8.  The applicants are owners of residential buildings or apartments which were 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 10 ‑ 17 (columns A ‑ F). 9.  The situation of the applicants is structurally and contextually the same as that of the applicants 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 (see Krahulec v. Slovakia, no. 19294/07; Bukovčanová and Others v. Slovakia, no. 23785/07; Rudolfer v. Slovakia, no. 38082/07, 5 July 2016; Riedel and Others v. Slovakia, nos. 44218/07, 54831/07, 33176/08, 47150/08; and Mečiar and Others v. Slovakia, no. 62864/09, 10 January 2017; Matuschka and Others v. Slovakia [Committee], nos. 33076/10, 14383/11, Balan and Others v. Slovakia [Committee], nos. 51414/11, 46098/12, and Bajzík and Others v. Slovakia [Committee], nos. 46609/13, 9892/14, 27 June 2017). 10.  Two residential building at 27 Panenská St. and 14 Konventná St. in Bratislava were acquired in 2002 by a religious organisation with legal personality, Cirkevný zbor Evanjelickej cirkvi Augsburského vyznania na Slovensku Bratislava (hereinafter “the Bratislava Evangelical Church”). This body established three other entities with legal personalities, including the applicant organisation the Old Town Evangelical Church. 11.  The property in question was conveyed by the Bratislava Evangelical Church to the Old Town Evangelical Church by way of donation on 6 February 2013. On 15 February 2013 the previous owner ceased legally to exist and was legally succeeded by the Old Town Evangelical Church and the other two entities. 12.  On 22 February 2012 the Old Town Evangelical Church gave formal notices of termination of their lease to the two tenants residing in flat no. 11 situated in the residential building at 27 Panenská St. in Bratislava. By law, these tenants had under certain circumstances the right to claim that the municipality provide them with a substitute flat on the termination of their lease. They did not avail themselves of that right. 13.  On 6 August 2013 the Old Town Evangelical Church applied to the Bratislava I District Court for an eviction order against the occupants of this flat who had failed to vacate it by the expiry of the twelve‑month notice period. As the occupants eventually vacated the flat on 25 February 2015, the Old Town Evangelical Church withdrew its action and the proceedings in respect of it were discontinued on 9 March 2015. Until the vacation of the flat, the occupants had paid the Old Town Evangelical Church compensation in an amount equal to the regulated rent. 14.  The tenants residing in flats nos. 1 and 9 on 22 Moyzesova St. in Žilina moved in 2002 into flats nos. 5 and 12 within the same building owing to rebuilding of the original flats. The tenants continued to pay the regulated rent.
In 2003 flat no. 5 was rebuilt and its area was changed from 110.27 sq. m to 59.18 sq. m. 15.  A similar situation arose in the residential building on 33 Pražská St. in Bratislava where in 2014 the tenant residing in flat no. 16 moved to flat no. 9, and in the residential building located on 15 Vrbovská cesta St. in Piešťany, where the tenant living in the flat no. 14 moved to flat no. 25.