What if I don't want a criminal's apartment?

The Council of the Agency for the Protection of Personal Data and Free Access to Information will soon decide whether the registration numbers were illegally removed from the websites of the Real Estate Administration and the Tax Administration, after hearing the arguments of the legal representative of MANS, Veselin Radulović, presented at the Council session. .

Radulović was invited due to the request of MANS to participate in the supervision procedure in these institutions and the complaint of the NGO that the registration numbers were illegally removed.

He repeated yesterday that the Agency's controllers did not have the authority to order the Tax and Real Estate Administration to remove registration numbers from the websites, stating that only the Council of the Agency can do that. The head of the Council is Šefko Crnovrsanin.

"The Administrative Court has concluded that controllers do not have such authority several times in other cases, but the Agency persistently repeats the same illegality. I doubt that you made an agreement with the officials of the Tax and Real Estate Administration in order to avoid the decision of the Administrative Court in this case, because they did not file an appeal against your decision," said the lawyer.

He explained that MANS requests to obtain the status of a participant in the procedure, that is, the possibility to participate in supervision, in order to appeal to the Administrative Court against the illegal decision of the Agency.

Council member Radenko Lacmanović explained at the session, which was open to the public, that in 2010 and 2011 they had supervision in the Real Estate Administration, but that it was explained to them then that it was not able to delete registration numbers because they needed to change the computer program, for which there is no money.

Lacmanović said that they did not delete the registration numbers, but that they were just removed from the website. He stated that the Agency supports transparency and free access to data, stating that they have already accepted MANS' appeals ordering the cadastre not to delete addresses and registration numbers from documents submitted under the Law on Free Access.

Radulović commented that it is pointless, because the interested parties receive their ID numbers only with a long delay.

He said that such things create problems for ordinary citizens as well. "If I want to buy an apartment and I suspect that it belongs to a criminal, with whom I don't want to deal, how can I check it", asked Radulović.