Strangers continue to declare residence without the owner's consent 0 9

Earlier, a petition was launched on "manabalss.lv" for an initiative to declare residence only with the consent of the property owner. Although the Saeima has already supported the relevant amendments in the second reading and restrictions will be applied to such individuals in the future, part of society believes that these should be stricter. Cases of declaring residence on someone else's property entail significant costs for both the owners, who have to go to court to evict a company or individual, and for the state.

Ainars Bruvelis, a board member of "Lursoft," has faced such a situation. He believes it needs to be stopped, but the legislator is taking no action. In less than five years, the State Police have initiated 192 criminal cases, most of which are for indicating a false legal address in documents. Bruvelis believes there are several solutions to change this situation. For example, the owner can indicate in the land register a prohibition on the registration of anything or anyone on their property. The second is a classic method, where anyone wishing to use someone else's property for their own registration or that of their company must obtain and submit a certificate from the owner along with the declaration or registration application.

To reduce the number of such cases, it is planned that when using the electronic service for declaring residence, the system will automatically check whether the declaration of the individual has been annulled in the last three years due to the provision of false information. This is provided for in the amendments adopted in the second reading in the Saeima. In the event of such a situation being identified, the declaration can only be made in person, with the presentation of documents. In turn, the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs will notify the property owner about individuals who have declared residence in their property.

The amendments are yet to be considered in the third reading. The Ministry of the Interior has indicated that in most cases, the procedure for declaring residence is used in good faith, and the number of dishonest cases is relatively small - less than 1%. Therefore, it is important to balance the rights of individuals and not create excessive administrative burdens on honest and law-abiding citizens. Last year, the number of dishonest cases was 485, down from 528 the year before.