Published on 20 November 2023

THIRD SECTION

Application no. 37520/21 Aleksandar Dimitrov ANTONOV against Bulgaria lodged on 15 July 2021 communicated on 31 October 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 expropriation.

In September 2020 a plot of land measuring 2,803 square metres owned by the applicant was expropriated with a view to construction of a railway near Slivnitsa. The compensation, calculated based on transactions with agricultural land, was set at 5,118 Bulgarian levs (BGN) (2,616.79 euros (EUR)) or BGN 1.83 (EUR 0.93) per square metre. When the applicant had bought the land in 2007, it had been earmarked as agricultural land, but in 2009 he had obtained an amendment of the detailed zoning plan and had changed its designation in order to be used for production and warehouse purposes.

The focal question in the ensuing judicial-review proceedings was whether the compensation should have been set by comparing transactions with agricultural land or instead with constructible land. In a final judgment of 25 January 2021, the Sofia Regional Administrative Court dismissed the application for judicial review, holding that the compensation had been calculated correctly, in accordance with the law. It held that even though the decision for amendment of the land’s status of 2009 had never been formally revoked, it had lost its legal effect due to the delay on the applicant’s part to act upon it.

The applicant complains under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (relying also on Article 13 of the Convention) that he was deprived of his property without fair compensation. He points out that in the same expropriation decision the owner of another property on the same street with similar designation, also unconstructed, was awarded compensation of BGN 126.92 (EUR 64.89) per square metre, or 70 times more than his plot, because it was valued as constructible land.

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 there sufficient objective data showing that there were considerable discrepancies between the compensation set and the actual market value of the expropriated land?

The Government are invited to submit (if available) the expert report prepared for the purposes of the expropriation of the plot no. 67372.1.380 which the applicant is referring to in his application form, and other relevant information regarding any legal proceedings concerning its expropriation.