CASE OF BALAN AND OTHERS v. SLOVAKIA
Violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 - Protection of property (Article 1 para. 2 of Protocol No. 1 - Control of the use of property)
Alena Poláčková;Helen Keller;Pere Pastor Vilanova
8. The applicants are owners of residential buildings which were or still are subject to the rent-control scheme. Under the relevant legislation they were obliged to let their flats to tenants while charging no more than the maximum amount of rent fixed by the State. The legislation precluded them from unilaterally terminating the leases or selling the flats in question to anyone other than the respective tenants. The particulars of the flats affected by the rent control are set out in Appendices 3 and 4 (columns A - F). 9. The situation of the applicants is structurally and contextually the same as that in Bittó and Others v. Slovakia (no. 30255/09, 28 January 2014 (merits) and 7 July 2015 (just satisfaction) and subsequently decided cases concerning the rent-control scheme in Slovakia (Krahulec v. Slovakia, no. 19294/07; Bukovčanová and Others v. Slovakia, no. 23785/07; and Rudolfer v. Slovakia, no. 38082/07, 5 July 2016; Riedel and Others v. Slovakia, nos. 44218/07, 54831/07, 33176/08, 47150/08; Mečiar and Others v. Slovakia, no. 62864/09, 10 January 2017).