138 Million Kuna for Permanent Housing for Croatian Earthquake Victims
September the 20th, 2022 - Despite the fact that the horrendous earthquakes of 2020 which rocked Zagreb in March and then Petrinja, Glina and the wider Sisak-Moslavina County area in December, things are still moving at a snail's pace. Many Croatian earthquake victims are still living in limbo.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, on Friday last week, Minister of Regional Development Natasa Tramisak signed the decision on the financing of a project entitled "The removal and construction of replacement housing units under the ownership of the Republic of Croatia in the areas affected by the earthquake", which provided grants in the amount of 138 million kuna in total.
These funds will be used to construct four apartment buildings with a total of 76 apartments in the area of Glina and Dvor, which were heavily damaged by the December 2020 earthquake. As part of this wider project, the construction of 55 replacement family houses is also planned, the Ministry of Regional Development and European Union (EU) Funds announced.
The signed decision used all the funds provided by the relevant Ministry to the Central State Office for Reconstruction and Housing by amending the Competitiveness and Cohesion Operational Programme for the period 2014-2020. The Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds provided 111 million euros, which is equal to more than 830 million kuna for intervention measures for Croatia's earthquake-affected areas.
With these funds, proper housing will be provided for a total of 889 families, and 581 family houses and 308 apartments will be built in a total of 20 typical multi-apartment buildings.
The aforementioned houses will be owned by Croatia as a state, and will be given to Croatian earthquake victims from the areas affected by the earthquake for permanent use.
"During the next year, these families will receive the keys to their new homes," Tramisak pointed out.
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Croatian Reconstruction Fund Receives Renovation Decisions, Mostly for Zagreb
April the 13th, 2021 - The Croatian Reconstruction Fund has begun work, and the vast majority of decisions on renovations following the earthquakes which rocked the country in 2020 relate to the City of Zagreb.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes, the plan for the implementation of the organised reconstruction following the earthquakes, including contracting designers, the preparation of documentation and reconstruction works has all been made available from this week. Given the amount of damage from the earthquakes which struck back in March and December 2020 totalling 127.6 billion kuna and the number of requests that are now open, things will take a very long time to complete.
The total costs of the Croatian Reconstruction Fund in the first three months of 2021 amounted to a staggering 182 million kuna, of which 95 percent was paid out in the form of compensation for damages caused by the devastating 2020 earthquakes. On the other hand, 6433 requests came from the most recently hit Sisak-Moslavina County, 1054 from Zagreb, 351 from Zagreb County, 74 from Krapina-Zagorje County and 5 from Karlovac County.
In the first quarter, the Croatian Reconstruction Fund received temporary solutions for three Zagreb buildings (six more have since been received over recent days), but they require technical and financial control.
It will be implemented by the Croatian Reconstruction Fund and the cases will be returned to the competent Ministry in order to reach their final solutions, but in order to finally act on them, the Croatian Government must adopt another programme of measures that will work to clearly define all of the procedures from building demolition to reconstruction.
What seems to be going quite quickly, according to the director of the Fund Damir Vandjelic, are the payments for emergency interventions, with the staffing of Vandjelic's closest team of associates and the organisation of key services.
The director of the Public Procurement Documentation Service is Sasa Miroslavic, who was the head of the public procurement sector at the Ministry of Health, while the director of the Independent Fraud Prevention Service, Davor Iljkcć, was in the Ministry of the Interior for sixteen years, also as a group leader in the Economic Crime Service.
Miroslavic is in charge of a transparent way of procurement management within the Croatian Reconstruction Fund. The first criminal report on the suspicion of a possible criminal offense of abuse during the emergency intervention, in the amount (unofficially) of 1.5 million kuna, however, has already been forwarded to the State Attorney's Office and will be looked into.
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Government Increases Financial Aid for Croatian Earthquake Reconstruction
April the 3rd, 2021 - The government has increased the sum of financial aid intended for the Croatian earthquake reconstruction process. Here are the new amounts and procedure details.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the financial aid for the reconstruction/rehabilitation of non-structural elements on property damaged in the earthquake is now being increased from the previous 12,000 kuna to 16,000 kuna. This will regard family homes, residential and commercial buildings, apartment buildings and office buildings.
If such an application for these funds regards a family house without special parts needing other forms of more specialist attention, the increase is 25,000 kuna. In addition to chimneys, the term ''non-structural'' refers to elements of the property and the roof, gable walls, staircases and lifts.
All of the funds related to the implementation of this Decision on the Croatian earthquake reconstruction process are provided by the Reconstruction Fund, and are to be paid out based on the decision of the Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and State Property.
The right to a refund
People who have already started to repair the damage to their properties caused by the earthquakes of 2020 on their own have the right to a refund in certain cases. In order to exercise the right to a refund, you must:
Hire a certified engineer to do the repair study
Hire a contractor
Hire a certified civil engineer, or a certified mechanical engineer (for boilers and gas installations)
Keep all of the original invoices
Include a complete application. This relates to Form/Obrazac 5 from the Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and State Property.
This must be submitted by the owner, co-owner, representative of the co-owner, or the manager of an apartment or business building.
The completed request must then submitted to the Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and State Property in Zagreb (Ulica Republike Austrije 20).
The delivery of the completed application can be done in different ways:
In person at the office
By mail
In the relocated offices of the competent Ministry:
Sisak: Ulica Ivana Kukuljevica Sakcinskog 1;
Petrinja: Trg Matice hrvatske 18;
Glina: Trg bana Josipa Jelacica 2;
Hrvatska Kostajnica: Ulica Vladimira Nazora 17;
Lekenik: Zagrebacka ulica 77A
By using the e-Renewal application in the e-Citizens (e-Gradjani) system.
The application deadline is December the 31st, 2021.
Applications for financing the lease of a replacement apartment are also being received.
On March the 12th, 2021, the Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and State Property published a Public Invitation for financing the rent/leasing costs for housing for persons whose property was damaged during the earthquake in the City of Zagreb, Krapina-Zagorje, Zagreb, Karlovac and Sisak-Moslavina counties.
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