Citizens Are Forced to Register Their Properties

A lot of people have been visiting the Kutaisi Office of the Public Registration National Agency lately. The people try to avoid future complications about their property and want to register it soon.

“We were told that the flat we are living in must be registered at the Public Registration office. Otherwise the flat cannot be considered ours and we might lose it. Thus, my neighbors and I try to register it immediately,” said Tamriko Chirgadze, a resident of Kutaisi; however, she does not want to tell the name of the office whose representatives had persuaded her to register the flat and offered their help, as well.

Similar facts have occurred lately in Kutaisi. Private organizations offer their services to people. Announcements of various Ltds (“Mitsproektservisi”, “Kutkalakkvadastri’ ‘Lomio”, etc) are put up on the walls of the Public Registration Agency’s Kutaisi Office which includes the list of services. Those Ltds offer citizens measurement and privatization of their buildings or flats, topographic and cadastre measurements, preparation of the documents to register their estate and other properties. The announcements also state that Ltds can provide mediator assistance for every person.

Obviously they mean agitation-propaganda instead of mediation. In fact, they would challenge interested people to register their property as soon as possible in order not to lose the property. People said in their conversation with the Human Rights Center said that there is some agreement between those Ltds and registration office. They all benefit from the situation. So-called agitators earn some money for conducted ‘consultations’ and subsequently they send a lot of clients to the registration office. Arriving there, the citizens have to pay official fee for property-registration under the Georgian Law on “the fee for the service provided at the Public Registration National Agency.” The fees are quite large. If a person wants to register his/her property within ten days s/he should pay 36 lari. The faster s/he wants to register the property the more s/he should pay: for 8 days-72 lari; 5 days- 108 lari and 1 day-150 lari.

Representatives of the private organizations deny the situation in their conversation with the Human Rights Centre. However, if we take in consideration that these people spend most of their time at the Registration Agency, it is obvious that they have some interest in it. These people try to benefit at the expense of making ordinary people waste extra money.

Representatives of the Kutaisi Office of the“Young Lawyers Association” said that everybody has right not to register his/her property. The procedure is not obligatory for property owner if s/he had once registered it at the Technical Bureau. “Nobody is obliged to register the property at the Public Registration Office, because there are corresponding documents that proves the ownership. The document is issued at the Technical Bureau. Thus there is no danger of losing the property. People apply us regarding the situation and need consultations from us. They say that some slanders are calling upon them to register their properties and extort some money from them in exchange of that advice,” said Irine Oboladze, a lawyer for the Kutaisi Office of the Young Lawyer Association (GYLA). Representatives of the GYLA speak about unofficial agreement between those private organizations and the Registration Agency.

Mamuka Khimshiashvili, the Head of the Kutaisi Registration Agency does not comment on the situation officially. In private talks he said that his office has no connections with those organizations. However, he cannot prohibit anyone to conduct such agitations among people. “I cannot ban any Ltd to put up its announcement at our entrance. The fact is that people come to us and register their property. If they do not have similar wish, nobody can force them to do that,” said Khimshiashvili.

Before 2006 Technical Bureau was providing the service for registering the property in Kutaisi. 90 % of local people have their properties registered there. Although the bureau was abolished the documents are reserved in the archive of the registration office. Lawyers say that those documents are valid enough to prove your ownership.

Shorena Kakabadze, Kutaisi