Some city halls in Romania have hundreds, thousands and even tens of thousands unsolved property restitution notifications (Law 10/2001), BucureÈti and ConstanÈ›a being on top, according to some statistics presented by Radu-Catalin Pavel, Managing Partner of Pavel, Margarit & Associates, in the conference Trends and challenges of restitution programe in Romania, organised by Legal Magazin Review.
Bucharest City Hall ocupies first place, with 24.142 unsolved files. Constanța City Hall ranks on second place, with 3.171 unsolved files and Arad City hall is on third position, with 892 notifications unsolved.
Persons with unsolved cases may sue Bucharest City Hall until first of July. Bucharest City Hall seems to be the only one in Romania in this situation, taking into account that it had more than 5.000 restitution notifications registered when Law 165/2013 became effective (see Anexa).
The files that were solved by City halls in Romania were sent to ANRP for a final decision. ANRPs National Comission for Housing Restitution (CNCI in Romanian) may be also sued for the unsolved files, starting with next year, according to Law 165. The first term of 60 months stipulated by Law 165 will be in may 2018, and applies to filed registered to ANRP in the day that Law became effective (20th of May 2013).
Accoring to ANRP data, allmost 30.000 files are in this situation, now. Untill 09.06.2017 CNCI registered 61.336 files, hence 8.307 were registered after 20.05.2013. Until now, 23.127 filed were solved, shows ANRP data.
Thousands of people awaited for years a repossession decision from city halls and afterwards from ANRP. In many cases we talk about old people that used for years all the legal possibilities in order to gain their rights back. Our expertise in this type of files proves that this kind of trial may be solved by court in one year, said Radu- Catalin Pavel, Managing Partner of Romanian Law Firm Pavel, Margarit and Associates, in the conference Trends and challenges of the restitution programe in Romania.
When courts started judging files based on Law 10/2001 (that preceded Law 165/2013 in restitution matter), the judges in Bucharest had to solve 70 80 files, on average, but now the number decreased at 35 files. None the less, in May 2018, when the first term for unsolved files at ANRP becomes effective, the number of files to be solved by one judge may increase.
In his presentation, Selective aspects regarding restitution process in Romania, Radu – Catalin Pavel presented the historic of nationalization decrees in Romania and the historic of repossessions laws, as well as some selective aspects regarding Constitutional Court jurisprudence on Law 165/2013.