Blind Woman Won Lawsuit against Capital Tenant Builder

Visually handicapped person of the first category, Kyiv citizen H.P., won a lawsuit against the construction firm “Capital Realty Ltd.” which fraudulently aimed at selling her the partially constructed apartment

Blind H.P.k was convinced that having paid UAH 300,000 she bought the apartment in a new building with lift. The tenant builder promised that after her moving into a new apartment her life would be sufficiently improved, as the apartment was furnished with special equipment for people with disability.

After the woman’s demand to execute an agreement, the tenant builder invited a notary public who claimed that he settled the agreement. The sum of UAH 149,000 was paid in advance for the apartment.

The mother of H. P. read the agreement at home and discovered that it was not certified by the notary public and did not contain any single word about special equipment for the apartment, and that the cost of the agreement concluded exceeded the one mentioned by the tenant builder with “notary public” by nearly UAH 34,000.

Angry woman required to return costs paid by her. After numerous visits to Capital Realty Ltd., the company agreed to terminate the agreement. However, instead of this, she was deceitfully presented with a new version of the old agreement where the apartment cost increased to UAH 400,000.

The woman learned about a sudden rise in the apartment cost from 300 thousand to 400 thousand accidentally from a passer-by in the street when she asked to read this document.

Realizing that she was dealing with the swindlers, H. addressed the law enforcement agents and filed a lawsuit with the Dnipro District Court in the City of Kyiv. Both agencies refused to protect her rights.

After appealing to the public office of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the organization’s lawyers prepared an appeal petition.

– The court of the first instance judged by conviction that the sighted person, i.e. the defendant, represented by the Construction Firm, was much more informed than the blind, therefore, it could be trusted – Oleh Levytskyi, the lawyer of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union explains.  – We did not agree with this assumption, thus, we appealed against the delivered judgement to the Kyiv City Court of Appeal.  Indeed, conclusion of a purchase agreement should conform to the inner will of each of the parties”.

The Court of Appeal took the part of the blind woman and recognized the agreement as invalid. The decision was executed to the full extent and could create a favourable precedent for the number of Ukrainian disabled persons.

By its decision, the Court found that the signature of the blind woman on the document cannot serve as the evidence of her conscious declaration of will. 

Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union