The European Court of Human Rights has issued a decision that could serve as a jurisprudential precedent for similar cases of demolition of unauthorized constructions or of buildings erected in violation of the granted permit.
The case concerns Albanian citizen A. Koboçi, who turned to Strasbourg after a property he had purchased and registered in 2003 was demolished by the authorities without compensation.
The ECtHR accepted that he had a “possession” within the meaning of the Convention, but made a clear distinction between property registration and the legality of construction.
In this specific case, the initial permit only provided for a temporary one-story building for a small business, while the collapsed building was a four-story concrete building, considered by Albanian courts as illegal new construction.
Strasbourg considered that the demolition of illegal constructions is an interference that can be justified by the public interest, as long as it is based on law and is proportionate. In Koboç’s case, the Court concluded that the demolition had not imposed an excessive burden on him.
The decision also takes on special importance for other cases in Albania, as it determines that the fact that a building was purchased under a contract and is registered in the cadastre does not automatically legalize the construction and does not in itself create a right to compensation from the state in the event of collapse.
This means that in future proceedings for the demolition of illegal buildings, authorities and courts may refer to this Strasbourg standard, especially when the owner bases the claim for compensation solely on the purchase contract or property registration.
The ECtHR also noted that Koboçi could seek compensation from the person who had sold him the property and who was responsible for the illegal construction, considering this a legal avenue that remained open.
For these reasons, the request was declared inadmissible. The decision does not mean that any registered object can be demolished without compensation, but it creates an important point of reference for cases where the object turns out to have been built without a permit or beyond what the permit authorized. /skyweb.al