Yerevan resident Koryun Bouniatyan participated in an online auction held by the Armenian Compulsory Enforcement Service and won the apartment put up for auction.

According to the online auction listing, Bouniatyan was the winner and that same day the entire purchase amountof 7.9 million dram was transferred to the Compulsory Enforcement Service’s account. He subsequently contacted F. Boghosyan who is responsible for running auctions in order to sign the auction record of proceedings, but he could not do so due to technical problems. 

Although Bouniatyan made another request to sign and seal the necessary paperwork, over 10 days passed since the auction ended. On February 28, 2013, the head of the Compulsory Enforcement Service’s Avan and Nor Nork district branch in Yerevan wrote to Buniatyanstating that the auction that took place on February 19, 2013 was declared void and a repeatonline auction was scheduled in its place. He was also told to appear at the Compulsory Enforcement Service office on any workday to receive his refund payment.

The Compulsory Enforcement Service returned all but 5 percent of the lot’s value—which was claimed as a prepayment fee—amounting to 412,960 dram to Buniatyan. In response to his lawyer’s request for clarification, the Compulsory Enforcement Service head responsible for such inquiries stated that the prepayment sum was not refunded since the relevant paperwork related to winning the auction was not signed, which was why a repeat auction was scheduled.

Bouniatyan then sent an official letter of complaint to the Chief Compulsory Enforcement Officer of the Republic of Armenia. His lawyer Lusine Bakoumyan said that the head of the Compulsory Enforcement Service’s Avan and Nor Nork district branch in Yerevan dismissed the letter without stating the grounds for doing so and without performing any investigation into the matter.

Later Bouniatyan filed a statement of claimthe Administrative Court of the Judiciary of Armenia requesting that the Compulsory Enforcement Service be required to pay double the amount of the prepayment fee, or 825,920 dram, since the service refused to sign and seal the relevant paperwork related to winning the auction.

His claim worked out in his favor. The court concluded that in this particular instance, there were no grounds to declare the auction void seeing that Buniatyan participated in the auction, a starting bid was offered on the property during the auction that he won and the winner paid the bid amount on the same day of the auction.

If the Compulsory Enforcement Service does not sign the auction record of proceedings, then during a three-day span an amount that is double the prepayment amount is returned to the auction winner and the winner’s losses incurred as a result of participating in the auctionarerefunded. 

The judge hearing the claim, Artur Tzatouryan, stated that the necessity for sealing the sales agreement was not brought under consideration because the Compulsory Enforcement Service already sold the apartment to someone else in a repeat auction.

A writ was issued to the Compulsory Enforcement Service on December 3, 2014 specifying that the refund must be made. But nine months later, the Compulsory Enforcement Service has yet to comply. A sent letter dated March 16, 2015 requesting an explanation from Compulsory Enforcement Service has not been answered.