Potorochin Arkady

Biography

2021: Withdrawal of single dwellings for debt

In early July 2021, it became known about the first seizure of only housing in Russia for debts. In Yekaterinburg, at the auction sold a two-level five-room apartment declared bankrupt Arkady Potorochin, who owed 21.4 million rubles.

According to Kommersant, citing data from the EFRSB, Protochin asked to exclude his only apartment from the tender mass. The arbitration court granted his request, but the cassation in 2019 sent the dispute for a new consideration.

Arkady Potorochin seized the only housing for debts

The arguments of the collectors were that the apartment is "too luxurious" for the debtor, he himself is single and has no dependents. Therefore, they began to insist on replacing with a one-room apartment with an area of ​ ​ 32 square meters. The court sided with the collectors this time.

In December 2020, the debtor again tried to defend his apartment, but in February 2021 the court stopped production. The apartment was sold at auction on June 22, 2021 for 8.25 million rubles at an initial price of 9.1 million rubles.

In April 2021, the Constitutional Court of Russia granted the courts the right to overcome property immunity if the debtor does not remain after that without suitable real estate.

The conditions under which the court can take away the only housing from the bankrupt to pay off debts were as follows:

• the debtor must be provided with a living space not less than the standards in the city or village where he lives;
• Courts should take into account the amount of debt and the market value of property;
• recovery of housing should not force the debtor to move to another city or village, unless he himself agrees to this.

Lawyers interviewed by the newspaper believe that cases, like the Potorochin case, will increasingly occur. According to the partner of MGP Lawyers Denis Bykanov, there will be more and more decisions on replacing the debtor's housing, and this may motivate the authorities to finally resolve the issue in the law.

Nikita Stepachkov, partner of the Stepachkov and Surchakov law firm, is confident that "the new expected vector of judicial practice will make many wealthy citizens look at the problem of protecting their assets in a new way."^[1]

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