On December 20, 2018 Presnensky District Court of Moscow fully satisfied the claim for recovery more than 178 000 Euros in favor of our Client , as well as for termination of the lease agreement, release of premises, etc.

A client, we have been providing legal assistance on various issues for more than ten years to, appealed to us.  As we became aware, the Tenant, occupying our Client’s premises since 2006, ceased to properly fulfill its obligations to pay the rent from the beginning of 2018.  Moreover, the creative workshop of our Client, who is a member of the Artists Union, was transferred by the Tenant to an individual entrepreneur for use for 3,000 Euros per month without the consent and notification of its legal user.

 Previously, we repeatedly faced disputes arising from rental relations, but this situation is interesting because the general director, the sole participant and guarantor of the company renting our Client’s premises is a French citizen who has the title of count.

At the stage of pre-trial settlement of the dispute, we repeatedly negotiated directly with the Tenant’s head on his own initiative, as well as with a representative of an individual entrepreneur who illegally occupies our Client’s creative workshop, however, we did not receive any constructive or suitable proposals from contractors.

Among other things, our Client was not satisfied with the rental rate for the use of his premises, set by the parties back in 2009 in the amount of 9,000 Euros per month, which did not match the market prices for renting similar premises in 2018.

These circumstances caused, firstly, our initiation of an independent assessment of the market value of the rental rate for using our Client’s premises in 2018, and secondly, the sending of pre-trial claims to the Tenant and his illegal sub-tenant with a notice of a change in the rent to the market rates (more than 14,000 Euros per month according to the received evaluation report), as well as with the requirement to vacate the premises 2 months after receiving the relevant request.

These requirements were ignored, in connection with which we appealed to Presnensky District Court of Moscow with a statement of claim for recovery of the rent from the Tenant and its general director, who is the guarantor, as well as for the recovery of forfeit, unjust enrichment, expenses for paying the state duty, recognition the lease terminated, invalidation of the sublease, release of the premises and creative workshop of our Client.

In addition, at the same time, we appealed to the law enforcement agencies to check the actions of the Tenant’s head for the presence of crimes on the fact of arbitrariness and fraud, as the Tenant absolutely unreasonably disposed of the creative workshop of our Client, handing it to a third party for a fee.

 After accepting the filed claim, the court ordered us to provide evidence of residence on the territory of the Russian Federation of the guarantor of the Tenant who is a foreign citizen, to make sure that the Defendant is duly notified of the court case.  We have filed the application for judicial requests to various departments in order to obtain the necessary information, which allowed us to get information about the place of registration of our opponent on the territory of Moscow from the Migration Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow as soon as possible.

 In addition, as part of an audit conducted by law enforcement agencies, representatives of the Tenant were questioned, who confirmed the fact that our Client’s creative workshop was transferred to another person.  The relevant criminal case materials have become one of the main evidence in our civil dispute.

During the trial, the Defendants tried to confuse the court with false testimonies, and also repeatedly filed applications to postpone the trial for far-fetched reasons.

 On our part, both oral and written objections to the petitions and statements of the Defendants were stated, additional evidence was presented directly or indirectly confirming our claims, and the court also called attention to the apparent abuse of material and procedural rights by the Defendants.

For a full and comprehensive understanding of the real circumstances of the case and a proper assessment of the documents and explanations submitted by us, the court required several court hearings, however, painstaking and detailed preparation of the evidence base allowed us to justify our legal position and reveal the true motives of our opponents.

On December 20, 2018, Presnensky District Court of Moscow, having heard the final explanations of the parties, refused our Opponents in another petition to postpone the court session and decided to satisfy our Client’s requirements.

 Thus, in favor of our client, more than 178,000 Euros were collected from the main debtor and guarantor, including ~ 115,000 Euros of debt, ~ 15,000 Euros of penalty, 60,000 Rubles. for the expense of reimbursement of the paid state duty, as well as 48,000 Euros of unjust enrichment in solidarity with an individual entrepreneur who illegally occupied a creative workshop.

 The court also recognized the lease agreement terminated the sublease agreement invalid and ordered our opponents to vacate the disputed premises and the creative workshop.

 It is worth noting that journalists of several media outlets followed the course of the legal dispute, and the comments of our lawyers on the legal nature of the presented claims were repeatedly made public through television broadcasting, which the second party strongly opposed.

 At the moment, we are awaiting the entry of this court decision into legal force to institute enforcement proceedings in order to enforce the collection of funds and release the non-residential premises of our Client.

Y.S.Bulut, lawyer of MCBA “Bureau of Lawyers “De jure”, prepared the legal position on this case and represented the Defendant’s interests in the court.