The Croatian Tenants' Association - EU Citizens asked President Zoran Milanovic for help on Monday, as thousands of protected tenants are to be evicted after 1 January 2025.

Representatives of the association had requested a meeting with President Milanovic and met with him on Monday to discuss the possible consequences of the law on the modalities of implementing the judgements of the European Court of Human Rights in the Statileo v Croatia case, the president’s office said in a statement.

Thousands of citizens could be evicted from the flats they now live in

The law is due to come into force on 1 January 2025. Members of the Croatian Tenants’ Association claim and warn that if this happens, thousands of citizens will be evicted from the flats they live in now.

Protected tenants are people who live in flats owned by natural and legal persons on the basis of previous tenancy rights. The president of the Croatian Tenants’ Association, Gordana Vojkovic, said that about 10,000 Croatian citizens have this status.

The association said it would also turn to the Constitutional Court to protect the constitutionality.

“We are being discriminated against for several reasons”

“We are calling for the law to be suspended until the Constitutional Court has ruled on the matter. We will appeal to the Constitutional Court because we are being discriminated against for a number of reasons. The law violates the right to equality before the law and the right to housing enshrined in the Constitution and introduces a disproportion between the right to housing and the right to property,” said Vojkovic.

The association said that the state’s plan to evict protected tenants after the law comes into force is evident from the government programme, which states that “the regulation of the status of protected tenants in private housing, for which the conditions have been created, will enable several hundred housing units to become available on the market.”