A FAMILY who moved to Checkendon from Russia seven months ago have launched an appeal to stay in the village after their rented home was put up for sale.
Elena Sheinkman, 35, her husband Dmitrii Shakhov, 38, and their daughter Maria, four, moved from Moscow to the village in December.
They say they have received a warm welcome from villagers but may not be able to stay much longer after their rented three-bedroom property in Emmens Close was put up for sale by their landlord in March.
The couple say they have the funds to buy the house but due to the UK’s sanctions against Russia following the Ukraine invasion, they can only take a limited amount of money out of their home country unless it is in cash.
They are looking instead to get a mortgage but need a 10 per cent loan from a UK citizen to make this possible. Without this, they will be forced to leave their home on July 22 when their contract runs out and relocate with their daughter, who has settled into the village pre-school.
Mrs Sheinkman, associate sales director at software company Nielsen IQ, said: “We are badly trying to get a mortgage ourselves because we love the house and don’t want to move.
“The main reason we want to stay here is because our daughter is in pre-school.
“For the last several months we haven’t been able to rest. If somebody could help us it would be a huge support and we will be confident about Maria’s future.”
The couple, who are friends with their landlord, say they were made aware that the house may be put on the market a few days before they signed the contract last winter but were already set to move in.
Mr Sheinkman’s said: “We relocated from Russia in November and spent about one month in a hotel looking for something before we found this house.
“We rented it but unfortunately the landlord decided to sell it just before we signed the contract.
“We had already ordered our IKEA furniture because the house was unfurnished and realised that we didn’t have any option other than to sign the contract because otherwise we would have to sleep outside in our new furniture.” The couple can afford the 10 per cent deposit needed for a mortgage on the house but are banned from transferring large sums into their UK bank accounts from Russia.
Mrs Sheinkman said: “We can get some money out of Russia but the difficulty is that it is a limited amount. Ordinary people can’t bring more than $10,000.
“To get the mortgage, you need to have the savings for a deposit.”
The family have been trying to get a mortgage but keep getting refused as they have not lived in the UK for long enough.
Mrs Sheinkman said: “We started looking for a house nearby but there is almost like nothing in terms of the rental homes.
“That’s why we started thinking maybe we should try for a mortgage. Our landlord helped us find a mortgage broker but most of the banks require at least three years or pre-leave to remain status. At the same time, we don’t have too much in savings because we spent a lot to relocate, to buy all the furniture and stuff.”
The family say their last option to stay in their current home is to find a UK citizen to sign a joint mortgage with.
Mrs Sheinkman said: “We go into the mortgage with 10 per cent from somebody who gives the loan and 90 per cent which we pay in regular payments.
“In two or three years, we can remortgage, return the loan and own the house on our own.
“But since we are new to the UK, we don’t have friends, relatives or anybody here who would be happy to give us a loan because 10 per cent is a bit more than £40,000.”
The family say one of the main reasons they want to stay in the village is for Maria, who has made friends at the pre-school, which is based in the village hall, and expects to start at Checkendon Primary School in September.
Mrs Sheinkman said: “The school is really good. It has good ratings and the community is really good because she has already made some friends there.
“All of them are going from the pre-school to the primary school so it’s really important for her that she stays there.
“When we came here, she’d had some English lessons but she didn’t really speak it. Now she speaks really good English.”
Maria has been to visit the primary school as part of the pre-school’s acclimatisation days. Mrs Sheinkman said: “They started going to school to get acquainted with their teachers, with the environment, with the classes, so to change school would be a huge stress for her on top of relocation.”
She said the family had felt welcomed by the local community and made connections with their
neighbours.
Mrs Sheinkman said: “People might have some perceptions about Russians but we didn’t have any objections or anything
“Here in Emmens Close and Checkendon it’s a very close community and people are very friendly and talk to each other.
“I think that this community accepted us and it seems we are a good fit. I think everybody would be jealous of us having such great neighbours.”
Mr Shakhov, who works as a multimedia designer for a video design company, said: “We have such lovely forests and fields all around and it’s such a safe place.
“We take part in all the attractions here like the local festivals and car boot sale. We both work remotely and we just love it. It’s such a beautiful place.”
Mrs Sheinkman is due to reach 10 years with Nielsen IQ after previously working in the company’s office in Moscow.
After a year-long interview process for the UK role, the company sponsored the family’s visas to relocate and the family sold their Moscow flat and car before the move.
Mrs Sheinkman said: “We had quite a good life in Moscow before the war. We love our life in the UK but of course we miss our friends and relatives.”
Mr Shakhov is a keen musician and makes money selling beats online.
In Russia, he previously worked as a producer on a YouTube channel The People, which has more than five million subscribers.
He was a finalist at the Cannes World Film Festival 2024 for a documentary he produced with the channel about Kazakhstan’s nuclear sites.
The couple say they have a steady regular monthly income and if they find a mortgage partner they hope to be able to remortgage the house after two or three years and repay the loan with interest.
