"Authorities Overstep Mark By This Decree"

Lukashenka's decree violates the right of people to property.

Last week, Aliaksandr Lukashenka signed Decree No. 357 "On Vacant and Dilapidated Houses."

The main purpose of the document is to speed up the procedure for seizing vacant and dilapidated housing: now this will take no more than a year. But the "Brest newspaper" wonders whether it complies with the rights of homeowners.

"This decree does not in any way infringe upon the rights of bona fide users, owners of residential property, since in order to prevent the house from being treated as an empty house, the owner has only to write a notice that he has a desire to use this residential house for its intended purpose," – Aliaksei Martysiuk, the head of the Housing and Energy Department of the Committee on Architecture and Construction of the Brest Region Executive Committee, comments on the decree in an interview to TRK Brest.

According to Ihar Maslouski, the chairman of the Brest regional organization of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada), in any country, including Belarus, there must be a procedure for such cases.

"As for the decree itself, I do not see any major violations of rights yet. It determines the order of further disposal of these houses. It's another matter how it will be given in practice. As we know, we have the right to freedom of speech, freedom of rallies and meetings. But in practice, it practically comes to naught," – the head of the Social Democrats says.

Time will show how effective the procedure for finding the owner, issuing orders is, and whether the people's rights to property are taken into account.

Maslouski does not rule out that, while implementing this law, there will be corrupt or illegal actions by the authorities.

Brest rights activist and lawyer Raman Kisliak also speaks about possible abuse of power by the authorities. In his view, the new decree is "the continuation of our authorities’ insane policy."

"A person has the right to own several houses and is not obliged to live in each of them. It is beyond argument that the owner of property, in addition to the advantage of possession, has the duty to keep his property in order. But, in my opinion, our authorities are overstepping the mark by this decree. Why cannot a house be vacant? Why do the authorities interfere so much in the private life of citizens?" – the lawyer asks.

In his opinion, the decree "On Vacant and Dilapidated Houses" will become another heavy-handed law of Belarus. Like, for example, the decree No. 87, which gives three years for the construction of a house or a summer cottage. Or the norm saying that agricultural land must not stay uncultivated.

"The authorities are acting with Belarus as a huge agricultural enterprise: all agricultural land must be sown, all houses must be inhabited and none should be left empty. And all this to the detriment of the right of ownership, the right to freely dispose of and own property at its discretion. We are farther away from respect for rights," – Kisliak said.

In his opinion, problems may arise when implementing this decree. Notification that the house can be registered as shabby or empty, may not reach the addressee for some reason. The possibilities of people to restore houses are also not taken into account: they can be in a difficult life situation (illness, lack of available funds, etc.).

"Victims of this decree may apply to the UN Human Rights Committee with a complaint about violation of the right to privacy," –the human rights activist says.

As of the beginning of 2018, about 10.2 thousand houses in Brest region had signs of being empty or shabby. In total, more than 42,000 houses in the region were not permanently inhabited. Almost three quarters of them were used by citizens for temporary residence as a dacha, for farming, agriculture, etc.

However, the decree says: if the court decision on recognizing the house as not inhabited or shabby will be canceled, the former owner can demand the return of the house if it has passed into the state ownership. If the building is sold, they can return the transaction amount to its owner. If it is demolished – compensate in the amount in which the house was valued before the demolition.