The group of citizens "Legal Owners of the Zavala Peninsula" submitted a request to the Budva Municipal Assembly (MA) to schedule an emergency session, in order to give them consent to conclude a court settlement - in the disputes they are conducting for the return of 68 thousand square meters of land.
They are requesting that the Municipality, in four disputes, three before the Basic Court in Kotor and one before the Higher Court in Podgorica, recognize their ownership of the plots in Zavala and pay them court and legal costs, in the amount awarded by the court.
This is stated in a letter that a group of citizens submitted to the Budva Municipal Council on May 19, which "Vijesti" had access to.
They have been trying for a long time to reclaim nationalized land worth tens of millions of euros on the cape of the same name near Budva.
The state nationalized the property of the 13 Rafailović families on Zavala in 1958, and the former owners point out that the land was never used, i.e. brought to its intended purpose, after which it was registered to the state and the Municipality of Budva during the introduction of the new cadastre in 1995. The heirs of the parcels claim that they found out that they are not the owners of the sedge only after the resale worth millions, and they have been seeking justice in the courts since 2007.
The fact that the state of Montenegro is also considering the issue of settling with a group of citizens was confirmed to "Vijesti" in April by the protector of property and legal interests of the state, Bojana Ćirović. She said that the entire process must be verified and that it will be conducted with the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property, while the first step will be a geodetic expert assessment.
The state registered as the owner in 1995-1996.
The "legal owners of the Zavala peninsula" state in their letter that Budva residents and foreign citizens are conducting numerous court cases against the state and the Municipality for the return of plots on this peninsula. They state that they requested an urgent session because there could be negative consequences for the Municipality and its coffers.
"From the chronology of registration for the aforementioned real estate, submitted in all civil proceedings, as well as the newly submitted documentation received by the Citizens' Group on March 8, 2025, it has undoubtedly been established that the state of Montenegro, through the state body of the Real Estate Administration, or the then Property Directorate, registered it in a public survey in 1995-1996, citing the provisions of the Law on Maritime Property, which could not be applied to specific real estate, because apart from cadastral plot 3063, which is within the scope of the maritime property, the other plots have never been and are not today within the scope of the maritime property. The decisions on state registration are missing certain plots to which the Citizens' Group and the plaintiffs in the proceedings claim, so it can be concluded that the state of Montenegro potentially registered the property of private individuals in a 'magical' way or by mistake and handed the same property over to the Municipality of Budva under the application of the Law on State Property," the letter states.
A square meter was valued at 1.010 euros three years ago.
They point out that in the dispute before the High Court in Podgorica, which seeks exclusive payment for the confiscated property, a first-instance verdict was issued in 2022, which planned compensation of 1.010 euros per square meter of land. They claim that the verdict in the Basic Court in Kotor will be even higher due to new expert assessments and inflation, which would mean that Budva would have to pay at least 80 million euros in damages.
"Given that the Municipality of Budva is one of the defendants, the Municipal Assembly is competent to schedule an urgent session on this draft decision and at that session to declare itself in favor of concluding court settlements, in this and other cases, because in order to conclude a settlement or acknowledge the claim, the body representing the Municipality, the Secretariat for Property Protection and its employees, must have authorization from the Municipal Assembly for further actions regarding concluding a court settlement. In this case, the defendant is the state of Montenegro, represented by Ćirović, which has initiated necessary procedures before the Ministry of Spatial Planning to determine the actual situation in terms of geodetic expertise, identification of the plot of land and expertise of the facilities, after which it will address the Government, in accordance with the procedure prescribed by the Law on State Property, for consent to conclude a court settlement...", this group of citizens emphasized.
Currently, in Zavala, apart from the luxurious settlement "Dukley Gardens", there is only one facility, and it is for temporary purposes - a controversial seawater processing plant, which is not in operation.
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