We were contacted by a company that received the right to supply heat to social facilities for 15 years under the public-private partnership agreement from the municipality. Our client carried out a major reconstruction of the boiler house equipment and has been providing high-quality heating of the village facilities (in winter frosts of more than 50 degrees Celsius) for 3 years. However, after the personnel changes in the municipality our client received the public partner's claim for early termination of the public-private partnership agreement. The municipality claimed that entire package of documents was not submitted at the conclusion of the agreement, state registration of the real estate transferred under the public-private partnership agreement was not carried out.

The client's losses included not only the reconstruction costs incurred, but also a significant amount of lost profits for the remaining 12 years of the public-private partnership agreement.

LexProf lawyers proved to the court that the absence of separate documents in the original package does not affect the validity of the public-private partnership agreement. The obligation to conduct state registration was assigned to the municipality, and the actions of the latter clearly showed abuse of the right and an attempt to illegally change the private partner who faithfully fulfilled all the conditions of the agreement.

The court found our arguments reasoned and ruled in favor of the client: dismissed the claim for invalidation of the public-private partnership.