A court victory did not help shareholders in a long-term construction project in Nalchik move into their apartments.

The Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria has ruled that shareholders in a building on Moskovskaya Street in Nalchik have the right to receive their apartments. Several families were forced to move into the building before it was fully operational, but most are waiting for the developer to complete finishing work, including installing an elevator, although, according to them, no work is being done.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot," several years after purchasing an apartment in the building under construction, shareholders are unable to register their ownership rights due to a conflict between the developer and the investor. The parties' claims are being heard in court, and the authorities have withdrawn from the situation, although approximately 90 families may lose their apartments. In April 2025, at the request of an investor, the court banned the registration of apartments in the building, and equity holders called on the authorities of Kabardino-Balkaria to protect the interests of apartment buyers. An investor in an apartment building on Moskovskaya Street in Nalchik won a court victory over the developer and is demanding that the contracts with the equity holders, who purchased more than 100 apartments, be declared null and void. The developer refuses to negotiate, so the lawsuits have been filed against the homebuyers, the lawyer stated.

The Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria upheld the decision of the Nalchik City Court, which denied investor Yakub Kardanov's claim to invalidate the agreements entered into by equity holders with Spetsstroy LLC. The court ruled that although they entered into loan agreements, these documents were essentially equity participation agreements, and therefore the shareholders were entitled to receive their apartments.

As we previously reported, 92 people purchased apartments in the Orbita-Dzyudo residential complex under construction in Nalchik on Moskovskaya Street in 2019-2020. The building is being constructed by Spetsstroy LLC, with Edik Bolotokov as the developer. At the end of 2023, the Nalchik City Court received a claim from businessman Yakub Kardanov against Spetsstroy LLC and the shareholders, requesting that the loan agreements and compensation agreements be declared invalid and that the consequences of the invalidity of the transaction be applied. Yakub Kardanov claims that he invested 98 million rubles in the construction of the building, and in accordance with the contract concluded with Bolotokov, 60 percent of the area belongs to him.

Meanwhile, the shareholders still have no opportunity to register ownership of their apartments, due to the fact that the building has not been commissioned, and the developer is doing nothing to complete the building and put it into operation.

At the same time, as the shareholders said, 6-7 families, those who have nowhere to live, have already moved into the building and are living there.

One ​​of the shareholders A., on condition of anonymity, told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the developer Bolotokov, in fact, abandoned the building and refuses to fulfill his obligations.

"He somehow resolves all issues with the authorities and gets away with everything, although other developers are subject to criminal prosecution for lesser violations. The criminal case brought against Bolotkov for illegally raising funds from equity holders, after a trial lasting more than two years in the Nalchik court, was returned for further investigation in July 2025. The case is being dragged out for some unknown reason," she said.

The equity holder reported that they were all given the keys to their apartments, but many are unable to carry out repairs.

"There's not even plaster there – it's bare brick, there are no interior partitions, the elevator isn't connected, and the façade isn't finished. Due to the rising cost of building materials, repairs and bringing the apartment into more or less proper condition require significant funds, which most equity holders do not have," she noted.

"We had all the utilities connected – electricity, light, and even gas, but in the winter, in some places, the heating pipes froze and burst because the heating is independent; everyone connects it in their own apartment, while most apartments, where no one lives, are not heated," another equity holder told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to her, the developer collected money from the equity holders to repair the pipes. Furthermore, many are billed for gas. One family received a gas bill of 220,000 rubles. Moreover, since the shareholders do not have personal accounts, he requires utility bills to be paid to him personally.

Among the families who moved into the building is the Akkayev family, a single mother with a child who rented but was no longer able to continue paying rent, so she moved into an unfinished apartment. It is more difficult for those who received apartments on the upper floors, due to the fact that the elevator is not connected.

Shareholder Yuri Tarloev said that he is a retired employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and a second-degree disabled person. The apartment he bought in this building is his only home.

"I've been living in this building for three years now. I did the renovations myself. When we moved in, there was no gas. I simply had nowhere to go. I invested everything I had in this apartment. I have nothing else," he said.

Shareholder Emma Kushkhova reported that she has a one-room apartment in Orbita Judo, which she can't move into because there's no elevator.

"The developer owes the installers 500,000 rubles, and he doesn't want to pay them back, so they dismantled the elevator they had installed. It's difficult to get to the upper floors without an elevator. "Therefore, I can't move in and continue to live in a rented apartment, for which I pay 50,000 rubles a month," she told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Lawyers

"We won the case in the Nalchik City Court and the Supreme Court of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, but this isn't the end. Kardanov is determined to move on. If the cassation court upholds the decision, the issue of citizens receiving apartments will be resolved, but the issue of completing the building will remain. Some of those who purchased apartments are already living in the unfinished building. It should be noted that this is illegal, and both the developer and those moving in could be fined, since the building has not been commissioned. "The developer is in no hurry to complete it," Vitaly Kolchenko, a lawyer representing the investors, told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to Kolchenko, arbitration proceedings are ongoing to determine the investor's share. Kardanov claims to have invested 98 million rubles in the construction, but the paperwork only shows 63 million. Kolchenko says he invested the rest of the money in another building under construction, owned by Spetsstroy LLC.

Furthermore, the text of the contract indicates that it was signed in 2018, while the construction site was only formed in 2019, meaning the contract was clearly concluded retroactively, the lawyer pointed out.

Lawyer Fatima Kardanova, representing investor Yakub Kardanov, reported that Kardanov is determined and ready to appeal the court's decision in the near future. The lawyer believes that the shareholders weren't sufficiently careful when purchasing their apartments.

"When they bought the apartments, some of them gave the money to Bolotokov himself, some to his wife, and some to his daughter, although they should have understood that this isn't how deals are made. They should have entered into equity participation agreements with deposits in escrow accounts, not loan agreements and compensation agreements. Whether they knew the law or not doesn't absolve them of liability. They weren't buying potatoes at the market, they were buying apartments," she told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Fatima Kardanova stated that the investor is being portrayed as a fraud, so proving otherwise is a matter of honor for him.

Kardanova reported that Bolotkov has now sold almost the entire building, including apartments, commercial premises, and parking spaces. Only four apartments remain unsold.

The investor, she said, is not satisfied with this. The price of these four apartments does not cover his investment at 2018 prices.