The state is about to face 26,400 lawsuits for restitution of buildings and properties by former owners

About 26,400 notifications for the restitution of buildings in Romania, based on Law 10/2001, submitted by former owners to the National Authority for Restitution of Properties five years ago, and yet unsolved, may go to Court starting in May 2018, according to Romanian lawyers specialized in litigation and property recovery and restitution from Romanian law firm Pavel, Margarit & Associates.

On the 20th of May 2013, about 53,000 restitution files were submitted at Romanian Restitution Authority. The settlement term for these files was five years (according to Law 165/2013). The five-year deadline passed in May 2018, but 26,400 cases have remained unsolved. According to Romanian legal provisions, former owners can go to court for a faster resolution.

The value of this remaining restitution files is estimated at EUR 4.5 billion, according to a study conducted by Florin Georgescu, vice-president of the National Bank of Romania. So far, 10,500 buildings (schools, hospitals, museums, libraries, housing, including religious cults, etc.) were returned to their former owners, the equivalent of EUR 2 billion. Another 2.2 million hectares of land have been restituted in nature, of which 1.9 million hectares in rural areas (1.3 million hectares of agricultural land and 0.6 million hectares of forest) and 0.3 million hectares of urban land.

Cash compensation amounted to EUR 5.5 billion, of which EUR 4 billion through the Property Fund and EUR 1.5 billion through the National Authority for Restitution of Real Estate, the State Assets Recovery Agency and the Ministry of Public Finance. So the state would still have to repay additional 5 billion euros in compensation, which will be paid in cash or other assets. Out of the EUR 5 billion only EUR 0.5 billion has been approved, but has remained unpaid.

“The unsolved files are, according to Romanian Restitution Authority, «pending», and a few more years may pass until the cases will be settled. According to the Romanian Restitution Authority’s Rules of Procedure, the Romanian Authority has the obligation to solve about 700 files per month, thus about 8,500 files within one year. This means that, in order to solve all 26,400 pending files, the Romanian Restitution Authority has at least 3 years at its disposal. Compared to the settlement period at the Romanian Restitution Authority, a trial in court may take between one or two years, especially if the former owners hire a Romanian lawyer specialized in litigation and property recovery and restitution,” said Catalin-Radu Pavel, Managing Partner at Pavel, Margarit & Associates.

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Bucharest leads among cities with most notifications

According to statistics consulted by Pavel, Margarit & Associates, Bucharest leads the ranking of cities with the highest number of notifications for restitution, most of them being unsolved. Specifically, Bucharest leads with a total of 24,600 notifications. Bucharest is followed in this top by Constanta with 3,100 notifications, and Arad with 890 notifications. The following cities in the ranking were: Buzau – 804 notifications, Sfântu Gheorghe (Covasna) – 476 notifications, Bacau – 431 notifications, Braila – 290 notifications, Sinaia – 233 notifications, Timisoara – 217 notifications, Arges – 208 notifications.

“Bucharest has an overwhelming number of files still waiting to be resolved under Law 10/2001. The sooner the cases are recorded in court, they may be faster solved then in the administrative procedure”, said Managing Partner Catalin-Radu Pavel.

Razvan Zamfir