The Odessa City Government won a lawsuit against a company for 6 million in land rent on Primorsky Street

The Odessa City Council successfully sued LLC “Transregioninvest-Ukraine” to recover more than 6 million hryvnias in unpaid land rent on Primorska Street.

The Commercial Court of Odesa Oblast fully upheld the city council’s claim.

The case involves a plot of land measuring nearly 1 hectare located at 1 and 1-B Primorska Street. In 2017, the city council leased the land to the company for 49 years. The land is occupied by commercial and administrative buildings owned by “Transregioninvest-Ukraine.”

The city council filed a lawsuit over non-payment of rent from July 2024 through January 2026. During this period, the principal debt amounted to 5.386 million hryvnias.

In addition, the city demanded 323,000 hryvnias for inflation-related losses, 118,400 hryvnias at 3% per annum, and 231,300 hryvnias in late-payment penalties.

The company contested the lawsuit, citing the full-scale war. Transregioninvest-Ukraine stated that it was operating under conditions of losses caused by the war, which prevented it from making timely and full payments.

The firm also requested that the court dismiss the claim for late-payment penalties.

The court rejected these arguments. The ruling states that the mere fact of war does not automatically exempt a party from fulfilling its contractual obligations. A party invoking force majeure must prove that specific circumstances directly prevented the fulfillment of that particular obligation.

This is not the first dispute between the city council and this company over unpaid rent. Previously, courts had already ordered “Transregioninvest-Ukraine” to pay over 7 million hryvnias in debt for the 2018–2021 period and over 9 million hryvnias in arrears for the subsequent period.

This time, the court fully granted the city council’s claim. The company is ordered to pay 5.386 million hryvnias in principal debt, 118,400 hryvnias in 3% annual interest, 323 thousand hryvnias in inflation-related losses, and 231.3 thousand hryvnias in late-payment penalties, as well as over 74 thousand hryvnias in court costs.

Transregioninvest-Ukraine LLC filed an appeal, but the court dismissed it due to a missed deadline and other deficiencies. The company appealed to the appellate court nearly two months after the ten-day deadline for filing an appeal had expired.

Ірина Глухова