This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no. 290694. TENLAW: Tenancy Law and Housing Policy in Multi-level Europe National Report for SERBIA Author: Tamara Petrović Team Leader: Špelca Mežnar National Supervisor: Miloš Živković Peer reviewers: David Dueñas Cid Patrick Gadea Agata Twardoch Anna Wehrmühller National Report for Serbia Table of Contents 1 Housing situation .......................................................................................................... 4 1.1 General features .................................................................................................... 4 1.2 Historical evolution of the national housing situation and housing policy ............... 4 1.3 Current situation................................................................................................... 12 1.4 Types of housing tenures..................................................................................... 15 1.5 Other general aspects.......................................................................................... 25 2 Economic urban and social factors............................................................................. 29 2.1 Current situation of the housing market ............................................................... 29 2.2 Issues of price and affordability............................................................................ 32 2.3 Tenancy contracts and investment ...................................................................... 33 2.4 Other economic factors........................................................................................ 34 2.5 Effects of the current crisis................................................................................... 36 2.6 Urban aspects of the housing situation ................................................................ 38 2.7 Social aspects of the housing situation ................................................................ 42 3 Housing policies and related policies.......................................................................... 44 3.1 Introduction....................................................................................................... 44 3.2 Governmental actors............................................................................................ 48 3.3 Housing policies................................................................................................... 49 3.4 Urban policies ...................................................................................................... 53 3.5 Energy policies..................................................................................................... 54 3.6 Subsidization........................................................................................................ 56 3.7 Taxation ............................................................................................................... 58 4 Regulatory types of rental and intermediate tenures .................................................. 62 4.1 Classifications of different types of regulatory tenures......................................... 62 4.2 Regulatory types of tenures without a public task ................................................ 62 4.3 Regulatory types of tenures with a public task ..................................................... 66 5 Origins and development of tenancy law.................................................................... 70 6 Tenancy regulation and its context ......................................................................... 74 6.1 General introduction............................................................................................. 74 6.2 Preparation and negotiation of tenancy contracts ................................................ 80 6.3 Conclusion of tenancy contracts .......................................................................... 85 6.4 Contents of tenancy contracts.............................................................................. 91 6.5 Implementation of tenancy contracts.................................................................. 112 6.6 Termination of tenancy contracts ....................................................................... 129 6.7 Enforcing tenancy contracts............................................................................... 137 6.8 Tenancy law and procedure “in action” .............................................................. 140 7 Analysing the effects of EU law and policies on national tenancy policies and law147 7.1 and 7.2 EU policies and legislation affecting national housing policies and national tenancy laws............................................................................................... 147 7.3: European Directives Affecting Leases .............................................................. 150 8 Typical national cases (with short solutions)............................................................. 159 8.1 “Death of the tenant in privatized house” ........................................................... 159 8.2 “Inheritance of the housing right” ....................................................................... 159 8.3 “Absence of written rental contract” ................................................................... 160 2 8.4 “Reasons for termination of rental contract”....................................................... 160 8.5 “Absence of written contract and decision on awarding the house” ................... 160 8.6 “Automatic prolongation of a rental contract” ..................................................... 161 8.7 “One year of non residing in the rented house”.................................................. 161 8.8 “Members of household” .................................................................................... 161 8.9 “Indefinite term rent and right to buy out” ........................................................... 161 8.10 “Definite term rent and right to buy out”............................................................ 162 9 Tables....................................................................................................................... 163 9.1 Literature............................................................................................................ 163 9.2 List of cases ...................................................................................................... 172 9.3 List of abbreviations .......................................................................................... 173 Project Glossary .......................................................................................................... 174 *** 3 1 Housing situation 1.1 General features Serbian housing stock is characterized by high ownership rate, caused primarily by the process of privatization in the early nineties and the numerous Government’s incentive to citizens to purchase dwellings. After the privatization of the public (state) housing stock, the Government stopped almost entirely to invest into public housing. The very few investments were intended usually for addressing the needs of numerous IDPs and refugees from the wars during the nineties. As a result, public housing stock is virtually non-existing. The market rental sector has also not developed. Therefore, market rentals are mostly performed in the informal sector, with very few written and registered contracts. The economic crisis weakened the construction sector to a certain extent. However, the effects of the crisis on the housing sector were not as pervasive as in other countries, since the general economic circumstances in Serbia were not promising not even before the crisis. The mortgage defaults of citizens have increased, however the situation is not alarming. 1.2 Historical evolution of the national housing situation and housing policy Please describe the historic evolution of the national housing situation and housing policies briefly. o In particular: Please describe briefly the evolution of the principal types of housing tenures from the 1990s on. Explain the growth and decline of the different tenures and the reasons why that happened (e.g. privatization or other policies). o In particular: What is the role of migration within the country, immigration or emigration from/towards other countries inside and outside the EU (including war migration as in Ex-Yugoslavia) Former Yugoslav socialist countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia) set collective rights as their major priority, while individual rights were neglected to a certain extent. In addition, housing and property were considered as social goods and not economic ones. The right to adequate housing was emphasized, putting lesser importance onto the right to property in the sense of civil right. Housing policy of former Yugoslavia was explicitly oriented towards the social aspect of housing. The legislation and policies regarding housing had some unique characteristics that were introduced during the socialist era. The “social ownership” was developed as a Yugoslav specific kind of ownership right and a special legal institute. Unfortunately, it was greatly misunderstood and often simplified in meaning as “state 1 ownership”. 1P. Nelson (ed.), Housing and Property Rights: Security of Tenure in Post-Conflict Societies, (UN-Habitat: