Goverment bankrupts Hotel In IStria

[mambo]

Today in the papers a story about a Hotel in Istria which will be torn down because the owner build 4 floors instead of the 2 floors for which he had a building permission.

He is ordered to tear down the 2 illegal floors, but any building engineer will be able to explain you that this is possible only against extremely high cost, which this hotel will not be able to afford.

Basically the decision to have the owner tear down these 2 floors is an automatic bankruptcy for the hotel and unemployment for everyone who works there.


I do understand that illegal building cannot be accepted, but a hotel (tourism) which provided jobs and seems to be succesful in it (visitcard for Istria) now is out of business because officials never learned to think straight.
They could have given a fine, they could have given a hefty fine, but putting people out of business is not clever.

I do make a distinction between private people or developers building without permission and operating companies building without permission.
Many companies simply have to build without permission, since they cannot afford to wait 2 or 3 years for permission to build needed workspace. If all companies would wait for this goverment Croatia would not be on place 130, but back in the stone age.

When will they finally issue brains to goverment employees ?

[nikh]

I know what you are saying as they tore down 55 house in Milna on Brac this summer,they marked a few on Ciovo and will tear them down even though unsuspecting foreigners purchased ,as usual without checking the papers through independent surveyors etc but I really hope this is a deterent that will normalise things. In many of your posts you seem to be looking for regularity as well,sometimes you need to get tough to afford this change. we are all in this market because the future looks bright. I do think that a certain amount of discretion should be applied but the menatality is different and you get sheep in alot of depts that follow the rules like any civil servant anwhere. They even pulled down a house owned by a politician,. I wouldnt be saying the same thing if one of my props were being torn down, Im sure and I m sorry for the Hotel but they gambled and they lost .Its quite simple dont build ilegally and then you cant get stuffed

[bobsyouruncle]

The law is the same for everyone, regardless of the owner or the use of the property. If the government employees start bending rules and applying different measures against different illiegaly built properties, that would just open up a new channel for corruption.
As nikh says, ignore the law, pay the consequences.

[AndyPandy]

Nikh, you said:

"unsuspecting foreigners purchased ,as usual without checking the papers through independent surveyors"

This is the job of their lawyers. Are you in real estate?

I hope for people's sake not.

[nikh]

Of course its the job of the lawyers, but guess what they dont do it unless asked. Im talking about purchasers taking control and researching their buy ,as well as their lawyer, agent, surveyor, et al, an then clearly instructing the lawyer on what they want done . If yo read previous posts by me you wil see what I am talking about.Maybe your in real estate and one of those blaggards that offer an in house legal service and dont like this being pointed out!!!!!

[z00ey]

tear it down... it's illegal and the owner and manager should pay the tearing down with his private assets too... he knew well what he was doing

[mambo]

Obviously none of you guys are running a company which depends on goverment services to operate.
Selling houses is nice, doesn't take a lot, you sell the house and leave the paperwork to the buyer, have fun with it.

However, operating a production company, a company where things need to be produced is a different story. You have to make investments and it is not possible to say, 'well, now I am going to sit and wait until the goverment has figured out all the paperwork'.

If that would take 1 month .........perhaps OK.
If that would take half a year.............it is already a bit more difficult.

But in Croatia permits for companies normally take about 2 to 3 years and I know a case (of a gas supplier in Porec) who had to wait 10 years !!! for a permit for selling LPG.
Just recently a new fuel station was opened in Pazin, multi-million euro investment, but the permits are still not final........................after 5 years of process !!

A selling permit takes about 3 to 4 months between applying and issuing. Does not sound that bad ?
Well, how is a company, depending on the tourist season going to sell a product if they start the process in March or April and don't want to miss the summer season
Indeed, there is only one way and that is to sell without the permission, simply sell while they are processing it.

Companies supply jobs and companies are part of the engine of the economy. The goverment is not the engine of the economy.

On www.vlada.hr you can find 55 recommendations to make Croatia more competitive. It describes precisely the problems that companies face when trying to produce something in this country.

And with this Hotel ?

I don't know how long this owner has been waiting for permissions, I also don't know why the permissions were not handled faster, but I do know that bankrupting a company will not benefit anybody. Jobs will be lost, tourists will see a pile of rubble (not good advertisement) and absolutely not a good sign for investors.

Again, I make a complete distinction between private people building houses/apartments illegally for selling purposes and companies building rooms/space for company purposes. If you don't understand that difference then any discussion is completely useless.

If you think that 2 to 3 years should be normal and accepted be advised that you are the only one, since even the goverment already understands that this is not the case.