The Secretariat for Property Protection of the Municipality of Budva once again requested the institution of the Protector of Property and Legal Interests of Montenegro to immediately initiate proceedings and declare null and void the contract according to which part of the Old Town became private property.
The contract was concluded three decades ago between the Ministry of Defense and the Budva company "Imobilia", and the Assistant Secretary for Property Protection Đorđe Zenović in the amended letter to the Protector, he states that part of the ramparts and towers of the Old Town, as well as the courtyard inside the Citadel fortress, was illegally registered as the property of a private company.
A few months ago, Zenović (Democrats) sent a request to the Protector to urgently start the procedure to cancel the contract and return the medieval fortress and cultural-historical monument to the state.
He then submitted to the Protector a contract according to which the then Ministry of Defense, which was the owner, decided to exchange a part of the Old Town for about 700 square meters of residential space in Tivat.
As stated in the contract, the Ministry separates from its property and transfers to the company "Imobilia" the right to dispose of and use and manage real estate - the old Austro-Hungarian barracks area of 615,88 square meters, the western tower of 56,01 square meters and the basement space under the large plateau of the area 12,5 square meters. The total net area, as stated in the contract, is 684,39 square meters.
The company "Imobilia", as written in the contract, undertakes to build and transfer to the Ministry of Defense the right of disposal, use and management of part of the apartments at the location "Delfin" Tivat, with a net usable area of 684,39 square meters.
Zenović has now submitted a supplement to the documentation in which he clearly indicated that it is disputed how the company "Imobilia" came into ownership of three cadastral plots - 2802/1, 2802/2 and 2803 KO Budva, which in the contract were kept as city-building plots land. He states that the plots were given for use, and that a private company registered them as property.
According to the cadastral records, it is a part of the ramparts, the towers of the Old Town, but also the courtyard, with a total area of 3.000 square meters inside the fortress, which is currently registered as the owner of the company "Citadela", whose founder is a businessman Branko Cupic.
"The Ministry of Defense at that time decisively stated in the contract that it 'separates' specific objects from its property and transfers the right of disposal, use and management to the company 'Imobilija'. However, the Ministry, as the seller, does not state anywhere that its assets are cadastral plots 2802/1, 2802/2 and 2803 KO Budva and states that they represent urban-building land and as such is assigned to the company 'Imobilija' with the right of use. It is indisputable that the contract in question was concluded on December 16, 1992, when the Law on Construction Land was in force. The law imperatively determined that only and exclusively the municipality, i.e. the Municipal Assembly, can grant urban construction land that it manages... It is also imperative that urban construction land is allocated to users on the basis of a competition or on the basis of direct negotiation, in the manner and in the procedure which is prescribed by the Municipal Assembly, Zenović states in a letter to the Protector.
He emphasizes that, bearing in mind the imperative legal framework in which the only way city construction land could be disposed of on the day of signing the exchange agreement, the Ministry of Defense could not dispose of the mentioned plots, because they are state property.
"How in the specific case with the city-building land, i.e. the mentioned three cadastral plots, was disposed of by a legal entity that is not the holder in such a way that it ceded the plots with the right of use through an obligatory legal contract, and the company 'Imobilija' then registered them as property outside the law procedure, we consider that this part of the contract in question is null and void and cannot produce legal effect between the contracting parties, as well as in relation to the state that is the sole holder. This indicates the possibility of starting the procedure of declaring this part of the contract null and void in the court proceedings and returning the cadastral parcels to the ownership of the state," the memo reads.
In addition to the protection of state property, as Zenović states, the return of plots to state ownership has the greatest possible cultural significance for Montenegro and Budva.
"All the mentioned plots include, in addition to the objects in the disputed contract, the ramparts and towers of the Old Town, which are protected as a state cultural asset. The area in question is protected as a cultural asset of national importance by the decision of the Ministry of Culture, and the Citadel and the bastions with their historical background occupy the central value of the Old Town", concluded Zenović.
He assessed that the return of illegally alienated property that has unique cultural wealth and national value is imperative.
In his letter to Zenović, the Protector thanked him for the additional information and stated that he also received the chronology of registration of rights to the Citadel's facilities from the Administration for Cadastre and State Property, as well as documentation from the Ministries of Culture and Defense.
From that institution, they stated that after analyzing the complete documentation, they will organize a meeting with the representatives of the Budva municipality.
Gregović, on behalf of the Municipality, waived the right to the Citadel
The Municipality of Budva waived the right to sue, and thus the cancellation of the contract, after concluding an out-of-court settlement with the company "Imobilia" in February 1998.
The out-of-court settlement was signed by the then mayor of Budva Rade Gregović, later the Minister of Environmental Protection and Spatial Planning.
"The municipality of Budva declares that it has no legal claims regarding the Citadel facility and the real estate exchange agreement concluded between the Ministry of Defense and the company 'Imobilia' and that it will not make any claims against 'Imobilia' in the future," it says in the out-of-court settlement.
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