SETTLING DOWN THANKS TO "BILDT'S LAW"
Return to Homes
AIM Sarajevo, 16 December, 1996
How and under what conditions will prewar tenants, who have dispersed around the whole wide world during the war, be able to return to their homes? What will happen with the army of banished persons who were forced to live in other people's homes, both according to temporary and permanent decisions? In other words, will the prewar or war tenants be able to buy the housing units where they live?
It is logical to expect that these puzzles will be resolved after London conference and increase of authorization given to the Office of High Representative of the international community. Of course, this is true only under the condition that legal regulations for it will be created, if many of war laws, decrees and regulations in force during the war will be invalidated.
The Presidency of Bosnia & Herzegovina at its latest session finally decided to call off the state of war ("immediate war danger") on the territory (Federation of B&H) where it had not been done before. Indeed, its validity expired according to the Dayton accords in April this year. Probably as of 18 December, when the federal parliament will ratify this decision, many war laws will cease to apply. Therefore, so shall the notorious decision on abandoned apartments which only in Sarajevo proclaimed 33 thousand housing units temporarily abandoned. About ten thousand of them were proclaimed permanently abandoned on various foundations.
The Office of the High Representative did its best to help the authorities both in the Federation and the Republica Srpska in resolving this indeed sensitive problem. Especially because the category of holders of tenancy rights little or not at all known in the world cannot be treated as private property, but nevertheless has certain significance. Starting from that, Bildt's team of experts is trying to introduce more order into the housing field and accordingly offered guidelines which refer to the end of application of the Law on Abandoned Housing Units, the Law on Temporarily Abandoned Real Estate Owned by Citizens and the Law on Housing Relations. These guidelines are expected to be adopted in both entities, the Federation and Republica Srpska. A Joint Committee, members of which are, apart from representatives of the Federation and Republica Srpska, representatives of B&H, is working on elaboration of these guidelines which will finally resolve the dilemma concerning return of people into their apartments, in other words, re-establishment of their tenancy rights.
The essence of the so-called Bildt's Law is that all solutions reached during the war are proclaimed to be invalid in post-Dayton peace. This refers to both temporary and permanent solutions which have been adopted after the Dayton accords. This practically means that even all holders of tenancy rights whose contracts on apartment lease were cancelled at court due to their absence for longer than six months, may return to their apartments after all.
Experts for housing problems claim that after adoption of Bildt's Law, administrative regulations and other solutions referring to temporary use of housing units will be applied for six months after this law enters into force. The administration of the Federation, the cantons, municipalities, the city and enterprises, after the first six months expire, will enable the holder of tenancy rights to move into his housing unit if he or a member of his family submits a request to have the apartment returned.
When the aurthiorities in charge reach a decision on return of the holder of tenancy rights into a housing unit, he shall inform them when he intends to do it, but at least 60 days prior to the date determined for the return into the housing unit. In exceptional cases after expiry of the six months for submitting the request, but not later than three years from the day of entering into force of this law, a holder of tenancy rights and members of his household are entitled to submit a request to be returned into the apartment if they prove that they have not been aware of the existence of the mentioned law.
A temporary user of a housing unit shall return the property to the owner as soon as he is given accomodation, and not later than 60 days from the day they receive the decision, if not agreed otherwise with the owner. For these 60 days, he will pay a rent to the owner determined by the municipality.
The mentioned Bildt's solutions shall apply in the entire B&H, which means in Republica Srpska as well, but until their adoption, the announced law on buying housing units which should have already been adopted by the federal parliament most probably will not appear yet. The Office of the High Representative is not satisfied with it, that is why its postponement was proposed. It was proposed, in fact, in case the federal parliament adopts it, to limit the possibility of buying apartments only to those who were holders of tenancy rights at the moment when the war broke out. This would create the possibility of verification of the situation concerning the war temporary and permanent solutions and establish the actual state of affairs.
Mirjana MICEVSKA