"Budva Riviera" loses 800 square meters?

The "Budvanska Riviera" hotel group will have to transfer several plots, totaling 800 square meters in the heart of the "Slovenska plaža" tourist resort, to the Municipality of Budva after four decades.

This is stated in the verdict of the Basic Court in Cetinje, which "Vijesti" had access to.

"The claim is adopted and it is determined that the Municipality of Budva is the holder of the property rights to the construction land, which in nature represents a local access road, green space, undeveloped construction land with a total area of 800 square meters," the Cetinje court's decision states.

The largest hotel company in Montenegro, majority owned by the state, will, as we learn, challenge the decision of the first instance court before higher court instances.

As stated in the verdict, the Municipality based its claim on the claim that the plots in question were social property that had been nationalized in the 1960s by a family from Staromestanja, but had in no way been taken from their possession.

The legal representatives of HG “Budvanska rivijera” challenged the claim of the Municipality of Budva before the court, primarily in the part that there is no legal basis for registering the property rights in the use of that hotel company. As evidence, the Cetinje court was provided with the findings of the Commission for the Presentation of Survey Data, Cadastral Classification of Land and Determination of Real Rights to Real Estate from April 1990, which is an organ of the Municipality of Budva, and which determined that “Budvanska rivijera” is the holder of the rights to manage, use and dispose of the disputed plots.

"In March, and then in September 1987, as well as in December 1989, the aforementioned Commission presented for public inspection the survey data, cadastral classification of land and determination of real rights to immovable property, and established data to which the Municipality of Budva had no objections," the explanation states, among other things.

This is a path that leads between the tennis courts on Slovenska Beach and the main boulevard, as well as parts of the green area of the tourist resort complex itself.

On the other hand, as "Vijesti" has written about on several occasions, the Municipality of Budva is currently litigating before Montenegrin courts regarding the return of ownership of the hotel group itself, which the Government unjustly took away from it.

The local government, or rather its Secretariat for Property Protection, when it was headed by Đorđe Zenović, in November 2023, filed a lawsuit against the Government, the Hotel Group "Budvanska rivijera", "Sveti Stefan hotels" and the hotel and tourism company "Miločer", seeking to establish the nullity of the share transfer agreement concluded 26 years ago by "Budvanska rivijera" and the Government, which left the Municipality without ownership in the largest tourism company in the country.

The Municipality proposes to the Commercial Court to issue a judgment establishing the nullity of the Share Transfer Agreement from May 1997, and to establish that the Municipality of Budva is the holder of 3.376.939 shares, which amounts to 41,6 shares in the capital of “Budvanska rivijera”, as well as the holder of shares in the capital of “Sveti Stefan hotels” and “Miločer” in an amount that will be specified after the expert assessment. The lawsuit also requests the court to issue a temporary measure prohibiting the Government from alienating and encumbering shares or interests in “Budvanska rivijera”. The value of the dispute, for which a preparatory hearing is scheduled for tomorrow, as stated in the lawsuit that “Vijesti” has access to, is 22,9 million euros.

"The intention of the lawsuit is an attempt to correct the injustice done to the Municipality during the suspicious property transformation. The original revenues that the Municipality of Budva gave up in favor of the construction and reconstruction of the hotel and other facilities of the "Budva Riviera" have not and cannot be transferred to the state, because this is the money of the citizens of Budva," Zenović previously told "Vijesti".

They pay millions in damages

The Court of Appeal recently upheld the verdict of the Commercial Court, and rejected as unfounded the request of the Budva-based company "Mercur", the former tenant of the "Mogren" hotel, that the "Budvanska rivijera" hotel group pay them a total of 1,2 million euros with associated interest for investments in the adaptation of that Budva hotel, as well as "Kafe terasse".

Thus, the largest hotel company in Montenegro can breathe a sigh of relief, because a negative court outcome, since the amount with the associated interest exceeds two million euros, would practically lead it to financial collapse. Namely, a month and a half ago, the Podgorica company "Zetagradnja" withdrew about four million euros from the account of HG "Budvanska rivijera" after the ruling of the Court of Appeal in the dispute over the sale of land in Petrovac from a decade and a half ago.