Dispute on transfer and barter is still under way
Maka Malakmadze, Batumi
Batumi City Hall is in a property dispute with “Sheremeti Ltd” located on # 16 Firosmani Street in Batumi. The Batumi City Hall annulled the resolution based on which Sheremeti received 277 sq. meters of non-agricultural property in exchange for other territory.
Only 277 sq. meters of the building on # 16 Firosmani Street (total space 340 sq. meters) belong to “Sheremeti Ltd”. The City Hall destroyed part of the building in December. They intended to dismantle the rest of the building but the owner of the Ltd prevented them from doing so.
Otar Bezhanidze, the owner, claims that the Batumi City Hall is seizing his property. “I had a space in the surrounding territory of the former Railway Station since 1994. When they relocated the station to another place they promised to compensate me for the loss. I was waiting for the reimbursement for eight years and finally they transferred this building to me after an argument. It was amortized and only walls were left standing. I repaired the building and started a small business in it. Turkish people arrive and stay there; I pay taxes too.”
The Bezhanidzes are not supposed to put up with the situation. “The City Hall intends to seize our property because they like the building and its location. I guess somebody is interested in it. Employees of the City Hall arrived at the place and threatened to destroy it. If any investor is interested in the area they would rather start negations with the legal owners of the building. I will not give up my property even if I need to appeal to Strasbourg,’ said Guguli Gvianidze, wife of Otar Bezhanidze.
According to archived materials of the Technical Registration Service Department 2/3 part of the building on # 16 Firosmani Street is registered by Sheremeti Ltd. “They claim the government transferred the property to me illegally. If that time government did not have the brains it is not my problem. When a new authority comes to office they will state that the properties are transferred by the current one. When will the property become secure?” asked Guguli Bezhanidze.
Based on the City Hall resolution “Sheremeti Ltd” received the above-mentioned space in exchange for the 155 sq. meters space located near the former Railway Station. (The previous building was dismantled in 1995 and the railway station was moved to Makhinjauri). According to the accounting, the price of the old building was evaluated at 55 729 GEL. Based on the Batumi City Hall resolution, dated by September 24 of 2003, the “Shermeti Ltd’ was transferred to a non-residential area on Firosnmani Street in exchange for the old territory. “Batumi City Hall enacted Resolution # 37 on March 20, 2003 and the “Sheremeti Ltd” was refused to pay the payment for the deprived property while the City Hall decided to transfer alternative space to the city,” stated the resolution.
Gela Makharadze, the head of the Legal Department of the Batumi City Hall, stated that the property was illegally transferred to Bezhanidzes. “The resolution is illegal. In 2003 Georgian Law on Privatization was implemented in Georgia and the property could be transferred through competition, auction or direct purchase. The Ministry of Property Management was in charge of making the decision. The situation reveals that the property was transferred by the City Hall, which did not have similar authority.
However, Makharadze agrees that “transfer and barter” are not one and the same process. Despite all that, he is firmly sure in the legality of annulling the document.
Vazha Khakhutaishvili, attorney for the “Sheremeti Ltd”, claims that the rights of Bezhanidze on legal property are breached and he hopes that the Appeal Court will assist them. “In our case the property was bartered and not transferred. A settlement on barter between the City Hall and Bezhanidze was signed in 1995. At that time the Law on Property Privatization was not being enforced. The City Hall had authority to make a decision regarding the barter. Gocha Futkaradze, judge at the Batumi Civil Court, discussed the case simply-annulled the decision.”
On July 26 2007 before the “Law on Property Legalization” was enacted Batumi City Hall set up a special commission, which examined the legality of legal acts drawn up from 1998 to 2005. The commission annulled 57 more resolutions on property registration similar to “Sheremeti Ltd.”
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