Housing compensation programme

Housing should be:

• Located in an unoccupied territory where no active hostilities are taking place (subsequent updates may not be included)
• Can be repaired
• Has been damaged due to hostilities after 24 February 2022

• Apartments
• Private houses
• Rooms or other residential premises

• Purchase of construction materials
• Ordering repair services

• Destroyed by hostilities after February 24, 2022
• Located in the area that was not occupied until February 24, 2022
• Non-repairable (after evaluation by the commission)

• Certificates for purchasing new accommodation
• Cash payment for construction of new housing

• Apartment
• Private house
• A room or other types of residential premises

You need to have initial information about the damage to your property, including a brief description of the damage and ideally photos of the property. If you can ask a friend or a neighbor to share information with you, you can use at least that initial information to request a detailed assessment by the housing commission who will provide you with an official judgement. You can request the assessment here: Damaged Property.

IMPORTANT: The decision on whether the housing is damaged or destroyed is made by a special commission of the local authority, which conducts an inspection after receiving an application for compensation.
Please note that at least one of the co-owners of the property or an authorized representative must be present during the inspection.

If you received humanitarian assistance that fully addressed the issues with your property, then you cannot receive compensation. If humanitarian assistance only partially addressed the damage to your property, then you may be able to claim compensation to address the remaining issues.  UNHCR and its partners aim to ensure that our assistance compliments, rather than replaces Ukrainian government compensation to which individuals are entitled.

This opportunity is provided by the legislation. Please check the details of the procedure on GetItBack.

Currently people living in apartment buildings with damage to common areas cannot receive the payment from eRecovery programme until those areas are also repaired.  However, UNHCR is supporting a limited number of properties to allow people access this compensation. 

Compensation claims can be submitted through the Diia portal, the Centre for Administrative Services, or a notary.  If you are located outside of Ukraine, you can submit your claim through Diia without being present in the country if you have all the required documentation, and a bank account with one of the many partner banks for the E-Recovery program.

However, the presence of at least one of the co-owners or an authorized representative is required during the inspection of the housing.

Currently, multiple banks are connected to the programme: monobank, PrivatBank, Sense Bank, A-Bank, PUMB, izibank, VostokBank, otpbank, BizBank, Alliance bank, Ukrsibbank, Globus Bank, Raiffeisen Bank, Taskombank, Praveks Bank, FUIB, Accord Bank, Bank “Кліринговий дім”. Bank accounts can be opened online via their mobile applications.

An account can be opened in one of the banks that is a partner of the eRecovery program (the list of banks is in the question above).

Currently, funds can only be received into a state bank account.

Currently, compensation indexation is not provided for already issued housing certificates and if compensation for damaged/destroyed housing has already been accrued. However, the Ministry for Communities, Territories, and Infrastructure development of Ukraine reviews indicators of the indirect cost of housing construction quarterly. Compensation for destroyed housing cannot be lower than the cost of building a new housing according to these indicators. The commission takes this into account when determining the amount of compensation.

Yes, you can receive compensation based on the rights of the heir (exceptions – Article 2 Clause 3). In the absence of the original legal document for housing and the death of the testator, a duplicate of the document can be obtained only through court proceedings.

It is necessary to issue a power of attorney at the embassy of Ukraine abroad. The list of embassies can be found here.

If it is impossible to get the inheritance and obtain the right of ownership of the housing (for you or for another heir), it is necessary to alienate the property in court.

It is possible to receive compensation only after registration of ownership rights to housing and a corresponding entry in the State Register of Real Property Rights.

Proof of ownership is information from the State Register of Real Property Rights. Such documents include a certificate of ownership, a certificate of inheritance, a contract of donation, a purchase and sale agreement, and others.

How to get confirmation of ownership of real estate?

• If the housing was registered before 2013 and is not in the State Register of Real Estate Rights – through a notary and TSNAP
• If the housing was registered after 2013 and is in the State Register of Real Estate Rights:

Diia Portal

TSNAP

House of Justice

You can register ownership through notaries who have access to the Register of Damaged and Destroyed Property – the list of notaries can be found at the link.

Contacting the privatization authority is possible through TSNAP.

It is necessary to register housing through a state registrar (for example, a notary) or Diia portal (unavailable in some regions).

You should ask for a duplicate from the entity that issued the documents. A duplicate of a document with a notary’s signature is deemed authentic.

Compensation is provided only if you have title documents and if your property rights are registered in the State Register of Property Rights to Real Estate.  If you lack these documents, we recommend that you contact one of the following UNHCR partners to help you regain your documents.

• Right to Protection (099/068/093 507 50 90) (All Ukraine)
• Tenth of April (0 800 33 28 58) (for Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Kirovohrad regions)
• Neeka (0 800 308 300) (Zakarpattia region)
• Donbas SOS (0 800 309 110) Hotline for all questions

Currently, there is no compensation for housing located in temporarily occupied territories. We recommend you to submit an information notice through Diia if your home has been destroyed or damaged and is located in a temporarily occupied territory.

If your property is not in the register, and there is no access to BTI archives or they have been destroyed, when you apply to the state registrar, you may be denied the registration of your property. In this case, you need to receive a written refusal to register property and appeal the refusal in court. However, some BTIs have relocated and continue to provide services. Contact the city council or regional administration to get information about your case.

Currently, compensation for housing located in the war zone is not possible due to the impossibility of assessing the damage caused to the housing by the commission. However, the commission may agree to inspect your property in individual cases. The decision to inspect property is made by the commission on individual basis, taking into account the security situation. In any case, we recommend you to submit an application so that the commission has information about the condition of your property and can conduct this inspection when the security situation allows it.