The owners of Lamela C apartments, residential buildings in the Zabjelo neighborhood in Podgorica, and Minister Janko Odović did not reach any agreement at the meeting held today.
They were offered legal assistance and support from the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property, as they told journalists, in order to collect the money they invested in the apartments from the investor, the company "PS Gradnja".
They rejected such an offer, because, says one of the apartment owners, Danilo Pejović, they should wait four years for a more concrete solution.
"He told us that if you want, we can provide you with legal assistance, if you don't have a lawyer, we can hire one, so that you can recover the money from the investor. We asked if we could get some other square meters, how long would that procedure last. It will last at least four years I just asked him - where are we in four years," said Pejović today after the meeting.
And Odović told the journalists that they did offer legal and other support to the owners of the apartments, in order to compensate them from the person from whom they bought the apartment.
"They refused such help and demanded that Lamela C remain as it is, that is, that the works continue, that the old detailed urban plan (DUP) be returned. According to that DUP, four floors were allowed, so there is no theoretical chance , according to no DUP, that this building could be legalized. The only legal situation is that Lamela, in accordance with the decision and laws, will be demolished in some future period," said Odović.
Responding to the comments of the other owner of the apartment in the disputed lamella, Igor Dunaj, about the possible demolition while people are in the apartments, Odović said that he does not care about the fact that he is demolishing someone's home.
"People don't live in this building, and there will certainly be a situation, and there are those where people live. I go to bed every night with that thought and wake up with that thought. The state failed in the previous period, the state should have as soon as something started to build, to demolish," he said and added that in the coming period, it will also be the case that, according to the new systematization, mobile teams will visit Montenegro, that the number of inspectors has also increased, to 100 from the current 37.
"Who will have to go and control exactly that, when they see that some wall has started to be built - do you have a building permit for it, a construction report, a project... You don't have it? The "Space Protection" goes and it is demolished. We have to start that we behave responsibly, both towards ourselves and towards the space, but also towards people, as a country," said Odović.
The owners of the apartments have repeatedly stated that after the purchase, they registered the real estate from the disputed lamella in the cadastre. Odović previously announced that because of this, he will seek to determine the responsibility of the employees who made it possible, and yesterday he said that such procedures have been initiated.
"Proceedings have been initiated against the employees of the Cadastre Administration, which will be determined through supervision and control of the legality of work as to how unauthorized changes were made to the cadastre. Someone will have to answer for that, as far as I'm concerned, and criminally," he said. added that reports will also be submitted to the prosecutor's office.
According to him, it will be interesting to see the financial flows of everyone who participated in that business.
"Including employees in the cadastre, let's see if there were any changes, and as far as I know, there were indeed payments in cash, envelopes...", Odović said.
On December 5, 2023, the Ministry of Urbanism, Spatial Planning and State Property issued a decision allowing the forced execution of the demolition decision from March 2019. After that, the investor announced that he would demolish the building himself, and that demolition was scheduled, but not completed, on December 20 last year.
It was announced that there was no support from the Center for Social Work that day, and the Urban and Construction Inspection informed the media that the inspector's decision had been appealed to the Administrative Court and that proceeding before the court's decision could cost the state.
At the end of last year, "Vijesti" announced that three disputes are pending before the Administrative Court based on lawsuits filed by "PS Gradnje", which the company filed against decisions on compulsory demolition and a decision rejecting the legalization of the buildings they built in the Zabjelo settlement, in Podgorica. Those lawsuits were filed in 2022.
The investor previously complained, and in those cases from 2019, the Administrative Court rejected all the claims of "PS Gradnje" as unfounded.
According to data from the Central Bank, as of December 31, 2023, "PS Gradnja" had a blocked account in the amount of 515 thousand euros, and according to the same data, the block lasts for 1.196 days.
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