How to Prove Property Ownership When Documents Are Destroyed by War

Tetiana Kovhanych, Attorney

The issue of locating and restoring lost property ownership documents has become especially relevant during wartime. Many people who were forced to leave temporarily occupied or frontline territories lost their documents due to hostilities or did not have the opportunity to take them during evacuation.

Without ownership documents, it is impossible to receive compensation for destroyed property, sell it, or transfer it as inheritance.

What Documents Confirm Property Ownership

For real estate — such as a house, apartment, land plot, or commercial property — ownership is confirmed by:

• an extract from the State Register of Real Property Rights or a certificate of ownership (if the property was acquired before January 1, 2013);
• documents on the basis of which ownership arose: a contract, a certificate of inheritance, a privatization decision, etc.;
• a technical passport;
• an extract from the State Land Cadastre;
• a state land act (for plots acquired before January 1, 2013).

To prove ownership of real estate, it is usually sufficient to obtain an extract from the State Register of Real Property Rights — which can be done at any administrative service center, through a notary, or independently via the Diia platform.

If the property was acquired before 2013, ownership is confirmed by the ownership certificate and other supporting documents.

What to Do If the Documents Were Destroyed by War

The first step is to try to restore the lost documents or obtain their duplicates to enter ownership data into the state register.

If the documents were notarized — such as ownership certificates, contracts, or inheritance certificates — one should contact the relevant notary to request a duplicate from the notary’s archive.

However, it is often the case that notaries have been mobilized or relocated due to hostilities. To obtain a duplicate, it is necessary to determine the location of the notary’s archive — either by contacting the notary directly or, if impossible, by submitting a request to the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine for information about the notary’s current activity and the archive’s location.

According to Order No. 356/5 of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine dated February 11, 2025, “Certain issues of organizing notarial activity and maintaining notarial records during martial law,” notaries whose offices are located in active combat zones are allowed to relocate their notarial archives to safer areas of Ukraine.

Unfortunately, in many cases, the notary’s archives — including documents confirming ownership of real estate — have been destroyed. Therefore, obtaining a duplicate is often impossible.

According to the Information Letter No. 8/2025 of the Notarial Chamber of Ukraine, once the Ministry of Justice officially determines the end date of hostilities in a given area, commissions will be formed to search for lost notarial archives. This gives hope that ownership documents destroyed by war may eventually be recovered.

Alternative Evidence of Ownership

Information about real estate may also be entered into the state register based on data from a technical passport. While a duplicate technical passport cannot currently be issued, an extended archival certificate can be obtained from the Bureau of Technical Inventory in the city where the passport was originally created.

If it is impossible to locate or restore the documents, ownership can be confirmed through a court decision.

Article 392 of the Civil Code of Ukraine provides that an owner may file a lawsuit to recognize their ownership right if it is disputed or not recognized by another person, or in case the ownership document has been lost.

In such cases, the court fee is not charged (Article 5, part 1, paragraph 21 of the Law of Ukraine “On Court Fees”).

It should be noted that a court decision in such cases does not create new ownership rights — it merely confirms an already existing right acquired on legal grounds. Courts thus establish the fact that ownership documents previously existed. This conclusion was stated in the decision of the Velykonovosilkivskyi District Court of Donetsk Region (January 19, 2024, case No. 204/13158/23) and reaffirmed in the decision of the Chervonozavodskyi District Court of Kharkiv (March 21, 2025, case No. 646/6521/24).

In its ruling of May 19, 2020 (case No. 916/1608/18), the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court concluded that Article 392 of the Civil Code should apply not only in cases where the ownership document was lost, but also when existing documents cannot fully confirm ownership — provided the property right is not registered under another person.

To prove ownership of property when documents have been destroyed by war, individuals must take steps to search for and restore lost documents or, if this is impossible, seek a court ruling recognizing ownership of the relevant property.