What's turning one in two owners into bankrupts

In 2025, around 568,000 people were declared bankrupt in Russia - 31.5% more than the year before, and almost 20 times more than in 2015, when the procedure was first introduced. For a resale property buyer, this isn't an abstract statistic: if a former owner later goes through bankruptcy, the sale can be challenged in court even years after the purchase. Here's how this risk works and how to spot it in advance.

Why bankruptcy has become so common

Ten years ago, personal bankruptcy was a rare and complicated procedure. Today it's a routine way to write off debt: according to official statistics, around 97% of personal bankruptcy cases in Russia are filed by the debtors themselves, not by creditors. The simpler and more familiar the procedure becomes, the more properties pass through the hands of owners with financial problems - and the more deals become potentially open to challenge.

A new rule on selling a sole home

Federal Law No. 62-FZ took effect on April 3, 2026: when a sole mortgaged home is sold during bankruptcy, the debtor must now be left with up to 10% of the sale proceeds. Previously, someone who lost their home in bankruptcy often walked away with nothing at all. Making the procedure less punishing makes it psychologically easier to choose - which is likely to keep pushing bankruptcy numbers up, and with them, the number of properties on the market with a potentially contestable history.

How an already-closed deal gets challenged

The mechanism works like this: as soon as someone files for bankruptcy, a trustee is appointed who has the authority to review all of the debtor's deals from the past several years. If a deal turns up that was made at an undervalued price or shortly before the bankruptcy, the trustee goes to court to have it voided. A personal relationship with the seller - a friend, a relative, a longtime acquaintance - offers the buyer no protection: from the law's and the court's point of view, it's an ordinary deal, checked against the same criteria as any other.

Two numbers that define a pre-bankruptcy state

Under Russian bankruptcy law, a citizen becomes obligated to file for their own bankruptcy once their debt reaches 500,000 rubles and payments are overdue by 3 months. If, at the time of a deal, the seller hasn't been paying a loan for more than 3 months and the total debt exceeds that threshold, they are entitled - and in some cases required - to declare bankruptcy, putting a recently completed sale at risk.

What you can check before the deal, and what only the seller can share

Some information is available to any buyer, free of charge: the Unified Federal Register of Bankruptcy Information (Fedresurs) shows whether someone has been declared bankrupt or is already in the process; the arbitration case database shows bankruptcy petitions that have been filed but not yet decided; the bailiff service's website shows open enforcement proceedings. But the earliest and most dangerous stage - a pre-bankruptcy state, when someone has already missed payments but hasn't shown up in any of these registers yet - can only be assessed from the seller's own credit history, which they have to provide themselves. A refusal to share it without a good reason is a strong warning sign.

What to check before the deal

• The seller in the Unified Federal Register of Bankruptcy Information (Fedresurs).
• The seller in the arbitration case database - any bankruptcy petitions filed.
• The seller on the bailiff service's website - any open enforcement proceedings.
• The seller's credit history - any loan payments overdue by 3 months or more.
• Deals where the property recently came to the seller (for example, by inheritance) and is priced noticeably below market - these deserve extra scrutiny.

Want to check a seller before the deal

Send us the seller's name and the property address by phone - we will help assess the bankruptcy risk and tell you which documents to request.

8 909 440-80-80

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