Man demanded to freeze a loan of 1.2 million hryvnias in debt: what the court decided

In the Poltava region, the court denied a man who asked to freeze the payment of mortgage loan during the state of martial law. The borrower owed «PrivatBank» over 1.27 million UAH, but asked the court to consider the war as force majeure and exempt him from paying fines. This is reported by Informator.

Essence of the dispute with the bank

According to the case materials, the man entered into a credit agreement with «PrivatBank» on October 1, 2021, for the amount of 1.41 million UAH for a term until 2041. However, as of May 2025, he had a debt of 1,271,156 UAH, which included:

• 1,155,187 UAH — the principal loan;

• 115,969 UAH — interest for use.

The borrower claimed that during the war he could not timely pay off the debt. In court, he demanded:

• to freeze obligations during the martial law;

• to cancel penalties and fines;

• to review the amount of monthly payments and the market value of the apartment.

The man referred to the law «On the legal regime of martial law» and Article 623 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, which recognizes war as a force majeure circumstance. He also emphasized that he had approached the bank with requests for restructuring, but received only refusals.

Court decision

The Lubensky district court sided with the bank. The judges acknowledged that the bank fulfilled its obligations under the contract, while the borrower did not.

«Force majeure circumstances do not exempt from fulfilling obligations if it is not proven that they directly made it impossible to fulfill the contract in this case», — the decision states.

The court also noted that the borrower made payments until September 2024, so the war was not the reason for the complete impossibility of payment. Restructuring the loan is the bank's right, not an obligation, the decision emphasized.

As a result, the man was ordered to pay 1,271,156 UAH in debt under the mortgage agreement in favor of «PrivatBank».