A Belarusian woman built an apartment in Russia, but formally registered the mortgage to her cousin. And was left with nothing
The Russian sister — the owner on paper — sold the apartment, and threw the trusting Belarusian woman and her small child out into the cold.
11 years ago, Belarusian A. Morozova (Pashko) moved to Ivanovo, Russia, at the invitation of her cousin, Ekaterina Dudkina. There, she found work as a manicure master in a beauty salon owned by her sister.
Morozova retained her Belarusian citizenship, so she could not register a mortgage in her own name. She agreed with her sister that the mortgage would be in the sister's name, a Russian citizen, and the Belarusian woman would make the payments. Once the loan was fully paid, she would receive ownership of the apartment.
Dudkina agreed. As a result, from 2018 to 2023, Morozova transferred about $20,000 to her sister for the loan. She also regularly paid utility bills and carried out renovations costing, she claims, more than $9,000.
Problems began when the Belarusian woman received a Russian passport. Her sister, under various pretexts, delayed the re-registration of the apartment, and at the end of 2023, she declared that the loan was fully repaid and demanded that Morozova vacate the dwelling. Morozova refused and initially tried to challenge the loan agreement itself in court, but lost: the court ruled that the agreements with the banks were concluded by Dudkina and her husband, and not in Morozova's interests.
After this, Dudkina sold the apartment to her mother, A. Siedlietskaya, for approximately $72,000. Her mother then filed a lawsuit to evict the Belarusian woman and her young daughter. In turn, Morozova demanded that this sale of the apartment be recognized as a fictitious transaction.
Witnesses in court confirmed that there was an agreement between the sisters that the mortgage would be formally registered to Dudkina, but Morozova would make the payments, and that Morozova was the one who carried out the renovations in the apartment. However, the court found this insufficient: the purchase and sale of real estate requires a written form of agreement; verbal agreements and the fact of payments made by a third party do not in themselves create ownership rights.
As a result, the Belarusian woman was evicted. The apartment remained the property of Dudkina's mother.
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