Published on 4 December 2023

THIRD SECTION

Application no. 5113/20 Georgi Paskalev MADZHAROV against Bulgaria lodged on 17 January 2020 communicated on 16 November 2023

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The application is of the type examined in Kostov and Others v. Bulgaria (nos. 66581/12 and 25054/15, 14 May 2020) and concerns allegedly low amount of compensation following the expropriation of land owned by the applicant. The land, measuring 6,178 square metres, was expropriated in 2019 for public need, namely with a view to the construction of a road in the area of Burgas.

At the time of the expropriation, the applicant was awarded compensation in the amount of 12.74 Bulgarian levs (BGN) or 6.51 euros (EUR) per square metre, based on numerous transactions with agricultural land. Following judicial-review proceedings, by a final judgment of 17 July 2019 the Burgas Administrative Court increased the compensation to BGN 16.57 (EUR 8.47) per square metre. The compensation was set considering additional transactions proposed by the court-appointed expert.

The applicant complains under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 that the amount of the compensation was considerably below the market value of the expropriated plot. According to him, this is evident from the statement of the court-appointed expert in the judicial proceedings that only four of the twenty properties used as comparables in the expert report had in fact characteristics similar to his plot (same zone, designation, and location). Calculation based only on those transactions would indicate a value of his land equal approximately to BGN 60 (EUR 30) per square metre, or three and a half times more than the compensation awarded. The domestic court briefly rejected his arguments, holding that the expert report was prepared according to the law. To further support his complaint, the applicant refers to the fact that by the same expropriation decision a similar neighbouring plot was valued at BGN 40 (EUR 20) per square metre.

QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES

Was the compensation awarded to the applicant reasonably related to the expropriated land’s value (see Kostov and Others v. Bulgaria , nos. 66581/12 and 25054/15, 14 May 2020)? Are the data submitted by the applicant sufficient to show that the market value of the plot could have been significantly higher?