“WE HAVE 99-YEAR CONTRACTS, WE WILL DEFEND WHAT IS OURS”: Owners of 11 more weekend cottages on Gazivode ordered to vacate within 15 days! (VIDEO)

Following the demolition of weekend cottages and one house in Čečevo at the end of June and beginning of July, the public enterprise Ibar-Lepenac started a new phase of the procedure on the coast of Gazivode. Yesterday, the owners of 11 more weekend cottages in the settlement near Čečevo found notices on their doors ordering them to leave, as stated, the usurped property within 15 days. They claim that they built the facilities based on contracts concluded with Srbijašume for a period of 99 years and announce a legal battle.

The owners claim that they built the facilities based on 99-year contracts with Srbijašume. They announce a legal battle. KoSSev sent questions to Ibar-Lepenac.

Following the demolition of weekend cottages and one house in Čečevo at the end of June and beginning of July, the public water management enterprise Ibar-Lepenac started a new phase of the procedure on the coast of Lake Gazivode. As KoSSev learns, the owners of 11 more weekend cottages in one part of the settlement near Čečevo found notices on their doors yesterday ordering them to leave, as stated, “usurped property” within 15 days.

Several owners contacted the editorial office for the same reason, claiming that the demands were left on all facilities at the same time.

In the letter, which KoSSev had access to, the director of Ibar-Lepenac, Faruk Mujka, states that the enterprise, based on official records and ownership documentation, is the owner of the cadastral plot in the cadastral zone Velji Brijeg in the municipality of Zubin Potok, and that a field check determined that facilities were built on that plot without the permission and consent of the legal owner.

The owners are requested within 15 days to: immediately leave, as stated, the usurped property, remove all belongings and illegally built facilities, and return the land to its original state.

Otherwise, the letter states, Ibar-Lepenac will take further legal actions to vacate the property, and the Kosovo Police and municipal inspection have been informed about the case, as written. The request is considered delivered by the very act of placing it on the facility.

The letter, as KoSSev verified, was delivered by four individuals in civilian clothes accompanied by two police officers.

Kosovo Police confirmed assistance

Erduan Baljići from the Kosovo Police confirmed that police officers assisted Ibar-Lepenac yesterday in delivering the new requests.

“We do not determine whether or who has the right. Our job is to provide assistance when institutions ask us to. Ibar-Lepenac considers that it is theirs and requested assistance. That is our entire role,” Baljići stated for KoSSev.

Mihajlović: We have been building the houses for almost two decades, we have 99-year contracts
One of the owners of the weekend cottages, Branimir Mihajlović, says for KoSSev that the requests were pasted on all 11 facilities on Friday afternoon.

“Yesterday around half past three they came and pasted this request on the doors of all 11 weekend cottages. None of the owners were present, except for one neighbor. We also have video recordings from surveillance cameras showing four individuals in civilian clothes, with the presence of two police officers, leaving the documents,” Mihajlović said.

He claims that the owners received the land back in 2006 from Srbijašume, based on contracts concluded for 99 years.

“I have a contract from 2006 for 99 years. I have been building the house since 2007, and for more than fifteen years I regularly paid the fee. For the last few years, that was no longer possible due to the shutting down of Serbian institutions,” Mihajlović states.

According to him, the owners tried last year to continue settling their obligations towards “Kosovo šume”, but, as he claims, their requests were never answered.

He adds that they were surprised that Ibar-Lepenac appeared precisely as the applicant in the new letter.

“Until now, it was registered in the cadastre as Kosovske šume. Why Ibar-Lepenac is appearing now is not clear to us,” says Mihajlović.

“They cannot demolish without a court decision”

The owners believe that removing the facilities is not possible without a prior court decision.

“We consulted with lawyers. We were told that they cannot demolish the facilities without a court decision. On Monday we will have meetings and try to exhaust all legal possibilities,” Mihajlović states.

He says that the owners will first meet with the Mayor of the Municipality of Zubin Potok, after which they plan talks with representatives of the Kosovo Police, while, if there is no progress, organizing a protest is also being considered.

According to his estimates, there are about 150 weekend cottages of different owners around Lake Gazivode, which is why he fears that the procedure could be extended to other facilities as well.

Both Mihajlović and other owners are determined to defend, as they state, their property.

“We will use all legal and democratic means to defend our rights and the property at our disposal. We are willing to continue paying rent to Ibar-Lepenac even though they suddenly applied. Finally, what I want to emphasize is that all this is happening at a time when Kosovo institutions are applying inappropriately restrictive measures and actions against the Serbian people. We, like our entire people, find ourselves in a very, very specific and difficult moment.”

The ‘first batch’ already demolished

This is the second phase of the procedures carried out in recent weeks in the area of Čečevo and the coast of Gazivode.

As a reminder, at the end of April, Ibar-Lepenac delivered the first requests to the owners of weekend cottages to vacate plots that the enterprise claims are located on land it manages.

Then, on June 26, the demolition of several weekend cottages in Čečevo began, with the assistance of the Kosovo Police, while at the beginning of this week, one house in the same village was also demolished. A family member of the owner stated to the media at the time that they had not previously received a written decision, but only a verbal warning to take their things out of the facility.

The demolitions ensued at a time when Gazivode and the settlement of Čečevo became one of the most prominent locations of activities by Kosovo institutions. At the beginning of June, a Search and Rescue Camp financed by the Kosovo government was opened precisely in Čečevo, and the Gazivode area has often been promoted in recent weeks through the activities of institutions, ministers, and the acting Kosovo Prime Minister, as well as on social media.