Montenegro, The register of state property is being formed

Published on 30. March 2023., News

Every citizen can get information on whether and which plots or buildings are owned by the state with one click. The Director of the Cadastre and State Property Administration, Koča Đurišić, told Vijesti.

With that, after almost a decade and a half of ignoring the regulations, the second phase of the legal obligation has been completed – the establishment of the register of state property, he said.

In 2009, the Law on State Property provided for the obligation to establish a register of state property. The list of land and buildings owned by Montenegro was completed only in May of last year, and is now available to every citizen on the portal ekatastar.me.

– The Law states the term register, which includes records – a census, an electronic database and an assessment of state property. The new management of the Administration for Cadastre and State Property found none of that. That is why we made the inventory of state property a priority of the Administration. Last year, we completed the first stage of the register – property inventory. At the end of February, we satisfied the second criterion, that is, the phase – we published the records in electronic form on the already existing software ekatastar.me – said Đurišić.

According to him, no state facility was registered, and the software, worth hundreds of thousands of euros, purchased back in 2014, never worked.

– We listed the state property and modified the existing software. We did not spend a single state euro – said Đurišić.

The government should assess whether it should invest in property valuation or change the law

The last stage – the assessment of state property, says Đurišić, would cost tens of millions of euros.
– In a conversation with forensic experts from various professions – construction, agriculture… we came to the conclusion that it would cost tens of millions of euros. Each building, land, forest… must be evaluated in accordance with the categorization. The countries of the region have not finished it either. Of the countries of the former SFRY, only Slovenia has this type of assessment. It’s not that the job is impossible, but it’s about the huge amount of money required for it. We did what was possible at the moment with the capacities we had at our disposal, without spending additional financial resources. When there will be an assessment, whether the state will provide money for it or whether it will change the legal solution, remains to be seen – emphasized Đurišić.

Illegal builders should know that they are on state property

If citizens built on state or municipal plots, Đurišić points out, and in the meantime they have not bought them, they are still owned by the state.

– There are many such plots. These are procedures for which the Government Department for Urban Planning is in charge. In the future, for the purpose of legalizing buildings on state or municipal plots, which will be recognized by the planning documentation, I assume that the sale of that land will be approved. What the criteria will be and what the prices will be are questions for the Government and the municipalities – said Đurišić.

When a minister asked me how accurate the list of state property was, I gave him my word that it was the most accurate list of state property that the country had. He asked me then why I was so confident. I explained to him that it is the most accurate, because it is the first and has nothing to compare it to. It reflects the facts – what we found and what we did. According to him, there are also legal entities, i.e. companies that have usurped state property.

– In any case, no one can acquire the right of ownership over state property, if there is no judgment of the competent court, decision of the competent authority or if someone bought it from the state at an auction – he emphasized.

Đurišić also explains that the record of state property is a “dynamic category”.

– We have property that, through court judgments or decisions of other state bodies, is returned to the owners, so it is deleted from the records of state property. Likewise, certain property is returned to the state, so it is entered in the records. That’s how enumerators encountered strange situations in the field.

– One building in Kralja Nikola Street in Podgorica was registered as state-owned. However, it was actually returned to its owners and demolished in the 1950s. We also have this type of problem, which is slowly being solved by cleaning the records after ascertaining the situation on the ground – explained Đurišić.

Lease yes, sale no

Montenegro has 1,153,323 hectares of state-owned land, but also 2,515 buildings, with a total area of 532,672 m2. The state also owns 4,278 special parts of buildings (garages, apartments and business premises), with a total area of 827,275 m2. According to the data of the Administration, the most state hectares are in Pljevlja (157,723), Nikšić (124,201), Plužine (123,663), Kolašin (113,260), Podgorica (65,731), Šavnik (60,736), Žabljak (59,885), Bar (54,909).

When it comes to state-owned buildings, the most are in Podgorica (392, total area 110,165 square meters), Nikšić (316, total area 73,142 square meters), Bar (219, total area 44,871 square meters)… The number of garages, apartments and business buildings, i.e. special parts of buildings, is also the highest in Podgorica – 1,603, total area 334,037, Berane – 275 (area 57,106 square meters), Bar 156 (area 50,953 square meters), Nikšić 275 (area 49,047 square meters). .

Đurišić explains that the state authorities are mostly concentrated in the capital, where most of the unused state buildings are in a bad and neglected state:

– Investment is needed to bring them to a decent condition, and besides, they are small areas. There are also situations where they are categorized as business premises, and upon inspection it is determined that they are atomic shelters or ruins.

He also emphasizes that those facilities that are not needed by the state, and which are in decent condition, will be advertised for lease.

– The position of the administration is that the state has no need to sell its property, not a single square centimeter. That position does not bind the Government, but it is what we advocate. Leasing yes, selling no.