About
Estonia . . . . .
situation
Parliamentary state; the six factions in Riigikogu (parliament, 101 seats) are:
Pro Patria Union (7 seats, nationalists right wing populist), Moderates (Mõõdukad, 6 seats, declared to be right, no clear policy), Reform Party (19 seats, liberals) and ResPublica party (28 seats; right-wing party)
Centre Party (28 seats), Rural parties (13 seats) .
The right-wing parties have the majority in parliament; they also are on the anti tenant position (slogan “every Estonian must be only an owner”).
Housing law (see text http://lex.andmevara.ee/cgi/aktitekst?ID=6707)
Protected rent is by law
the decision of municipality. The free market rent exists
in law as a chance, not a demand. There are in the law
also some protective elements for tenants, who live in
flats, restituted by “property reform law”.
Pre court decisions for
tenant protection are theoretical up to July 2003.
Property reform law (http://lex.andmevara.ee/cgi/aktitekst?ID=5035)
was important in 1991-1997, today most of the houses are privatized. All political decisions began from this law.
"Contract" law
Was establshed on 2002, the
new basic law for rentrelation.
Rent Dispute Resolution Bill from July 2003.
Privatization of flats and houses was done through
- Restitution of property
- Vouchers
Vouchers were given to
people depending on their years of work in Estonia, not
in other regions during Soviet occupation time. Thus the
older the person in Estonia is, the more vouchers he/she
obtained.
Now the vouchers are on
the market, the price is about 0.6 - 0.7 Estonian kroons
per voucher year today. It was twice less some years ago.
The value of one vouchers for privatizing is/was one
square metre. For example a three-room apartment of 50
square metres equals to 50 voucher years.
Tallinn has still got fixed rents: 8 kroons per one square metre (kroons/m2 ) i.e. US$ 0,4.
The rents of Tartu are deregulated: 20 to 50 kroons/m2.
The average rent of a 4 room flat in Tallinn, not in Tartu is 1700 kroons (US$ 92), the average income of a teacher is 4000 kroons and of a nurse is 2500-3000 kroons.
The lack of rent regulation in Tartu results rent rising. Now the discussion for lower rent has started with landlords. However, most tenants fear oppose to landlords` demands.
In some areas (small villages) rent is determined by the conditions of flats (condition dependent rent).
(Eesti Üürnike Ühingute Liit, http://www.hot.ee/yyr )
The average number of tenants in the organization of Tartu is about 700, in the organization of Tallinn more than 800. The number of tenants in organizations is not increasing due to the privatization policy in Estonia.
The major field of activities of the local tenants` unions embraces matters of legal advice.
The Tartu Tenants Union is a regularly working advisory institution from 1994.
The Estonian Tenants Union has no salaried employees. About ½ of its income comes from fees, ½ from sponsoring.
1/10 of the income of the Tartu Tenants Union comes from fees, 9/10 from sponsoring.
material
from
IUT
| `90 | `94 | `98 | `99 | |
| Estonia | 65 | 56 | 7 | nav |
| Latvia | 64 | 54 | 51 | nav |
| Lithuania | 51 | 13 | 2,5 | nav |
| Poland | 30 | 25 | nav | nav |
| Romania | 21 | 8 | nav | nav |
| Slovakia | 27 | 26 | 11 | 8 |
(nav - not available)
For
contact please use our address eesti.yyrnik@mail.ee or tonukauba@hot.ee
Some pictures from IUT contacts
