The Reconstruction Process in Tirana: Judicial conflicts and hundreds of disqualified

2023-09-20 11:10:00, Aktualitet CNA

The Reconstruction Process in Tirana: Judicial conflicts and hundreds of

Lawyer Erjon Syziu thought he had closed the accounts with the Reconstruction process in November 2021 – when an unexpected decision to demolish his building arrived at Kombinat.

Until then, building number 162 had been assessed by several groups of experts with damage level DS2 and the residents had been compensated with hard money by the municipality of Tirana to carry out the repairs.

The decision of the Municipal Council to demolish the building caused alarm among the residents, who, as beneficiaries of one of the Reconstruction programs, risked being left without a home.

Syziu also says that they doubted the procedures from the beginning and sued the demolition decision in court.

"Everything happened completely without our knowledge and the building was rated as DS4. Those who have done the in-depth expertise say that they worked at our palace for about 3-4 months, but we have never seen them," he told BIRN.

Four years after the devastating earthquake of November 26, 2019, dozens of families in Tirana are still in court proceedings with the local government and thousands more are waiting for the solution of their housing problem through the Reconstruction program.

Meanwhile, thousands of injured persons have already been disqualified from the right to benefit from a new home.

In Tirana alone, there are 4,975 applicants disqualified from the Reconstruction program or 25% of the total number of applications. In the municipality of Durrës - the city most damaged by the earthquake, the disqualifications amount to 3.3%.

Those excluded from the reconstruction process belong to different categories, but the most frequent reasons are related to having a second home in ownership or problems with ownership documents.

According to the lawyers who are representing these cases in court, the delay of the process is to the detriment of the injured citizens.

"There is a dose of fraud with the Reconstruction - not only Rama, but also the people of the municipality when they went to the field they oriented the people; "don't worry, we will solve it," said Dorian Matlija from the "ResPublica" center, which offers legal assistance to affected persons.

"The municipality has used the circumstances to mislead the residents to hold them hostage," he added.

The Municipality of Tirana did not respond to a BIRN request for comment addressing the questions raised about the process and the charges.

"Everything is done for the land"

The Reconstruction Process in Tirana: Judicial conflicts and hundreds of

Edmond Caka, resident of the Combine | Photo: E. Keta

The earthquake of November 26, 2019 caused 51 victims and thousands of homeless in Albania, while the seismic tremors damaged hundreds of buildings in Durrës, Fushë-Krujë, Tirana and several other municipalities of the country.

The Albanian government undertook an extensive recovery process and four years later disbursed around 80 billion ALL through the Albanian Development Fund. Another 65 billion lek have been procured by the local government - where the municipality of Tirana holds the first place for the value of the reconstruction tenders.

During 2020-2021, the City Council of Tirana approved the demolition of 67 existing buildings - most of which in Kombinat - and promised to build a new "town" named KombinART with about 1300 apartments.

But the demolition decisions were met with opposition from the residents and a series of lawsuits in the Administrative Court claiming that the process was illegal and that the in-depth expertise was manipulated.

Center "Respublica" - a non-profit organization in Tirana that also offers legal assistance represented the residents of 15 buildings in court against the demolition decisions, seven of which it says it won in the first instance, while the trial continues for the other cases. The Municipality of Tirana has appealed the decisions.

Matlija says that in all the cases won, the court found manipulation of in-depth expertise, which presented the degree of damage greater than it really is.

"In all cases, we have an overestimation of the extent of the damage and an overestimation of the repair costs. If the repair would cost 20-30%, they have taken it up to 80% as they find ways to destroy it," said Matlija from the "ResPublica" center.

Edmond Caka, a resident of Kombinat since the 70s, led the battle against the demolition of the buildings through the "Group for Kombinat" movement.

"I am not against demolition and reconstruction in the same place. But if my palace is not damaged and you are going to tear it down and take me somewhere else, then this is property grabbing," Caka told BIRN.

He further claimed that in-depth reviews were 'the epitome of fraud' and buildings with similar damage resulted in different repair costs.

"Based on these facts, we raised a case and the court verified that the frauds were done in tons and my palace won. They also won some other buildings," he added.

In a visit to Kombinat in December 2022, the mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, accused the opposition political parties of blocking the Reconstruction process - tempting residents to sue.

"In these two and a half months, we have finished the trials, there were 22 court sessions, with those who were suing the municipality, accused by political parties. They delayed us for 3 years," said Veliaj, adding that we should be the only country where "political parties organize protests against public works".

But residents and lawyers interviewed by BIRN insist that the mistake was the municipality's and that the abusive demolition decisions may have been motivated by occult interests for building plots.

"We have our suspicions that everything is done for the land," said Erjon Syziu, who, in addition to his palace, also represented five other cases in court.

Even the lawyer Matlija does not rule out this possibility.

"Releasing the land is a trend," said Matlija while adding "the trend is to exterminate these old buildings from this area where they are, to open new territories for construction".

The disqualified

The categories benefiting from the Reconstruction process were defined only one month after the November 26 earthquake through normative act no. 9 "On Coping with the Consequences of the Natural Disaster".

According to him, the beneficiaries are those individuals or families who have been left homeless by the natural disaster, with the exception of those who have a second home owned in the relevant local government unit. Also excluded are traders who have lost their business units.

The Municipality of Tirana told BIRN in response to a request for the right to information that until May 2023 it had administered 20,230 applications, of which 14,287 applicants were declared beneficiaries by decisions of the Municipal Council, another 22 applicants were declared beneficiaries by decision court and 4975 others were disqualified from the process. The Municipality of Tirana did not answer the question regarding the criteria for their exclusion.

Unlike Tirana, the Municipality of Durrës said that 93 applicants out of 2817 applicants were disqualified from the process for the benefit of a new apartment.

"The reasons for the classification are the lack of documentation according to the legislation in force, he owns more than one apartment," Durrës Municipality said in a written response.

The decision to disqualify those affected who have another property is considered unfair by the latter.

Asqeri Xhanari, a dentist from Kombinati, is one of the disqualified. Owner of two apartments in building 140 in Kombinat, Xhanari lost both after the municipality decided to demolish the building without a decision from the Municipal Council yet.

Ownership of a third apartment where he already lives with his children and wife disqualified Xhanari from the Reconstruction program.

"This is like the agrarian reform of 1946. Who are you to alienate property?" says Xhanari in a calm tone, while adding that he still has the mortgage on the land.

“I can have 100 properties, what does that mean? What's more, this building was not destroyed by the earthquake, but by the municipality, and it was even destroyed without the decision of the municipal council," he added.

But there are also disqualifications that are not based on normative act no. 9 of the Council of Ministers.

AM is an Albanian immigrant who renounced his Albanian citizenship, but inherited an apartment from his parents in one of the demolished buildings in Kombinat. His lawyer says he was disqualified from the process because he failed to obtain a family certificate in civil status.

"This citizen has been subjected to discrimination, because he really gave up his citizenship, but he is the owner of a property and the property is not enjoyed on the basis of citizenship. This is absurd to say the least," says lawyer Erjon Syziu, who is representing him in court.

The data provided by BIRN show that the list of disqualified persons also includes the heirs of their parents' property, who died after the 2019 earthquake, or people with ownership problems.

Syziu says that he represented in court and won the case of a citizen in Kodër Kamëz, whose house was damaged by the earthquake.

According to the municipality, it resulted in three records in ALUIZNI, two of which later turned out to be applications for the house damaged by the earthquake and the third for a shop demolished by IKMT for the purpose of widening a road.

"So according to the municipality, the person had three properties, but in fact he had none, since the only one he has is classified DS4 and he cannot live in it. These could be verified very easily by the municipality," he said, while adding that the citizen found his right in court.

Dorian Matlija told BIRN that dozens of disqualified residents have sought the help of the ResPublica center, where the majority turns out to have been excluded because they themselves or their children have a second property.

"They have the right to object only if the building has been demolished in an abusive manner and if it is proven, then the court will direct you to compensation," he said.

Unlike Matlija, Syziu argues that citizens who have lost their apartment cannot be excluded from the compensation process because they have a second property.

"In the legal assessment, if the citizen has not one apartment, but 11 others, as long as these apartments were not destroyed by the earthquake but by the Albanian state, these people should be compensated for each m2 destroyed by the decision of the Municipal Council ,” he argues.

Lawyer Erjon Syziu Photo: E. Keta

Tahir Barkaj's family is the only family that has stayed in building no. 141 in Kombinat since November 2019. After the municipality announced that the building would collapse, all the residents left there, but the Barkaj family refused and took the case to court.

"My father has lived here for 50 years, we were born and raised here and I have no intention of leaving. Only the dead run away from here," says Bruno Barkaj.

The Barkaj family owns a house on the first floor of the building 1+1 and 2 additional rooms legalized around 2010. As the house was originally owned by Tahir's mother, after the November 26 earthquake the two additional rooms were not taken into account with the claim that they did not have the name on the ownership certificate and the owner of the property has passed away.

After many twists and turns, the Barkaj family says they won the trial at first instance.

"The experts appointed and selected by the court came and did three expertises and after three years of trial, the building was habitable and was rated DS3," says Bruno.

Although the municipality has appealed the decision, other residents of the building have started to return to the abandoned houses. The first floors have started to be rented out, while the works have started in the apartments to make them livable again and they are reconnecting the water and lights.

For lawyer Dorian Matlija, the biggest problem of those affected by the earthquake currently is the expiration of all deadlines to complain or apply for another Reconstruction program.

Doubtful about the completion of this process, Matlija says that the longer this process lasts, the more some of the obligations or promises of the government are forgotten.

"People have missed the deadlines to take legal action and at this point, they will hope for what the government can give you of its own accord, but not under compulsion," he concluded./ BIRN