Ministry of Justice advises to repair property damaged by Russia
The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine advises to repair property damaged by Russia, while collecting evidence for future compensation. Irina Mudra, Deputy Minister of Justice, told the Correspondent about this in an interview. – Waiting for this mechanism (compensation. – Auth.) to work or when the courts will consider claims in a few years, and doing nothing at the same time – this is the wrong way. If people can restore themselves, it’s worth doing it, but they need to keep the entire evidence base, an assessment of this restoration, record, store all evidence of the purchase of materials, payment for work, and everything else in order to then add it all to the total damage assessment. Including when it comes to repeated damage to already restored property,” she said. Mudra admitted that there are no specific guidelines yet, but one must rely on the generally accepted practice of fixing damage, losses, as is done outside of wartime. – For example, fix damaged or destroyed property in a photo or video. In the future, this will allow you to determine the cause of the damage. Such fixation can be carried out both by the owner of the property and by any other person who can later become a witness and personally confirm the circumstances. Gather as accurate information as possible about the date and circumstances of property damage. This can be learned from the news, which prescribe the approximate time and type of shelling. If there are persons who have become witnesses, it is possible to draw up a document in any form describing the circumstances of damage or destruction of property. Such a document must necessarily indicate the time, place of its compilation with the fixation of passport data, contact information and signatures of the persons who compiled it. Representatives of the state emergency service can also draw up a fire report indicating its causes – shelling or bombardment. Such an act shall contain information, in particular, on the date, time, place of the fire, description of the destroyed, damaged property, direct and collateral damage from the fire, the cause of the fire. It is necessary to collect copies of all documents confirming the ownership of the property – sales contracts, extracts from registers, etc. Conduct an inventory in accordance with existing regulations – this applies to business entities. For example, according to the requirements of the order of the Ministry of Finance on the approval of the regulation on the inventory of assets and liabilities. And to document that such assets were owned by an individual or legal entity. An expert assessment of damage to property should be carried out. Such fixation can be carried out either with the participation of experts from forensic examination institutes under the Ministry of Justice, or with the participation of experts from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and formalized by an act. It is also important to calculate the lost profit. That is, the income that the company could have received if the property had not been damaged, – explained the Deputy Minister of Justice. Irina Mudra recalled that the Cabinet of Ministers adopted a resolution “On approval of the procedure for determining the damage and damage caused to Ukraine in as a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation”. The methods should be published in the near future.
