President Milanović Calls on Government to Resolve Protected Tenancy Issue
The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović received a delegation of alliances of tenants’ associations in order to warn once again about the problems faced by protected tenants, calling for the resolution of their unfavourable situation in accordance with the law of 2018.
“The issue is about a group of people, not a large one, which is in a dire situation because they had the misfortune of not having obtained social housing during socialism that they could purchase. They didn’t have the fortune to get inflationary loans so as to pay off in five years what would take twenty-five years. And not knowing where they’re heading, they entered into a lease. Then after the nineties, it was discovered that prior owners existed. This is by no means an attack against owners, as owners they have to be protected and obtain their right, which was resolved by the 2018 law”, President Milanović noted, and reminded that on 1st September of this year a major new rent increase has come into effect for protected tenants, many of whom are older people who will not be able to afford it.
President MIlanović added that it mostly concerns some ten thousand older people and feels that the Croatian State has to start solving this issue. “This cannot be done without money, not much, for a group of people that will not be able to solve it on their own. In a year and a half, they will have to pay the full market rental cost, and it concerns mostly pensioners”, he said.
President Milanović regrets that the issue has not been solved earlier in a manner he feels it should have been solved, and reminded of the dire financial situation in which Croatia was.
“I understand and take into consideration the situation in which the Croatian State finances are at the moment. This shouldn’t last too long and as soon as the financial situation somewhat improves, I think that the State and the Government must solve this issue. First, for ethical reasons, and second, they can solve it without major problems. After all, funds are still coming and instalments from citizens for the purchase of social housing. This is money and this is the legal framework, which allowed hundreds of thousands of Croatian families to purchase social housing for a trifling sum of money. Those who unknowingly had the misfortune of entering some old building that had a former owner have found themselves in a whirlwind that will blow them away. Second, I fear incidents between owners and tenants, and the State can solve this. Therefore, I underline once again, let the owners get what’s theirs, however, ten thousand people, a small group of older people has no voice or strength, or energy or money to solve this problem. We will cause a great deal of injustice”, the President of the Republic concluded.
Attending the meeting with the President were the president of the Alliance of Tenants’ Associations of Croatia – EU Citizens Gordana Vojković, representative of the “Hrvatski savez udruge stanara” (Croatian Alliance of Tenants Association) Tomislav Tomašević and protected tenant Vladimir Severinac.