Ukrainians who rent without a contract are to be fined, - Olena Shuliak

In an interview with the publication “Telegraf” the People’s Deputy from the “Servant of the People” faction, Olena Shuliak stated that the state plans to move toward mandatory registration of residential lease agreements. According to her, the first step should be to reduce the tax burden on landlords, and the next – to introduce mandatory recording of the contract in the appropriate system. Among the options being discussed is processing through “Diia” and synchronization with other state registers.

Shuliak said directly that “mandatory” registration would also mean responsibility for its absence. She suggested that significant fines might be applied to property owners who rent apartments without an official contract. In her view, the risk of penalties, inspections and even reports from neighbors should make shadow renting economically unprofitable.

At the same time, this is currently a political position and a concept, not an already adopted law. From available publications it follows that the exact mechanism is still being debated: in particular, it has not yet been finally decided whether a notary will be required for each contract, or whether everything will be limited to electronic registration.

Later, Olena Shuliak herself publicly clarified that she does not support the approach of “simply punishing”, and emphasized: first the state must lower taxes and create simple rules for coming out of the shadows, and only then talk about control instruments. In other words, even within public communication the authorities are now trying to soften the impression created by talk of future fines.

The practical signal is this: the rental housing market is to be gradually brought out of the shadows, making an official contract the norm rather than the exception. But so far there is neither a registered final bill with these provisions nor clearly defined amounts of fines. Therefore, for now this is not about rules already introduced, but about preparing a future model

Previously we wrote:

• Apartment not just in dreams? In Ukraine they have proposed a 25-year mortgage at “reasonable” interest rates
• In Mykolaiv housing was given to only five IDP families, but hundreds remain without homes
• 1.3 billion hryvnias for housing for IDPs: how the voucher program works in the Mykolaiv region
• In Mykolaiv they explained who can receive social housing and under what conditions
• The government simplified the rental of state property for displaced persons