The CUG was built over his property, a mill and a sausage factory. Huge compensation in Iasi: 600,000 euros – Ziarul de Iasi

In the interwar period, a wealthy peasant owned a one-hectare plot of land in the former Nicolina market, on the current road of the same name, and another property, of 7,000 square meters, a little further towards the city. Here, he had built a six-room house. Then a brick corn mill and a sausage factory. And then, on the Soviet tanks, came the communists. The factory and mill were nationalized in 1948. The hectare of land was taken by the Uricani Agricultural Production Cooperative. Only the house remained, but the family could not be happy about that either. The old owner’s daughter was in turn kicked out, and the house was expropriated in 1979. The area was to be part of the platform of the Heavy Machinery Plant.

Three nieces of the wealthy peasant claim their rights in court

Since 2001, when the law finally allowed the former owners to reclaim their houses and land in the urban area, the three nieces have been demanding the return of the house and its land. Out of 7,001 sq m, they were recognized as having the right to own only 1,130 sq m, the rest being occupied by the street, sidewalk, green space and CUG. They challenged the decision in court, because there was still free land around. They finally managed to obtain, only in 2019, another 2,633 sqm. For the rest of the land, as well as for the demolished buildings, compensation was proposed. The calculations made by CNCI resulted in a compensation value of 1.6 million lei.

A new trial followed. CNCI officials had taken into account only the house, not the mill and the sausage factory. Also, the value of the land had been greatly undervalued. The Magistrates of the Court had to redo all the calculations made in Bucharest. For the field, the error was clear. Out of 3,238 square meters of land, only 691 square meters, occupied by constructions, had been assessed at 100 euros/sq m, according to the notary grid for area C. All the rest was considered arable land and valued at only 50 euros/sq m. This, though, was the household yard, not some cornfield. Redoing the calculations resulted in a new figure. The judges decided that the three nieces should receive compensation in the amount of 2.88 million lei, the equivalent of almost 600,000 euros. The process has not yet come to an end. The appeal submitted by the CNCI came before the Court of Appeal yesterday.

A similar situation: house in Copou bombed by the Russians

A similar situation is faced by the descendant of an Iesian who owned a property of 2,620 square meters on the current Văscăuțeanu street, near the Catholic Seminary, on which two houses had been built, one with four rooms and the other with two. The owner died in 1943, and the houses were later badly damaged by Soviet bombing in 1944. After the war, one of the many decrees on real estate confiscation passed the land and what remained of the houses into state ownership. According to Decree 111/1951, houses and lands that the owner had not managed for a year were considered abandoned and became the property of the state. It was enough for the owner to have gone into refuge or been taken prisoner and not returned within a year, so that he had nothing to return to. Later, the houses were completely demolished, and the current headquarters of the Romanian National Water Administration was built on the former private property.

After 1990, the descendants of the old owner began the long road of claim. In 2007, they managed to get 195 sqm, on which the cellar of the house was located. Later, they managed to obtain another 575 sq m, after a trial in which a first favorable judgment had been handed down in 1998, but which was not final until 2021. For the rest of the property, it was considered that only damages could be awarded. The proposal made by the City Hall in this regard, after another trial won by the heirs in 2008, ended up being analyzed by the National Commission for Real Estate Compensation only in 2022. For the 1,850 sq.m. that remained not returned and for the two houses that were on it, CNCI approved the awarding as compensation of an amount of 680,000 lei, minuscule compared to the price that the land in Copou reaches.

The last remaining heir, IM, went to court again, contesting the amount of compensation to be awarded. Here, CNCI representatives stated that the compensations had been established according to the law, according to the notary grid. The land was included in zone B, and its value was 200 euros/m2 in the case of areas occupied by courtyards or buildings and 100 euros/m2 in the case of vacant land. In total, 138,067 euros came out.

Recalculations, higher amounts

The Magistrates of the Court redid the calculations of the CNCI, reaching the conclusion that its officials did not have a minimum of legal knowledge. Simply put, they had considered only the land actually occupied by constructions as a yard. The rest of the property had been considered vacant land. “The construction yard category refers to a legal, urban regime that does not necessarily assume the existence of constructions on the respective land, while the agricultural land category does not “sine qua non” imply the existence of agricultural plots; the moment to which it is reported for the framing of the lands as yards – constructions is the moment of taking over in an abusive manner. From the analysis of the administrative file, it is undeniable that the land in question was a courtyard of a building with several rooms. The land, the houses and the annexes formed a unitary whole”, explained the judges.

They recalculated the damages, resulting in a figure almost four times higher than the original one. The magistrates ordered the payment of the equivalent of 490,280 euros, respectively 2.4 million lei. This sentence is not final either, CNCI contesting it before the Court of Appeal.