A court ordered a business to pay a fine for refusing to purchase property in Odesa

The Odessa City Council terminated, through the courts, an agreement with the company "Hanber Trade" for the sale of municipal real estate valued at 13 million hryvnias. The appellate court ordered the company to pay more than 935,000 hryvnias in fines and interest for refusing to pay for the property.

This is stated in the ruling of the Southwestern Commercial Court of Appeals dated October 21. 

In late 2021, Khanber Trade LLC won an electronic auction for the sale of 565.5 square meters of non-residential space at 3 Didrikhson Street. In January 2022, the company signed a purchase and sale agreement with the Odesa City Council. The buyer was required to transfer the remaining amount—13.3 million hryvnias—within 30 days. However, the company never transferred the funds.

The Odesa City Council filed a lawsuit to terminate the contract and recover a penalty, as well as 3% annual interest, for failure to fulfill financial obligations.

Subsequently, Khanber Trade LLC stated that it had learned that part of the property was leased by the state-owned enterprise “Ukrinteravtoservice,” a fact that was allegedly not disclosed during the bidding process. The firm filed a counterclaim demanding that the agreement be declared invalid on the grounds of misrepresentation and that the funds already paid be refunded.

The case was heard on multiple occasions and even reached the Supreme Court, which remanded it for reconsideration.

In the appeal, it was emphasized that the company is a professional market participant and should have exercised due diligence before signing the contract. The court also ruled that the existence of a lease did not prevent the use of the property, since the lease agreement was automatically terminated upon a change of ownership.
 

Юлія Калабайда