Prisoners of other people's debts

"The enforcers first came on August 1, and the second time on October 24, and then 15 policemen also came", begins his story Miodrag Đokić, a former employee of the bankrupt company IMG Trudbenik to whom this company assigned accommodation at Slanačko put 51. at that address, he is carrying out the eviction procedure of a married couple and eight single men who were employed in the same company.

Đokić continues: "What did we do that so many policemen came? Did we kill someone? Did we steal? We didn't! We have been here since March 17, 1986 until today. I worked in Trudbenik for 30 years. My brother and I are here. He's been there for 45 years, and I've been there for 40. Now, after so many years, there's no going back to Kosovo. I was born in Kosovo, and I cannot stay here. So where do I go? To the Danube? Is that the solution?".

If the houses have white goods, they have two weeks to move them, Đokić continues. He adds that they were also warned that they will have to pay storage fees for the things that are taken to them during the move out.

"When they told us this, it was surely the end. I got diabetes, I'm not married, and if I had a family, where would I be? At the moment, I am working, but for the minimum," says Đokić.

On Thursday, October 24, when the executor and the police came to the address for the second time, the Joint Action "A Roof Over Your Head" announced: "Working families are being evicted by the executor Ratko Vidović on behalf of the buyer of IMG Trudbenik's property in bankruptcy proceedings, the company Redwood Realestate." They are in the process of suing because they did not receive severance pay or another housing solution. Instead, privatization profiteers use the convenience of executive proceedings to summarily put people on the street. The execution decision is even written as if people don't live there, but that it is an empty building that the buyer should take over".

SOMEONE'S HOME, AND FOR SOME, ONLY BANKRUPTCY

"Come on, come on", Miodrag Đokić and another tenant welcomed us in the yard. There are several one-story houses in the yard. Between them - a shared bathroom that they once used. Djokic says that it was good then, but now it has failed. The walls are moldy, grey, dilapidated and no longer in use. By the way, about 200 people with bunk beds used to live at this address. Đokić says that until recently there were 13 families or households there, but that recently some of them moved out.

"It's an ugly picture when I say that I have to heat water and take a bath as if I were in the countryside. For us, Belgrade is black, not white", explains Đokić.

At the very entrance to the yard there is a small table and several different chairs.

"Sit here, these two are the best for you," says another resident and apologizes for going: he can't sit for long because of four knee surgeries, and he has to cook beans. Đokić then tells us that they paid the rent at that address until 2013.

"I said that I want to pay, but not for industrial electricity and not for industrial water. If one of them writes to me that I used 10 cubic meters of water (or 10.000 liters) and that I have to pay, if I bathed five or ten times a day, I wouldn't spend that much for the whole month", explains the interlocutor.

The company where these people worked (Trudbenik) previously assigned them some kind of temporary accommodation, namely this accommodation on Slanački put.

Ivan Zlatić from the Joint Action "A Roof Over Your Head" tells "Vreme" that the bankruptcy of this company was declared in 2011, and that people from this address first lost their jobs in the privatization process, and then the company also went bankrupt due to bad of the buyer's business, so that the buildings in which these citizens live were sold as bankruptcy estate.

"Executive proceedings are underway," explains Zlatić. "On one side is the creditor - that is, the company that bought the bankruptcy estate, and on the other is the former Trudbenik (the so-called brick factory) as a debtor who needs to empty that space of persons and things and hand it over to the creditor. The people who live there are left hanging somewhere in the middle of these processes, they practically do not exist. And this is not the only case in that former large construction company Trudbenik, and in other elements of the same company it happens that people who had some solutions from the social enterprise to be able to live in some kind of necessary accommodation are waiting for some kind of apartments that were never built because we entered into capitalism and the rest, the rest of the people and their belongings that someone needs to empty."

When asked if anyone deals with where the citizens will be after eviction, Zlatić says that absolutely no one deals with it and that it does not exist in the law.

"We have a very modest and, after the austerity measures, even more modest social service of the Centers for Social Work, which has absolutely no capacity to help these people," Zlatić points out.

photo: marija janković

WHAT THE PERFORMER SAYS, WHAT THE CITY OF BELGRADE

When asked what they say from the City of Belgrade, Miodrag Đokić answers - nothing.

photo: Miodrag Đokić

"My brother and I were in the municipality, I submitted to the clerk's office to be admitted for an interview that very day before the bailiffs came (October 24). The City says they are not competent. Well, if you are not competent, why do you know my name and phone number when I should come to the elections to vote?"

The City also told "Vreme" that they have nothing to do with this and that we should contact the executors.

The executor Ratko Vidović notes for "Vreme" that in this enforcement procedure "Trudbenik" AD Belgrade together with the business company "Realestate Management" doo Belgrade is the executive debtor, while the executive creditor, i.e. the party on whose proposal the enforcement procedure is being conducted, is a business company. Redwood Management" doo Belgrade.

"Previously, the executive debtors Trudbenik and Realestate Management sold the objects in question to the executive creditor and, in accordance with the purchase agreement, undertook to hand over the objects emptied of all persons and things to the buyer - here the executive creditor. Therefore, this sales contract is the basis for the enforcement procedure", explains Vidović. He says that he has no information on the future plans of the executive creditor in relation to this location, nor whether the persons still in those facilities will receive other accommodation.

"Certainly, the competent Center for Social Work will be informed about the next enforcement action, which can react in this regard," claimed Vidović.

The competent Center for Social Work in Palilula did not answer the question of "Vremena" about what will happen to the citizens at this address and whether they will get another accommodation. They just confirmed the receipt of the email.

Bailiff Vidović says at the end: "On my part - both as a public bailiff and as a citizen of this country - I express my wish that the process of eviction of those people be ended with dignity, that is, that an adequate solution be found for those persons who really do not have alternative accommodation."

Zlatić explains that the problem of housing is not something that can be solved by a public bailiff.

"Vidovic came and made an agreement with them to give them some delays and he realistically can't do anything about it." He has a writ of execution from the creditor and should ensure that the debtor vacates the space that the creditor bought. It is not a problem that is solved in the enforcement procedure".

Milena Repajić from the Joint Action "A Roof over Your Head" told "Vreme" that the Housing Act foresees various types of social housing, but the problem is that none of them are binding - "all of that is if there are resources, and those resources are never allocated". He adds that the tenants on Slanacki put were previously promised plots of land nearby, but they never received them. "They're just asking to be housed somewhere else."

APPEAL TO THE COURT IN CYPRUS

These families will not only be left homeless, but apparently no one cares. Namely, even while they were working in Trudbenik, they did not receive all their earnings. The company went bankrupt, and according to the agreement that "Vreme" had access to, they can appeal, but to the court in Cyprus.

The agreement was concluded on October 12, 2011 between the limited liability company organized and established in the Republic of Cyprus "Mergol limited" and Miodrag Đokić as a former employee of Trudbenik. "Mergol" and its subsidiary company "Green Village" own a total of 94,974 percent of the shares of the Trudbenik construction material industry. "Mergol" entered into the conclusion of this agreement voluntarily, and it states that in the event of the reorganization of Trudbenik in terms of the Bankruptcy Law, "Mergol" will provide the former employee with a payment.

Finally, both parties in this agreement are invited to resolve disputes related to this in a peaceful manner, and if this is not possible, they will resolve disputes before the court of the seat of Mergol.

Zlatić confirms that there is a huge debt of Trudbenik towards the employees, which has never been paid.

"In that agreement, among other things, it is written that the court in Cyprus is competent for all disputes related to this agreement," emphasizes Zlatić. "Can you imagine a situation where you are a construction worker on Slanački put and you hire a lawyer to represent you before the court in Cyprus? It literally says - I will never pay you back."

WHAT NEXT?

Whether expropriation is planned on the land of Trudbenik and for what purpose is still unknown. Milena Repajić says that a lot depends on that, in the sense that if a certain expropriation is indeed carried out in the end, then the next step is to ask the City of Belgrade to provide them with adequate housing according to the Housing Act.

"That's the first and most important next step and that's where, despite all this, there can be some hope. However, the City and the State are something that can be put under such pressure. The private company that bought it is absolutely not interested in this, they do not depend on the public", points out Milena Repajić.

He adds that these citizens have been in temporary housing for 30 or 40 years and that they have absolutely no other option.

"They will not leave at any cost if they do not have another accommodation and that is their position - they understand very well the process in which all this happens", says Milena Repajić.

Miodrag Đokić, a former employee of Trudbenik, says that their plan is that, when the social workers come, they will ask if they can get an apartment or some money: "How am I going to go out into the street now, I have no money in my pocket, and they don't give us nothing".

According to Ivan Zlatić and Milena Repajić, since the law was changed in 2016 and the term "supported housing" was introduced, no temporary accommodation has been granted.

"With a request for information of public importance, we asked them to tell us where they implemented a relocation to adequate accommodation, and in the end the lawyer received a roundabout answer, which in translation meant 'nowhere', and this has been happening since the changes in the law in 2016 until today" , concludes Zlatić.

Regardless, it is still not known who is in charge, which raises the question of whether these people will receive other housing. They go to the street, become homeless and become homeless because they pay the company's debts on their backs. Otherwise, there are all chances that they will never collect their debts.