Business Association of Georgia: Police Eviction Should be Reinstated

The Business Association of Georgia said that the bill to abolish police eviction should not be adopted, calling it “[a] case where the problem is not the lack of communication, but not taking into account and ignoring the obvious and generally known facts”.

According to the bill, eviction from a residential area will only be possible following a decision from the Court. Paragraph 3 of Article 172 of the Civil Code was repealed, according to which eviction by police was possible.

After the Parliament of Georgia has adopted the bill, the Business Association of Georgia and Association of Banks of Georgia asked the President of Georgia, Giorgi Margvelashvili to veto the Amendment. However, Margvelashvili had already signed the bill.

The Business Association of Georgia introduced arguments to the Administration of the President why the repealing the Police Eviction Institution was inadvisable at this stage.

“Given the fact that the courts are very busy with the civil cases, hearing deadlines are systematically violated and making a decision often takes more than a year. These legislative changes only mean that today any owner in this country is at risk, the risk that they have to spend at least one year for disputes to defend and take their ownership back. This means that the government violated its constitutional obligation to protect each person's right to property and to offer owners effective mechanisms to defend their rights,” says the statement.

The initiator of the bill, Deputy Chairman of Legal Affairs Committee, Paata Kiknavelidze stated earlier that, according to Article 20 of the Constitution of Georgia, no one has the right to enter an apartment or other premises against the will of the owner if there is no court decision or urgent necessity backed by law. He said police eviction was an unconstitutional concept.

The Business Association of Georgia thinks that the Amendment will negatively affect to the real estate market and financial sector. The further believe it will not solve the problem and it will just prolong time.

“The Business Association believes that all the existing legal mechanisms should be used and launches consultations with partner business associations to discuss the possibility of filing a lawsuit in the Constitutional Court,” the statement reads.

Ana Akhalaia