Czech court says landlord was not obligated to evacuate Přednádraží properties

News server Novinky.cz reports that the Regional Court in Ostrava has ruled
that the Building Works Authority of a central Ostrava district was not
justified in instructing the owner of the buildings in the ghetto on Přednádraží
Street, Oldřich Roztočil, to evacuate them. Roztočil does not have to pay a CZK
30 000 fine levied by the authorities for not evacuating the properties. He is
now drawing up new leases for his displaced tenants, who are Romani.

The town hall, however, is insisting that the instruction to vacate
Přednádraží Street is still in place. No lawsuit has reportedly been filed
against it and the buildings are still reportedly hazardous to human life.

“The Regional Court in Ostrava has reversed the original decision by the
Ostrava District Court and has dismissed the fine of CZK 30 000. The Regional
Court found that the decision of the Building Works Authority of the Moravská
Ostrava a Přívoz Municipal Department calling for the immediate evacuation of
the designated buildings in Přívoz is not a final decision and that it cannot be
inferred that the company Domy Přednádraží had failed to meet a specifically
established obligation toward third parties,” Ostrava Regional Court
spokesperson Lucie Böhmová said.

Landlord Roztočil has welcomed the Regional Court’s decision. “I am now
planning to give people new leases. Unfortunately, not all the buildings on
Přednádraží can be occupied, but building number 8 is almost completely repaired,”
he said, adding that his next step will be to resolve the problem of the broken
sewer line as soon as possible.

Municipal Department defends itself

According to activist Kumar Vishwanathan, the families are already looking
forward to being able to return. “On Monday afternoon, we will be distributing
new leases to people at our organization’s office. By 15 May we would like to
see the lights back on at Přednádraží and electricity supplied, and by the end
of May we want to connect the neighborhood to the water distribution system. Our
organization will pay for it,” said Vishwanathan, who is the director of the
Life Together (Vzájemné soužití) association. Vishwanathan said they are
interpreting the court decision to mean that if the fine was illegal, then the
decision to vacate was also.

According to the municipal department, however, the instruction to vacate
Přednádraží remains in effect. “We don’t have any information about a lawsuit
being filed against that instruction. The property owner appealed the
instruction to vacate and our decision was upheld by the relevant appeals body (the
town hall’s building administration department). In our opinion, this court
decision only concerns the evacuation of those parts of the buildings the owner
was using as offices and his responsibility to evacuate those premises,”
municipal department spokesperson Jana Pondělíčková told the daily Právo.

Pondělíčková added that the buildings are in poor structural and technical
shape and their hygienic conditions do not comply with regulations. “All of the
people remaining in those buildings do so at their own risk. The property owner
was instructed to perform repairs which he has not yet done,” she reminded the
daily.