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Uzbekistan’s Competition and Consumer Rights Protection Committee has found that contracts offered by 132 construction companies across 12 regions contain conditions that systematically disadvantage flat buyers, following a review prompted by more than 1,700 complaints received in the first nine months of 2026.
The complaints centred on poor construction quality and missed handover deadlines. After examining the cases, the committee secured recalculations in favour of consumers totalling approximately 14.5 billion soums.
What the Contracts Actually Said
The committee’s analysis of shared-equity construction agreements — the standard instrument used to sell flats before or during construction — revealed pervasive gaps in buyer protection. In 77.3 percent of the contracts reviewed, no deadline was set for returning a buyer’s money if the agreement was cancelled, or the deadline specified did not match the initial payment terms. Nearly two-thirds of contracts, 63.6 percent, made no mention of a warranty period after a flat was handed over, while 54.5 percent imposed no obligation on the developer to fix defects discovered within any such period.
Half of all contracts — 50.8 percent — contained no penalty clause requiring the developer to pay damages for missing construction deadlines, and a third, 33.3 percent, did not state a precise completion date at all. The committee found that 59.1 percent of agreements were drafted exclusively in the developer’s interest, and 49.2 percent contained other conditions that infringed consumer rights. A further 30.3 percent of contracts were written in Russian rather than the state language.
Penalties Loaded Against Buyers
Beyond the omissions, the review identified clauses that actively restricted buyers’ rights. If a purchaser chose to cancel a contract, some agreements allowed the developer to withhold between 4 and 15 percent of the sum already paid. Others stipulated that a refund would only be issued after the same flat had been resold to a new buyer — a condition that could leave a cancelled purchaser waiting indefinitely. Additional clauses permitted developers to raise the price of a property unilaterally and imposed disproportionately high financial penalties on buyers who defaulted, with no equivalent burden on the developer.
Following the review, the committee submitted proposals to the relevant authorities to address the violations identified. It also issued a public advisory urging prospective buyers to read contract terms carefully before signing and to seek legal advice.