The Secretariat for Property Protection of the Municipality of Budva has filed a lawsuit with the Commercial Court to terminate the contract with the company "Aquaterra solutions", demanding that the local administration take over all the buildings built on the plot on Topliš hill, where the large Aqua Park is located.
This was confirmed to "Vijesti" by the Acting Secretary for Property Protection. Vlado Ivanovic, stating that the company's current debt with interest has exceeded one and a half million euros.
The Commercial Court confirmed the public bailiff's decision, so he should soon go to the scene and inventory the movable assets of "Aquaterra Solutions", from slides, pool pumps, restaurant inventory, to other furniture, which will then be sold in order to settle at least part of the debt.
This is the fifth year that the company "Aquaterra solutions" has not paid the rent for the municipal land on Topliš hill where the Water Town was built.
A decade ago, the Municipality of Budva concluded a long-term lease agreement with “Aquaterra solutions” on December 24, 2014, for the construction of an Aqua Park. The annual lease price for four hectares of municipal land was 255 thousand euros.
Due to non-payment of rent, the Secretariat for Property Protection had to take radical steps - the sale of movable property in the Aqua Park complex on Topliš Hill was requested in order to collect rent from the company "Aquaterra solutions" for 2019.
"The current claim under the enforcement decision on the lease for 2019 amounts to 313.553 euros, the principal is 215.447 euros, and the rest is interest. At the proposal of the Secretariat for Property Protection, a decision was made to change the enforcement, and enforcement was ordered on the debtor's movable property. Our goal is to inventory the movable property in the Aqua Park, and the public bailiff is expected to schedule this to be carried out on site," Ivanović previously told "Vijesti".
It is expected that a public bailiff will soon arrive on site to take inventory of the items. The municipality is unable to collect its claims in any other way since the company's account has long been blocked by the Central Bank.
The aqua park was not open last tourist season, and the entire complex is in extremely poor condition, so this summer it resembled more of a ruin than a tourist attraction.
Legal representatives of the company "Aquaterra solutions" told "Vijesti" this summer that the company had repeatedly contacted the Municipality of Budva, but they did not receive a permit to operate for last year, which is why the entire summer was a lock on what was once the biggest tourist attraction. The aqua park has been deteriorating for years and no investment has been made in it, so the offer of the complex was at an increasingly low level.
An additional problem was that the company had not paid the city water utility bills for two full years, which exceeded 125 thousand euros, which is why the complex was disconnected from the network.
The Municipality of Budva concluded a long-term lease agreement with “Aquterra solutions” on 24 December 2014 for the construction of an Aqua Park. Subsequently, several annexes to the agreement were concluded for each year of the lease, the last annex III of the agreement was concluded on 2 July 2019 in the amount of 255.447 euros. The obligation was that the full amount be paid within seven days, i.e. on 91 July 9. However, the Municipality failed to collect a single cent for five full years.
The Aqua Park construction project, as one of the most important for the Montenegrin metropolis of tourism, was promoted in 2006. The entire project fell through because the Cypriot company “Numerico Trade Limited” failed to realize the idea, leaving millions in debts to the Municipality. The case was taken over by the prosecutor's office in January 2011, when inspectors entered the Municipality of Budva and seized all the documentation. Although at that time there was talk of one of the biggest corruption scandals, because the debts of the Cypriot company fell on the shoulders of taxpayers. The case was archived in July 2021 by the then Chief Special Prosecutor Milivoje Katnic.
The municipality, while it is managed by DPS staff, manages to animate "Aquaterra solution" at the end of 2014, which submits the most favorable offer in the tender. The company backed by Russian capital gets a three-decade lease of 41.889 square meters of municipal land in Topliš and agrees to buy for two million euros the equipment of the Spanish manufacturer "Action waterscapes SL", which was previously acquired by a Cypriot company, and which was stored in Bar for years. port.
"Aquaterra solution" succeeds in building a large water city in two years, the official opening of which was in June 2016.
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