Drustveno Vlasnistovo, what does that exactly mean

[joerg]

I'm currently researching ownership of three properties in Dalmatia. One of them has an old houses on it and this is what I get as a result when I look it up on the internet:

ZK tijelo I - 1. UDIO 1/1
1. DRUŠTVENO VLASNIŠTVO

ZK tijelo II - 1. UDIO 1/1
1. Name of Owner

To me it seems like the builing is in the owners name but the land is owned by the public. As I'm not speaking Croatian and I'm not familiar with the property laws I need some help with the expression "DRUŠTVENO VLASNIŠTVO". Does that mean it is a leasehold? Can the land be claimed back? the owner hasn't paid any tax, rates or lease since he inherited the property about 12 years ago.
Thanks in advance,
Joerg

[Aleksandra]

"Društveno vlasništvo" could be translated as "society/public ownership" and it is left over from Communist regime. Many properties that are/were in "Društvenom vlasništvu" were in fact nationalised by the government after the second world war from the rightful owners and then a "right to occupy the property" was given to someone else. Other properties were in fact built by the government on what was government land and "right to occupy the property" given (or bought by) a citizen. That "right to occupy the property" could be inherited under communist regime.

Croatia has been moving away from "Društveno vlasništvo" by either:

a) Allowing original owners to ask for return of previously confiscated and nationalised properties

b) Allowing citizens with "right to occupy the property" to "buy off" the full ownership (in such case rightful owners were sometimes compensated financially if they applied for a property to be returned to them as obviously there were two claims to the property, from the previous rightful owner and from the person(s) who lived in the property for the last 50ish years)

c) Translating "Društveno vlasništvo" into Government Ownership

Although many of the properties have been "sorted" one way or the other, some still remain in "Društveno vlasništvo"

You would need to investigate further to find the reason of "Društveno vlasništvo" of the land, i.e. how it became "Društveno vlasništvo" in the first place.

I personally would keep away from a property that has any "Društveno vlasništvo" as you never know what the full story is and where the claim could come from. You do not want to pay for the property just to find out someone claims it is in fact theirs. The owner of the property should sort out the ownership of the land before putting the property on the market.

[joerg]

Thanks a lot for the detailed answer.
Luckyly I'm not buying into the properties, I'm just taking care of it as my father in law who inherited them is too old to do anything about it and now we are concerned that the lawyer who used to take care of his matters in Dalmatia is trying to rip him off which would be easy as none of us lives in Croatia and can controll what is going on.
All the property is still in my father-in-law mums name who died 12 years ago and parts of the land is Drustveno Vlasnistovo. It might just be that the ownership details haven't been updated since a long long time. We'll get another lawyer onto finding out why it is not in his name yet. Wills, family trees etc have already been supplied years ago, the Kataster shows his name as the official owner, but not the database in Zagreb.

[darcy]

"Drustveno vlasnistvo" is a term used also to describe "public property" or "the Crown land". As much as I know, the return of the nationalised properties has been completed.