination of the contested transaction at the request of “Yard Stroy” LLC, which showed the fairness of the price. However, “Yard Stroy” LLC disagreed with the results and insisted on a second expert examination. It is curious that the court entrusted the expert organisation “PetroExpert”, which has already spoken in favour of the purchasers of similar apartments, to conduct it,” Sergey Bakeshin told Delovoy Petersburg.

According to the expert, since it is impossible to transfer rights and obligations under an already executed contractual agreement, in case of a decision in its favour, “Yard Stroy” LLC will probably insist on returning the apartments or demand to pay the difference between the market value of the object and the amount paid.

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