The severe truth of the war is that tens of thousands of Ukrainians have already been deprived of their homes. Nobody is insured at the moment from bombing, artillery, fires in the area of ​​active hostilities, and beyond. It is horrible to get out of a bomb shelter and see that your house is completely shattered. Either while being evacuated to Western Ukraine or as a refugee in Europe, it is horrible to recognize your house in the footage. What to do in this case?

Prepare in advance

The thesis "this will not happen to me, because it simply can not happen" does not work here. We need to soberly prepare for possible losses.

Remember! Never move out of the house now if there is fighting nearby. Do not leave your house without property documents. Appropriate advice: upload scans of all papers to the cloud, or to Diia app, or make copies and hide them in a safe place. It will be easier to prove ownership when filing a loss.

List of documents confirming the right of ownership:

· real estate ownership agreement,

· purchase and sale agreement,

· a certificate of inheritance,

· state act on land,

· deed of Gift,

· Extract from the register of rights to real estate, technical passport.

Be sure to bring a wallet with documents, bank cards with some amount of money if possible. Cash savings could be lost if the apartment is damaged.

If you do not have time to prepare, and the documents are destroyed along with housing, do not despair, everything is stored in state registers. It will be possible to restore, it just takes more time.

The first step

First of all, find a safe place for yourself and your loved ones. For the first time, there is a bomb shelter, you can be sheltered by neighbours, friends or relatives if there are any. Contact the local authorities if you are not in the territory of the occupation and they have kept their ability to work. According to the specifics of the area, their coordinates can be found here, following the link for each administration will open its website, where you will see all needed information.

They will help to solve the most important problems: find shelter for the first time, get medical care, if necessary, livelihood. They can even give some material help at once.

The second step

You call law enforcement officers and representatives of the State Emergency Service (they may be alre adyon the scene, helping to put out fires, rescue people, dismantle debris, etc.). They must draw up an appropriate act. Don't worry, all the facts of the shelling are meticulously documented, as evidence to the courts and grounds for compensation to the victims. You take a copy of the act and be sure to keep it.

Take a few additional photos of the destruction with the setting of the date display: from different angles, so that you can see not only the scale and details but also the location. If possible, ask neighbours to certify a handwritten report (if law enforcement and SES do not currently work in the area). A sample of this act can be downloaded at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G2EvEA-5c6CBH65PNy-O2mKZBFM3zkZ8/edit. 

Those who were evacuated, already far from the destroyed home, and saw a mention of the event in the media, should keep the link to the report and take screenshots of the material. Then make a statement about the crime to law enforcement agencies with the evidence collected. You receive an extract from the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations.

The third step

Once everything is recorded and the responsible authorities are involved, you can start the procedure for filing a refund. The government has assured that they compensate everyone and everything. You can already leave a request directly in Diia in this regard. Moreover, even if the apartment is insured and the contract stipulates that in case of force majeure, the losses are not compensated - the state has promised to intervene. In principle, it makes no sense to apply to the insurance company in this case: compensation, as our Prime Minister said, will come from a special fund.

It is unknown at this time, how exactly it will be reimbursed, by providing an analogue of housing or cash equivalent. We are following the news.

As for movable property, everything is a bit more complicated. It's not about vehicles, it's easy to document the damage done to them. But reimbursement for appliances, furniture, things is possible only with a passport and a bill from the store.

The fourth step

If you want to go to a safer area after an accident, these links will help you find a temporary home:

https://viyna.net/02a57944f85e4a6e86781c7accfff23a - a collection of services with free hotels, people who can shelter you, useful telegram bots and channels, as well as websites where you can find information about transport for relocation,

https://shelter.dopomagai.org/  (free housing),

https://www.shelter4ua.com/ru,

https://prykhystok.in.ua/find,

telegram bots https://t.me/shelter_for_ukrainians_bot  and https://t.me/turbotnyk_bot