4.  The applicants were born in 1943, 1964 and 1953 respectively and live in Sofia. 5.  In 1966 the first applicant and her husband bought from the Sofia municipality a three-room flat of 78 square metres, situated in the centre of the city, which had become State property by virtue of the nationalisations carried out by the communist regime in Bulgaria after 1946. 6.  On an unspecified date in the beginning of 1993 the heirs of the former pre-nationalisation owner of the property brought proceedings against the first applicant and her husband under section 7 of the Restitution Law. They also sought a rei vindicatio order. 7.  In 2001 the first applicant’s husband died, leaving as heirs the three applicants (the second and third applicants were his children). Accordingly, after that the first applicant owned two-thirds of the flat and the second and third applicants one sixth each. 8.  The proceedings under section 7 of the Restitution Law ended by final judgment of the Supreme Court of Cassation of 26 January 2006. The courts found that the applicants’ title was null and void because the mayor’s decision in 1966 to sell the disputed flat to the first applicant and her husband had not been approved by the Minister of Finance, as required at the time, but by another official. The applicants disputed this conclusion in their appeals lodged in the framework of the proceedings. 9.  The courts also allowed the claimants’ rei vindicatio action and ordered the first applicant, who was at the time living alone in the flat, to vacate it. She did so in August 2006. In May 2008 she was provided with the tenancy of a small municipally-owned flat, where she moved in. 10.  On 19 April 2006 the applicants applied to receive compensation bonds. By an order of the Sofia regional governor of 25 September 2006 this was refused as the applicants had not complied with the statutory requirement to apply for such bonds within two months after the final judgment given in the proceedings under section 7 of the Restitution Law. 11.  The applicants appealed, pointing out that they had missed the relevant time-limit because the first applicant had been ill. Nevertheless, in a final judgment of 19 May 2008 the Supreme Administrative Court upheld the governor’s refusal. 12.  The relevant background facts and domestic law and practice have been summarised in the Court’s judgment in the case of Velikovi and Others v. Bulgaria (nos. 43278/98, 45437/99, 48014/99, 48380/99, 51362/99, 53367/99, 60036/00, 73465/01, and 194/02, §§ 110-41, 15 March 2007). 13.  Pursuant to section 9(4) of the Compensation Law persons who have lost property under section 7 of the Restitution Law can apply for compensation bonds within two months after the final judgment under section 7 given in their case. It is the constant practice of the domestic courts to apply strictly this time-limit, without regard to the reasons which might have led to the interested parties having missed it (see, for example, judgments of the Supreme Administrative Court no. 12745 of 25 November 2008, case no. 2988/2008, and no. 3413 of 16 March 2009, case no. 5928/2008).