Over 70 persons questioned by Transparency International Moldova said they invested about €3 million in the building of homes that they didn’t receive owing to the insolvency of building companies or sale of already erected buildings. 80% of the money invested by Moldovans in apartments was earned abroad. The rest was borrowed from relatives or banks. One of the study co-authors Ianina Spinei, Transparency International Moldova expert, said a part of those who were cheated by building companies went to court, but didn’t win the cases, IPN reports.

About half of those polled said they remained without a home and money and had to rent dwellings and paid a total of €376,000 rent in the period, by over €11,000 each. Those polled consider the problem cannot be solved owing to corruption and the imperfect legislation that does not protect the rights of persons who invest in homebuilding. Some said justice wasn’t done to them because politicians and their acolytes are behind the building companies.

Lawyer Ion Ciumac, who is a victim of building scams, said the problem is signaled mainly in Chisinau. He related how over 100 families that were to purchase apartments in the same block remained without a home and without money too. After the persons signed investment contracts with the building company, this transferred free the building to another company without notifying those who invested in its erecting.

Ion Ciumac added that by such schemes, apartment buildings constructed with investors’ money are pledged with banks or signed over free and, when the building is finished, the investors are informed that the block was confiscated by the bank for debts and the bank later puts the building up for auction. Thus, the apartments in which people invested money are sold for several times.

The study was carried out by Transparency International Moldova in July-September 2016 and is a follow-up to another study conducted in 2014.