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Human Rights Center examines the manner a stranger managed to be registered in the apartment of the former Chairman of the Supreme Court

October 26, 2020
 
Human Rights Center (HRC) is concerned about a number of cases of registration to the real estates without the authorisation from the owners happening in the run-up to the elections  and calls on the States Services Development Agency under the Ministry of Justice of Georgia to investigate this problem. The owners should have detailed information through whom, when and on what basis the Agency registers strangers to the property.   

One of the most illustrative examples is the case of Konstantine Kublashvili, the former Chairman of the Supreme Court, when he found out from a unified list of voters published by the Central Election Commission that a stranger MR was registered to his real estate along with the  family members of Kublashvili. 
 

Konstantine Kublashvili applied to the State Services Development Agency with a request to find out how the registration of a person unknown to the owner took place, and to cancel the registration. Instead of investigating the grounds on which the registration was made, the civil registry agency asked the owner to fill in the application form of a natural person to be removed from the register due to a person / persons not living there for more than 6 months.  Paragraph 6 of the application form provides for the cancellation of registration if the persons mentioned in the application no longer reside at the address for more than 6 months. 

On October 12 of the current year, according to the response of the State Services Development Agency under the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, the registration of MR to the apartment of Konstantine Kublashvili was canceled. However, the letter from the Agency does not stipulate the grounds of registration of the person to the particular address where the person never lived.  Further, it is unclear whether any administrative proceedings were initiated after the owner made the statement. 

Moreover, an important fact is that persons registered in an uncertain situation are complete strangers to the owners of the real estates as they never lived at the address for a single day. 

In accordance with the legislation of Georgia, in order to be registered to a particular address, an adult citizen of Georgia holding an electronic ID card submits one of the following documents from the list below to the authorized registration office under the procedure of registration of a person to the real estate owned by a natural person:
Certificate of title;
Consent of the owner of the dwelling;

Written confirmation made by two adult, legally capable persons (witnesses) in front of the authorised officer of the territorial office of the Agency stating that that the person concerned has indeed resided at a specific address for the past 3 months.

In the latter case, the two adult and legally capable persons (witnesses) shall, in front of the officer authorised to receive the application, copy the text of the warning of the legal consequences in case of giving false testimony, and then sign the statement.

Strangers most probably are registered by the Agency to the residential apartments without the consent of the owners in accordance with the provisions of the law allowing two adult and legally capable persons (witnesses) to confirm in writing that the person to be registered has indeed lived at a particular address for the past 3 months. 

HRC believes that because of the wording of the law, the number of instances has increased when strangers are being registered to residential apartments without informing the owners about the registration. Such cases are revealed in the pre-election period, when voter invitation cards are sent from the election commissions to the apartments or when the citizens study the database of the unified list of voters. Consequently, the owners who are voters at the same time have the feeling that such cases are related to the elections.

Human Rights Center 

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