Housing and Property Directorate

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The Housing and Property Directorate ( HPD ) (German: Housing and Property Directorate in Kosovo) and its Arbitration Body ( Housing and Property Claims Commission - HPCC ) were established on November 15, 1999 for the purpose of regulating the open, conflict- induced housing and property claims in Kosovo Established by the United Nations Interim Administration ( UNMIK ).

HPD / CC are independent authorities that have been entrusted with the clarification of certain conflict-induced housing and property claims until the ordinary courts function properly. Most of the preliminary conceptual work was carried out by the non-governmental organization COHRE (Center on Housing Rights and Evictions). Supervision of the two agencies was initially given to Habitat, the UN center for housing and settlement. At the end of 2002, after the provisional self-governing institutions were set up, HPD / CC became part of the UNMIK structure again, but remained independent, both legally and administratively.

HPD was also responsible for carrying out an inventory of the abandoned accommodations, monitoring their use or renting them, for supporting UNMIK and KFOR in housing and property matters, and for developing scientifically sound policy recommendations, concepts and bills in the property law area.

The Commission's decisions are generally legally binding and final and immediately enforceable.

Kosovar property problem

Even before the Second World War, property was confiscated in Kosovo, be it for punitive purposes or with the intention of changing the ethnic composition of Kosovo. The system change in Yugoslavia after the Second World War was accompanied by nationalizations and finally the socialization of property (see also social property ) as a special Yugoslavian expression.

Another dimension was added to the situation with the revocation of Serbian autonomy in 1989 and the associated increasing discrimination against the Kosovar Albanian population. Many Kosovar Albanians have had their (social) right of residence withdrawn in favor of Kosovar Serbs and Serb refugees from Croatia. Mass layoffs of Kosovar Albanians also led to the loss of the right to live in the public (company) apartments and prevented the exercise of the right of first refusal in the course of the later privatization of these apartments. New laws prevented inter-ethnic property transfers and resulted in property transactions being often carried out informally and without proper registration. This led to the incompleteness of the records in the property and land registers and thus reduced their informative value and legal force. The extensive destruction of these no longer complete records in the wake of the escalating Kosovo conflict after 1998 further exacerbated the property problem.

The immediate consequences of the conflict also have a property-related dimension, in particular the evictions and destruction of houses and apartments, as well as the unlawful occupation of vacant accommodation, for example by returning refugees. Another difficulty arose in Kosovo from the continued existence or emergence of Kosovar-Serbian and Kosovar-Albanian parallel administrations, which further complicated the situation. They set up property commissions, for example, which carried out illegal evictions with the support of illegal law enforcement bodies and used illegal owners.

Legal bases

The legal basis is formed by the UNMIK regulations 1999/23 and 2000/60 of the United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo ( UNMIK ). Regulation 1999/23 forms the basis for the establishment of HPD / CC. It defines the mandate and responsibilities of the Directorate and the Commission. Regulation 2000/60 contains the rules of procedure and evidence that comprehensively regulates the functioning of the two components of the institution. The Commission also issued additional rules of procedure and instructions.

Categories of housing and property claims

The following claims can be submitted by natural persons to HPD / CC if they claim that

  • their rights of ownership, possession or residence in residential real estate were revoked after March 23, 1989, on the basis of legislation that discriminates in its purpose or effect; or
  • acquired property on the basis of voluntary informal transactions after March 23, 1989; or
  • you had ownership, ownership or residential rights to residential real estate until March 24, 1999 and you no longer own them, but the rights to them have not been voluntarily transferred to someone else.

A total of 29,160 claims were submitted to HPD between mid-2000 and July 1, 2003.

Kosovo Property Agency

The Kosovo Property Agency ( KPA ) was established on March 4, 2006 by means of the UNMIK regulation 2006/10. It is the successor institution to HPD / CC, which is absorbed in it together with its judicial body, but with an extended mandate that also extends to the clarification of conflict-related property disputes over agricultural land and commercial real estate.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ K. Hassine, COHRE's Blueprint for Kosovo , August 2009.
  2. ^ D. Rossbacher, Peacekeeping using the example of the United Nations interim administration in Kosovo. Civil administration as a new form of peacekeeping , 2004, p. 225 ff.
  3. ↑ UNMIK Regulation 1999/23
  4. ↑ UNMIK Regulation 2000/60
  5. ^ Additional Rules of the Housing and Property Claims Commission, HPCC, Final Report , 2007, Annex III u. P. 35.
  6. ↑ HPCC, Final Report , 2007, p. 40.
  7. ↑ UNMIK Regulation 2006/10  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.kpaonline.org  

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