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The Office of the High Representative and the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees welcome the extension of the deadlines for
purchasing socially owned apartments in the Federation, and would like to
remind occupancy right holders of the new deadlines.
The new general deadline is 6 May 2000. Under the Law on the Sale of
Apartments with Effective Occupancy Rights, it is sufficient for the
occupancy right holder to notify in writing the allocation right holder of
his/her intent to purchase their apartment by 6 May 2000 in order to meet
the deadline. It is not necessary for him/her to have gathered all the
documentation required for the purchase. The OHR and UNHCR recommend that
the occupancy right holder send by registered mail a written request to the
allocation right holder and attach whatever documentation s/he has gathered
by then.
In addition, the 6 May deadline does not apply, or another deadline applies
for the following categories of occupancy right holders:
- Occupancy right holders whose contracts on use of the apartment were
issued between 1 April 1992 and 7 February 1998 and subsequently canceled,
but whose contracts are in the process of being revalidated in accordance
with the amended Law on the Cessation of the Application of the Law on
Abandoned Apartments and the amended Instruction on the Application of the
Law on the Cessation of the Application of the Law on Abandoned Apartments.
These occupancy right holders are requested to submit their request for
purchasing their apartment within three months of the day when their
contract on use is revalidated.
- Holders of occupancy rights to apartments administered by allocation
right holders that are based in the Republika Srpska. These occupancy right
holders are requested to submit their request for purchasing their apartment
to the municipality in which the apartment is located by 6 June 2000.
- Holders of occupancy rights to apartments administered by allocation
right holders that are based in states created from the former SFRY (other
than Bosnia and Herzegovina). They are requested to submit their request for
purchasing their apartment to the Federation Government by 6 June 2000.
- Holders of occupancy rights to their 1991 apartments, who have not
yet repossessed those apartments, but who qualify as multiple users under
the amended Law on the Cessation of the Application of the Law on Abandoned
Apartments; this means that they are expected to return to their 1991
apartment, and currently use someone else's apartment or house. These
occupancy right holders are requested to submit their request for the
purchase of their apartment within three months after they repossessed their
1991 apartment.
- Holders of occupancy rights to apartments that are destroyed or
damaged (regardless of whether the apartment was declared abandoned or not).
These occupancy right holders are requested to submit their request for the
purchase of their apartment within three months after they repossessed their
apartment.
- Occupancy right holders whose apartments were declared abandoned and
who acquire the right to purchase them two years after their reinstatement.
These occupancy right holders are requested to submit a claim for the
purchase of the apartment within a six-month deadline of the day on which
they acquired the right to purchase it, that is two years after they
reoccupied the apartment.
These provisions are spelled out in the Law on the Sale of Apartments with
Effective Occupancy Rights, as well as the Amendments to the Law on the Sale
of Apartments with Effective Occupancy Rights and the Decision on the
Temporary Regulation of the Sale of Apartments, which were published in the
Official Gazette of the Federation on 6 March 2000. An additional Amendment
to the Law stipulates that the validity of contracts on use of apartments
concluded in accordance with the Law on Housing Relations will expire on 6
December 2000.
The OHR and UNHCR appeal to all institutions involved in the purchasing
procedures in the Federation to work efficiently and carry out their duties
as required under the law.
Joint OHR/UNHCR Press Release, Sarajevo, 27 March 2000
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