Valdrin Pjetri, former head of Tirana Mortgage, discussed the property issue today.
Invited to the show "Log." on News24, Pjetri discussed his experience as the head of one of the most important institutions in the country for property registration. In his speech, while the studio was discussing the issue of property from the time of the monarchy to democracy, Pjetri stated that the biggest problems with documentation were experienced in the post-communist period, that is, after the '90s.
The expert emphasized that the fundamental problem began with Law 7501, which distributed agricultural land after the '90s, but according to him, did not return the property to its owner.
"Until the years '45-'91, the ownership document was complete and accurate. The property, although it was seized by the agrarian reform after '45, was not really alienated. Except for cases where a school, public work or hospital was built. The main problems with properties begin after '91. The AMTP Law 7501 (Act on Taking Land into Ownership) in my opinion did not bring the property to the owner. It created a new conflict and further deepened the problem of inheritance and ownership. Even during the dictatorship, documents were fanatically preserved. The problem was 7501 that it did not bring the property to the owner. We at ASHK gave a lot of priority to the complaints office. In cases where land was sold by the Executive Community, we provided in 2019 that these properties would be transferred to the ownership of the Municipalities. When a forgery of a property document is found, the prosecutor returns the property to the state and the document is destroyed. "falsified ," said, among other things, Peter in his speech.
Pjetri further stated that the falsification of property documents in the last 15 years has mainly affected southern Albania.
Peter said that in the last 15 years, especially in southern Albania, property deeds have been falsified on a large scale, including land distributed under the agricultural land law.
"Some of these properties are registered in mortgages and have received building permits, which makes it impossible to repair the damage ," he said.
He added that another risk is old documents, which are stored in archives and unfairly presented as current ownership, causing confusion in the system.
"There are cases where documents from the '30s are presented as proof of ownership, even though they are only part of the family archive. Courts have often created overlaps and legal conflicts, " said expert Valdrin Pjetri.
According to him, in 2020, the State Cadastral Agency (ASHK) took on the lead role in issuing title deeds for lands that had not previously been addressed by Law 7501.
"It is the ASHK, through an established task force, that proposes and issues ownership titles for undivided lands, which were not included in the process of Law 7501 ," said Pjetri.
Currently, Pjetri is an expert in property management through his company "VP Consulting".