A buyer acquired a plot from a seller registered in the Unified State Register of Real Estate (EGRN). Years later the courts held that the title was absent because the land fell within the Sochi National Park boundaries and the 1994 allotment act had never been issued.
The Supreme Court quashed the lower courts’ judgments and remitted the case. A void contract does not deprive a good-faith buyer of a damages claim against the seller. A buyer may rely on the EGRN and is not required to verify thirty-year-old archival municipal acts.
The Court separated two issues: keeping the plot (a dispute with the State) and recovering money (a dispute with the seller).