Court refused to evict the family of a military serviceman from official housing: case details
The Housing Maintenance Department of Sumy city filed a lawsuit seeking to recognize the serviceman and his family members as having lost the right to use the official apartment and to evict them without providing other housing. This was reported by the Sumy Court of Appeal.
They justified their claims by stating that the serviceman divorced his wife back in 2018 and later was transferred to serve in another garrison located outside the Sumy region. Thus, he lost the right to use the official housing due to prolonged absence from the place of registration, and the other defendants are former family members who have no relation to military service. According to the Instruction on the organization of providing servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and their family members with residential premises dated July 31, 2018, No. 380, they were supposed to immediately vacate the official housing they occupied. Moreover, the defendants do not pay for utilities or bear other housing maintenance costs. These circumstances, according to the plaintiff, create obstacles for the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine to exercise its rights in using and managing official property. The urgent public necessity for evicting the defendants was justified by the existence of a queue of servicemen claiming to move into official housing.
The Kovpakivskyi District Court of Sumy city dismissed the Housing Maintenance Department's claims as unfounded. Disagreeing with this first-instance decision, the plaintiff appealed to the Sumy Court of Appeal, arguing its illegality and groundlessness, as well as incorrect application of substantive law and violation of procedural law, requesting to cancel it and issue a new court decision satisfying the claims.
After reviewing the case materials, the panel of judges denied the appellant's claims. In its decision, it noted that the transfer to another place of service and the defendant's absence at the place of registration are not grounds for eviction from official housing without evidence of other permanent or official housing. This position of the appellate court fully aligns with the conclusions of the Supreme Court set forth in the ruling dated November 19, 2025, in case No. 591/3807/22. Regarding the other defendants, the appellate court, referring to several Supreme Court decisions, stated that the serviceman's former wife and their two children lawfully moved into the disputed apartment, have lived there for a long time, and do not own other housing. In turn, the fact that the Instruction on the organization of providing servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and their family members with residential premises dated July 31, 2018, No. 380, provides for eviction from official housing without providing other housing to “former family members of the serviceman who remained living there after divorce” cannot be an indisputable argument for terminating the right to respect for the housing of these family members.
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