UNMIK/PR/433

PRESS RELEASE - 1 December 2000

Housing and Property Directorate Begins Operations Involving Contested Property

The Housing and Property Directorate (HPD) has started serving notice on occupants of apartments, and other interested parties, in response to more than 800 claims which have already been lodged with it.

Occupants of contested property will receive a notice that a claim has been filed for the property they are inhabiting, and if they wish to answer the claim and participate in the proceedings over the contested property, they must inform the HPD within 30 days.

HPD officials, assisted by UNMIK police, are delivering the hand-written notifications.   Lists of properties against which claims have been made are also posted at the offices of  the HPD in Pristina and Gnjilane.  A new office will be opened in the next few weeks in Mitrovica, where the lists will also be available.

This step in the claims process is stipulated in UNMIK Regulation 2000/60, which sets out the  rules and procedures for the property claims process in Kosovo.

A person occupying a house or apartment, who is notified of a claim against that property, has the right to answer the claim and to take part in proceedings relating to it.    Persons who wish to answer to a claim or to lodge a claim should contact the nearest office of the HPD and make an appointment, within 30 days of receiving the notification of the claim.

The Housing and Property Directorate will take claims at any of these Regional Offices:

Pristina Regional Office: Telephone: +038-549-918, Fax: 549-919
Gnjilan Regional Office: Contact number: +028-020-289
Mitrovica Regional Office: to open in mid-December

Persons who are eligible to lodge claims on property include those who lost apartments or houses due to discrimination at any time between 23 March 1989 and 24 March 1999; those  who could not register ownership because of discrimination; and those  who lost possession of their houses or apartments since 24 March 1999 because of the conflict.

When a complaint is lodged, the HPD will accept and place before the Houing and Property Claims Commission any documentation proving ownership or possession, including contracts of sale, deeds, possession lists and utility bills.

One important impact of Regulation 2000/60 has been the temporary freeze on the sale of certain apartments.  These are apartments which were socially owned and the owner is someone other than the person who occupied the property on 23 March 1989. 

Another effect of the regulation is that organisations which previously may have had the right to allocate socially owned apartments may no longer do so in the case of apartments which remain socially owned.  This ban on sales  and allocations will continue until the ownership of the apartment in dispute has been resolved.

HPD staff and authorised municipal staff will also be conducting housing surveys in all regions and municipalities throughout Kosovo continuing through next year.