"Sold" to uncle to avoid claims: Tivat businessman tries to prevent court sale of real estate

On February 12, the Municipality of Tivat managed to register with the Real Estate Administration a public execution lien (court sale of real estate) over several properties owned, co-owned and used by a local businessman. Marko Glavočić, in order to collect claims from Glavočić in the amount of almost 1,5 million euros.

In the meantime, he filed an objection to the enforcement decision, which the Basic Court in Kotor is expected to rule on soon, and before the Municipality managed to register the enforcement decision in the cadastre, he tried to "sell" part of these properties to his uncle. Radu Gag ArsićAll of this could make it more difficult for the Municipality to settle its claims through a court sale.

The Real Estate Administration has accepted to enter the enforcement decision issued by the public enforcement officer on February 6th in the "G list" (data on real estate encumbrances - ed.). Darko RajkovicWith that act, a decision on the judicial sale of several real estate properties owned or co-owned by the Glavočićs in the cadastral municipalities of Tivat and Mrčevac was entered in the “G list”.

Glavočić has a 495 square meter business building with 2.793 square meters of surrounding land in Kukuljina (a former warehouse and sales center of the company "Dalmacijavino" from Split), three family residential buildings, several auxiliary buildings, one ruin, an uncategorized road, a yard, and several undeveloped cadastral plots blocked.

The municipality, through its legal representative, attorney Mladen Peruničić, blocked these assets, so that she could have the opportunity to sell them herself at a court auction and thus settle her financial claim against Glavočić.

The municipality has recently, after almost six years of proceedings before various courts in Montenegro, finally come to a position to return to its budget in due course almost 1,5 million euros that Glavočić took from it in court in 2019 towards the end of the DPS rule in that city. In February 2019, the municipality paid Glavočić, the nephew of businessman Rad-Gag Arsić close to the DPS, an amount of as much as 1.456.000 euros in the “Dalmacijavino” affair. Glavočić was also charged interest in the amount of 16.575 euros on this claim, which means that the local government is now trying to forcibly collect a total of 1.472.575 euros from him.

"On 26 December 2024, the Constitutional Court accepted the Municipality's constitutional appeal and overturned the Supreme Court's judgment of 12 November 25.11.2020. The overturned judgment confirmed the decisions of lower courts that obliged the Municipality to pay Marko Glavočić compensation for the seized real estate. Acting on the then final and enforceable judgment, the Municipality paid Glavočić the amount of 1.472.575 euros. Since the judgment on the basis of which the payment was made was overturned, the Basic Court in Kotor, upon a motion for counter-enforcement, issued a decision ordering Marko Glavočić to return the aforementioned amount to the Municipality. Based on that decision, enforcement proceedings were initiated, which are being conducted by the public bailiff Darko Rajković," Peruničić previously told "Vijesti".

He stated that the Constitutional Court's decision "confirmed the validity of the legal arguments of the Municipality of Tivat, and the proceedings continue before the first instance court."

Businessman Marko Glavočić sued the Municipality in 2014 for “payment of compensation for nationalized and expropriated land”, for real estate that was once owned by the company “Dalmacijavino” from Split. The Municipality took the warehouse space and the surrounding land of about seven thousand square meters in Kukuljina from the ownership of “Dalmacijavino” in 1992, and later sold part of it to the private company “Aurora” from Tivat. Glavočić bought this real estate from “Dalmacijavino” in January 2013 in a transaction led by his uncle, Tivat businessman Rado Gago Arsić, after which he sued the Municipality, which lost in the first-instance and second-instance proceedings before the courts in Kotor, Podgorica and Bijelo Polje. At that time, the Montenegrin judiciary was headed by the President of the Supreme Court Vesna Medenica, godmother of Rade Gag Arsić. Medenica was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison for the criminal offense of "unlawful influence" in another case based on the indictment filed against her by the Special State Prosecutor's Office.

In 2019, while it was still ruled by the DPS, the municipality was forced to close after the verdict of the Higher Court in Bijelo Polje became final and the money was immediately paid to Glavočić, which was particularly insisted on by the then Vice President of the Municipality and leader of the DPS Tivat Local Government. Siniša Kusovac, filed a review with the Supreme Court, which she later won, but in the meantime Glavočić had already taken 1,45 million euros from the city budget. The lawsuits and counterclaims of the two parties continued in the following years because the new city government of Tivat, led by the Civic List Narod bejedjuju, which took over the management of Tivat from the DPS in the fall of 2020, did not give up on trying to return to the budget the money that the businessman had withdrawn from her account based on the controversial ruling of the court in Bijelo Polje. Finally, the Municipality succeeded in this before the Constitutional Court.

The case is now before the Basic Court in Kotor, which is supposed to secure enforcement, or forced collection, from Glavočić by blocking all of his accounts and assets.

It is interesting that in the meantime, before the Municipality managed to register the enforcement decision in the cadastre, Glavočić tried to "sell" part of these properties.

So on December 11th of last year he appeared before a notary Branko Kascelan in Kotor with his uncle, Rade Gag Arsić, he entered into a preliminary contract for the purchase and sale of real estate registered in LN 954 KO Mrčevac (former warehouse "Dalmacijavina" of 495 square meters and 2.182 square meters of land) at a price of 575.000 euros.

According to the preliminary contract, which "Vijesti" has access to, it is defined that the buyer (Arsić) shall pay the agreed price to the seller (Glavočić) "within three years from the date of conclusion of the preliminary contract, at a pace and in amounts consistent with the buyer's financial capabilities", and that the final purchase and sale contract shall be concluded no later than three years.

This legal matter could make it more difficult for the Municipality to collect its claims from Glavočić through a court sale of the property, because Article 5 of the preliminary contract concluded by the uncle and nephew defines that "possession, benefits, charges, including obligations under property and risk insurance, shall pass to the buyer (Arsić) immediately after the conclusion of the preliminary contract, even if the purchase price has not been paid", and that "the buyer has the right to unhindered use, as well as the right to undertake all actions related to the subject property".

It was also defined that Arsić and Glavočić would subsequently ("after concluding the main contract") agree and specify the conditions regarding the permit for registering the new owner of this property.