6.  The applicants were born in 1942 and 1947 respectively and live in Sofia. 7.  In April 1979 the two applicants and the second applicant’s mother bought from the Sofia municipality a four-room apartment of 121 square metres in the centre of the city. In September 1979 the second applicant’s mother died; her heirs were the second applicant and her brother. In 1993 the second applicant’s brother died; the second applicant was his heir. 8.  The apartment had become State property by virtue of the nationalisations carried out by the communist regime in Bulgaria after 1947. In February 1993 the heir of its former pre-nationalisation owner brought proceedings under section 7 of the Restitution Law seeking the nullification of the applicants’ title and the restoration of her own title. 9.  The proceedings ended by a final judgment of the Supreme Court of Cassation of 16 February 2004. The courts found that the applicants’ title was null and void on the ground that the 1979 contract had not been signed by the mayor but by one of his deputies. Although the mayor had been entitled to authorise another person to sign such contracts, he had made no written and explicit authorisation. Furthermore, the initial approval of the sale in 1977 had not been signed by the mayor and had not also been confirmed by the mayor of the region; instead, it had once again been their deputies who had signed. 10.  Later in 2004 the applicants attempted unsuccessfully to have the proceedings reopened. 11.  Immediately after the final judgment in their case, it became possible for the applicants to obtain compensation from the State, in the form of bonds which could be used in privatisation tenders or sold to brokers. The applicants did not avail themselves of this opportunity. 12.  On an unspecified date the applicants vacated the apartment. In July 2005 they were granted the tenancy of a four-room municipal apartment, which they share with their daughter and her husband and son. 13.  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, 15 March 2007.