THIRD SECTION
CASE OF STOYANOVA v. BULGARIA
(Application no. 40101/19)
 
 
 
 
JUDGMENT
 
STRASBOURG
6 December 2022
 
This judgment is final but it may be subject to editorial revision. In the case of Stoyanova v. Bulgaria,
The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting as a Committee composed of:
 Pere Pastor Vilanova, President,
 Georgios A. Serghides,
 Yonko Grozev, judges,
and Olga Chernishova, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to:
the application (no. 40101/19) against the Republic of Bulgaria lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) on 20 July 2019 by a Bulgarian national, Ms Snezhanka Docheva Stoyanova, born in 1973 and living in Dobrich (“the applicant”), who was represented by Ms A. Chobanova, a lawyer practising in Sofia;
the decision to give notice of the application to the Bulgarian Government (“the Government”), represented by their Agents, Mr V. Obretenov and Ms V. Hristova, of the Ministry of Justice;
the parties’ observations;
Having deliberated in private on 15 November 2022,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
1. The application concerns the delayed provision of compensation to the applicant for her parents’ property which was expropriated for urban development in 1985 by the municipal authorities of Dobrich. The applicant was to be compensated with a flat in a building the authorities intended to construct. Construction work commenced in 2010; however, in 2014 this was postponed, apparently mainly due to financial difficulties experienced by the municipality. In November 2019 the construction work was resumed and, according to the latest information submitted by the Government, the building was expected to be completed by 30 November 2022. The applicant had not received her flat or any alternative compensation by the time the parties filed their latest submissions with the Court in September 2022. 2. On 31 August 2020 the applicant brought a tort action under the State and Municipalities Responsibility for Damage Act 1988 (hereinafter “the 1988 Act”), seeking compensation for the delay in providing the flat due to her for the period from 1 September 2015 to 1 September 2020. In a final judgment of 10 February 2022 the Supreme Administrative Court (hereinafter “the SAC”) held that the municipality was responsible for the failure to deliver the flat within a reasonable time, and awarded the applicant 14,440 Bulgarian levs (BGN) (7,383 euros (EUR)) in pecuniary damage and BGN 5,000 (EUR 2,556) in non-pecuniary damage. These sums were paid to the applicant on 17 March 2022. 3. The applicant complains under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 and Article 13 of the Convention of the delays in the compensation procedure.

Outcome for Article P1-1: violation