Every time something incredible has upset me lately, I’ve written it down. This already adds up to a nice piece of text, which I am now submitting as a letter to our Prime Minister.
It’s gone way overboard. Instead of things moving forward, everything is just dragging on, piling up and getting worse and worse.
Mr. Speaker,
After less than a year, I wrote another open letter. I have had the opportunity to meet you twice in person and I consider you a decent person. For the first time in my life, I said that I am not ashamed of my Prime Minister, so let me once again make some of my feelings public.
Until now, I have also said that the Czech Republic is the best in the world. And I’ve travelled a lot. The “price/performance ratio” was fantastic. But times are changing and my current feelings are very different.
As a person who is a lawyer by education, more of a manager and economist by profession, and who works in the IT industry, I have stopped trusting the Czech state.
As a company, I also feel so many uncertainties and unknowns around me that we have resigned to invest in the Czech Republic and build another datacenter. The only solution I see is to change the headquarters and ownership structure so that we are not so tied to the Czech Republic. Our new products and services will be handled from abroad. You cannot build a stable company in an uncertain environment.
Expropriation is a last resort. It must never be daylight theft!
Until now, I naively believed that it was impossible for the state to steal from its citizens, or rather from the companies that pay taxes. Unfortunately, that’s what happened to us. I’ve experienced it firsthand.
I understand that the state needs to build Class I roads and highways. I understand expropriation, but I consider it theft that if 15 years ago you bought a building plot (buildable land according to the zoning plan) for 201 crowns, the state will take it away from you for 79 crowns. First we were offered 25 crowns, then 50 and finally 79.
After 15 years, it will cost you a third of what you paid before! At a time when similar plots, in the same location, are selling for 1700 to over 2500 per m2. 25 years ago, unbuildable land in the same location was sold for 80 crowns. We provided evidence for everything (prices extracted from the land registry).
Nobody cares that the state has caused us harm. Not to mention the fact that we have a building permit for the land, which suddenly makes it “worthless”. So a project that cost millions is going to be redone, and we’re going to have additional (hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars) of costs associated with it, and we’re going to have to downsize our entire project.
I’m sorry, this isn’t expropriation, it’s daylight robbery. Or maybe call it nationalization. I will never trust this country again. Details are at the end of this letter.
Just for initial clarification, I would like to write that in 2007 we bought the land, so the real estate transfer tax was paid over 8 crowns per m2. So we bought the land for 201 crowns per m2 and paid 4% to the state (about 8 crowns). And the state will offer us 25 crowns today, and if you subtract the 8 crowns it has already received, it has de facto, in the first step, offered us 15 crowns. Isn’t that offensive? I understand that the state’s coffers are leaky and empty, but if the state continues to steal from its citizens and businesses, it is headed for extinction.
This can happen to anyone. I’m not allowed to talk about it at home anymore.
This could really happen to you… I’m not even allowed to talk about it in my house. Why? I said that if I imagine a situation where one fine day, in the same way, the state takes our house or our whole business.
Some (literally) dubious expert will say 50 times less for the house and we will do nothing about it. You find that unbelievable? House or land. It’s exactly the same thing in terms of the law.
Do you think that you can entrust the valuation of your property, which you have honestly earned, to a valuer, when one values the land at 25, another at 50 and another at 79 crowns?
In the same way, the state will take our business that we are building, at the expense of our family and our children… I don’t even want to think about that anymore. Plus, it’s even easier to take the company…
A right only for the rich?
As a lawyer , I am convinced that law in this country is only for the rich. It’s sad what we’ve come to. We hired a law firm (and I am a lawyer) to fight the authorities regarding the expropriation of the land. It’s not exactly free. And what is the result? Nothing. We had to sue the state for the purchase price. Do you know how many people don’t or can’t defend themselves in a situation like this?
An ordinary lawyer costs 2000 CZK per hour (and more). Just writing the lawsuit took dozens of hours of work by various people and dozens of hours of my work that no one will ever pay me for. We spent dozens more hours with the authorities regarding the expropriation, also without compensation. Furthermore, you pay for expert opinions, which is not a thousand crowns. There are already several such expert opinions. You’re putting hundreds of thousands into an uncertain dispute that will drag on for years. The worst part is the time it costs you and no one will give it back. I robbed my children, my family, myself and last but not least my company of that time. And I still paid the officials who literally robbed us out of my taxes.
Laws and rules and deadlines only apply to humans. Not for the authorities!
Shall I describe here how many laws and rules have been violated regarding the aforementioned expropriation? You wouldn’t believe it. You won’t believe me that, for example, the Cadastral (or rather disastrous) office will register the state’s pre-emption right on our land and not inform us about it. In the age of data boxes, when it is their duty to communicate via data box, they claim to have written to us by ordinary mail without a receipt.
Or should I say that the deadlines in the law do not apply to the state during expropriation proceedings, but they do for us? There are, for us and for the state, 30-day deadlines. We have to handle them, but the state doesn’t have to… In the same way, suddenly the ministry spontaneously sets a deadline of 5 days for comments (of which you have 2 days at the weekend), after our file has been sitting in the ministry for about 5 months and nobody has dealt with it…
I’m sorry, but as a person I’m done with CR. I stopped trusting her.
I don’t trust this state to protect our private property. I don’t believe that things are going in the right direction here and I don’t believe that some official (well paid from our taxes, by the way) won’t one fine day decide to show a different kind of arbitrariness (or rather malice) and do something else.
Shall I continue? Maybe I could talk about health, when you can’t get an MRI or other tests without friends and we all pretend that everything is fine.
Uncertainties are huge and therefore it is not ideal to invest in the Czech Republic. It is certainly better to look elsewhere for future investments.
By the way, we have been negotiating with several countries over the last few months to move our business to them and you would be amazed at how they treat us and what they offer us. I’m not talking about tax breaks (up to 50%), but overall access and certainty.
You need long-term certainty for business, planning and investing. You don’t need subsidies and guarantees from the state or government contracts, but certainty and stability in terms of the environment. The worst thing is that you don’t know what will happen tomorrow or next year. How can you plan investments and development if you don’t know what will happen in a year? In another European country, they will tell you that they have had their eighth prime minister in almost 70 years and everything is so stable that if they have elections in a few months, they don’t expect change (even if the opposition wins).
Moving the company abroad will not only give us more credibility in Western markets. We may save on taxes, but I see legal certainty and a predictable tax system as essential.
I don’t believe any western country would allow what you did to our land. I feel like I’m in a banana republic and I never thought it was possible, but it happened. Nobody does that abroad. Nobody steals anyone’s property, non-nationals, for a fraction of the price… Not to mention the fact that every state would be afraid of arbitration and next time another state will stand up for us against the Czech Republic.
I do not believe that you would behave in a similar way, for example, in the case of a buyout of CEZ shares, which is now being discussed. Can you imagine offering shareholders, for example, 20 crowns per share at the current market price of around 1,000 or more? You’re saying there’s no comparison? So let’s ask ourselves a simple question. What is the difference between shares and land?
The fact is that we have 2 datacentres in the Czech Republic and a permit for a third (partly on land “stolen” by the state), but at the same time we have more (own) servers physically abroad (on 5 continents) than in the Czech Republic. Even from this point of view, we are now more of a foreign company than a Czech company.
Last year, I was wondering whether you or CEZ were in charge
CEZ is a chapter unto itself. There, the state acts like a schizophrenic. One day he claims that it is a private company and that he cannot do this and that against it. The next day he treats CEZ like his company. Once a company gives guarantees for loans or guarantees. At other times, price guarantees for the construction of possible additional blocks are addressed. And as a “good steward” you will now “defraud” the company of the dividend and in a year’s time you will send money there for operation or development… This, when you put it together, makes you think it’s more of a Dr. Chocholoušek thing.
Now I wonder if it is only CEZ that rules here or other state-owned enterprises as well?
Is it okay that the directors of bankrupt or heavily subsidised state-owned enterprises have many times higher salaries and bonuses than, for example, you as Prime Minister? It seems to me it’s been turned on its head. I don’t mean CEZ now.
Taxes. Soon there will be a tax on breathing or opinion…
Raise your taxes as much as you need to. Redistribute wealth as you need to, because if you think it’s right to impose, for example, a 25% tax on the sale of companies, you’re just proving that neither of you in government have never started or built a successful company. None of you know anything about how much sacrifice and how much stress and suffering it is. No one knows how much time you steal from your own children and family.
I’m 50 years old and I don’t know what I’m going to do in 10 or 20 years. I don’t know what’s going to happen to the company. Kids probably won’t do it because they see how much work and sacrifice is behind it. I won’t force them. What then? Sell the company, maybe? Okay, okay, okay, okay. I’ll have peace of mind. But the idea that the state will take 25% of what we have built and give it to me for subsidies or something...
Do you think that new, modern, value-added companies will be created here? They won’t. We’ll be the assembly plant, for the western world, and as long as it makes economic sense here, and as long as western Europe (and the EUR) exists economically, it will be the same. But one day Europe will be overtaken by China or India and everything will be different. We’ll be left with empty halls around the highways. And value-added technology companies will emerge and exist elsewhere, in other countries and other parts of Europe or the world.
If you think it’s right to tax it at 25% and then in return invent new subsidies or pay rises for those civil servants who happily surf the internet (and read tabloids) for a significant part of their working time, we’ll never get along. You give these officials a raise and while a year ago I wrote to youthat I’ll give you the data on how many tens of thousands of people in government surf every day…
I prefer not to comment on the state apparatus and wages in the state apparatus. You’re behind the times. Digitization zero. You missed an opportunity in that you could have fired a few % of the state employees and they could have found jobs in private companies. Instead, you add to them and create more offices and positions.
Do you want to tax any sale of property (such as real estate, regardless of how long you hold it) in the same way? Do you tax any sale of stock type assets (regardless of holding period) the same way? Tax 25% of any sale of a cottage or house you build. Tax the sale of anything 25%. Take 25% of any purchase price, anything. This will “certainly help” the economy. Good luck.
Please tax everything. Breathing, the opening of the eyes, the birth of a new human being (or even the act of conception).
Wouldn’t it be better if you just took everything? Nationalize it. You can call it expropriation and buy it for one fiftieth (or even less) of the market price. It doesn’t matter.
The state can tax all it wants and it will never be a good steward and it will never know how to invest the money well. Therefore, any redistribution will never work.
It’s not just a sales tax on companies, income, but limits on purchase prices for cars, for example. You see, years ago I bought a more expensive car and we had a “silent household” at the company for a few days. Finally, I told everyone that I needed a comfortable and safe car because I travel a lot to provide work and a paycheck for everyone every month. And if I’m tired or after a crash, it’s going to affect their families and their family budget…
By the way, have you seen car prices lately?
But that’s all because nobody understands how hard it is to build something, because nobody has built anything out of you.
Private versus semi-state and state world
As a private company, your hands are very tied. You can’t put as many items in the cost that will pass muster with the state.
Progressive things like employee stock are of no interest to anyone, except for some option programs for one of the aforementioned semi-state companies. Why isn’t there a clear framework of rules to motivate people in the private sector?
Level the playing field for “entrepreneurs” and employees
If you don’t solve the inequalities in the levies on employees and “entrepreneurs” working on the scab, the economy will not be completely fine.
I wrote a comparison last year about how a worker “employed” on a shvarcsystem has (at the same cost to the company) almost double the pay.
Subsidies are evil
The subsidy was one of the last straws that decided to move the company’s headquarters and many things abroad. I already consider the latest ridiculous idea about subsidies for grandma’s houses to be a new election campaign.
I’m waiting for you to come up with subsidies to make it possible to get subsidies to get subsidies… You have personally seen that you can build a successful company without any subsidies. On the contrary, subsidies distort the business environment. Not to mention their efficiency, when you employ a herd of civil servants to do it and then they are missing in other positions in the private sphere. Not to mention that the subsidy business is extremely inefficient (commissions for processing complex documents, checks, requirements, conditions and tenders). I can’t help but think it’s a blight.
You can’t talk me out of the perniciousness of subsidies even if you claim they are EU subsidies. No and no and no. The EU will “catch up” with this (and some other problems) one day… By the way, even for those EU subsidies, you set the rules and the distribution.
Rescuing the unsalvageable, discriminating against those responsible
Does anyone think it is right to subsidise unsalvageable businesses and bail them out?
You discriminate against responsible businesses and households because you come up with bailouts and subsidies for everything. I won’t recall what all the support in recent years was for foreign companies that were in loss and so did not pay taxes in our country.
It makes sense to comment on the very extensive housing support, ideas such as mortgage benefit support, state savings, state loans… Why don’t people take part-time jobs? The companies can’t find anyone. I understand that a disabled person needs help, but I don’t understand that you help an able-bodied person with housing and then they bitch about your government over a beer. Instead of taking a part-time job… Do you remember our joint debate with demonstrators in Hluboká nad Vltavou last summer?
If a person has no loans, no debts, he is discriminated against because his taxes and levies are raised (and his land is stolen).
Duties, duties, duties
Just more and more responsibilities. I guess that’s your election agenda.
Gradually, companies have more and more obligations. I can’t remember the last time anything was cancelled. That is, except for EET, which again leads to not getting a receipt in many restaurants or from many craftsmen. It’s a bit cheaper without a receipt…
Otherwise, the duties just keep piling up. Forms, statistics, rules and conditions. Shall I list what has changed? I don’t even dare to talk about any digitalization, because if individual authorities still don’t communicate with each other, we are still not in the 21st century. century. We can’t pat ourselves on the back here and say we’re the best. I guess you haven’t tried anything abroad. There, in many countries, you can actually do everything online.
Maybe you should go somewhere else. How’s it going with less bureaucracy. How states are changing. Compare Poland 10-15 years ago and today. Compare Luxembourg years ago and today. Compare some Eastern European countries a few years ago and today. We’re patting ourselves on the back here, but reality is eluding us. We’re enjoying a few miles of highway. Have you traveled anywhere (on your own) in Europe and seen what they have built elsewhere in recent years?
Less bureaucracy. Predictable environment. These are the certainties that help. Tax bonuses offered in other countries are also available in the Czech Republic, but only for selected companies from a certain holding or for foreign investors who will turn this into an assembly plant. You’re not using our brains. We will never produce anything with added value.
The Last Drop
On the other hand, let’s be glad we don’t have more things dependent on the online environment. If the justice.cz website or the purchase of vignettes doesn’t work and nobody minds, let’s be happy.
If the huge and long-lasting inaccessibility of the entire environment of the Czech Ministry of Justice, when for tens of hours you cannot find a single piece of information or send a single email to any office or court, goes unpunished… No one minds not seeing information about companies, not seeing information about court hearings, or not even sending an email to the clerk’s office (and maybe missing a very important deadline).
The moment we offered the state help, and free of charge, we were not surprised. No one is interested in the services of a Czech company that can solve the situation. The chairwoman of the PSČR takes a government plane and goes to buy similar services in Israel. I understand there is foreign policy behind this. But (that trip alone) on a government plane cost much more than it would have cost to protect all the government sites for ten years…
But as someone whose company is building solutions here in the Czech Republic that are used by other governments and ministries in other countries, I feel sad. Our own republic buys it elsewhere and doesn’t even communicate with us or ask how we got it done. Other governments trust us and take their solutions from us. Our own government, which we are paying (with our taxes) for that trip to Israel, doesn’t trust us. The mistrust is now mutual and we will no longer say that this is our government.
Every good deed is deservedly punished. The saddest part of all of this is that the week before last I received a call from an unnamed officer in a cybercrime investigation department telling me that I was to be interviewed. Why? Because I am suspected by the Justice Department of knowing too much about the attacks on their systems, and in conjunction with offering our services, I am suspected of being behind the attacks. That was the last straw. Maybe the people in the ministry watch too much Johnny English strikes again type comedy, but they don’t realize that they are hurting others by doing so. I immediately bought the tickets and went into negotiations to move our company to Western Europe.
I won’t forgive me now a remark on NIS2
NIS2 will be another change for thousands of businesses. I don’t know if it will make a real difference. Except perhaps for the extra cost and hassle and extra work. Not to mention that the potential fines are significant and the sanctions like “you put a manager in the company” and I’ll walk around my company seem like something out of a silly movie. But if anyone has read this far, they won’t be surprised.
The Czech Republic does not have a stable environment
It’s sad to build something out of CR. That’s what I found out.
If you don’t know if and when the state will steal from you, it’s not a fair environment. If you don’t know what conditions and rules will apply in a few months, you can’t plan to invest and build a business that might eventually (almost literally) be stolen from you…
People need to be told the truth. That’s the place to start. There is no need to take populist steps, but to act and behave fairly. I don’t know whether you will last as a government, because they say that any government that makes beer more expensive will fall within a year.
Good luck
Good luck. It’s been good. I don’t know how many people will agree with me, but I don’t care. I’ve made my point while I can…
I understand that as a relatively small company, no one cares, but maybe others will do the same. At the same time, never forget that a small company can become big one day, and we do everything we can to make sure that this is the case here. We are growing and gradually have thousands of servers around the world and our customers include governments of other countries. Ours not only distrusts us, but also throws sticks under our feet. And yet this state steals from us…
In my mind, I’m thinking that when we move the company out and I publish this letter, the authorities will come after us. In my mind, I think that then I will have to apply for political asylum in a civilized country. I would have laughed at it before, but after previous experiences I don’t find it entirely funny.
I’m not doing this for populism. I wrote to you because I am terribly sad because I never imagined having to “flee” my home, my own republic, because I have stopped trusting our government.
With respect and good day,
In Hluboká nad Vltavou on 31. 7. 2023 Josef Grill
Director and founder of WEDOS
PS:
Below are some facts about the “theft” of the land. Don’t forget that next time it could happen to you.
Details of the story about the nationalised land
We started to describe the story of how you get your land stolen a few paragraphs above. It could happen to you. Believe it. I never thought this could happen and that it would happen to me personally.
I’m sorry, but it’s not communism anymore to be all things to all people. It’s just that the state behaves like this.
Imagine that someone sends you a letter with a contract for a future contract in it for you to sign. Then they try to send it in an envelope with a stripe to make it look more serious. This impresses older people and they’d rather fill it out. Eventually, a few officials from the Regional Directorate of Transport will come to you (completely unannounced) and present you with some papers that you “have” to sign. It is a contract for the state to take land from you for the construction of a road or highway, i.e. in the public interest. You know there’s nothing you can do about it, and you’re okay with it. But there’s a catch. There’s nothing in the contract about the price. There’s nothing in the beginning about how many meters the state will eventually take.
The price will only be determined by a professional expert opinion sometime in the future. Other landowners, in good faith in the state and fair dealing, signed. An expert witness has to have an overview, right? But we’re not yesterday’s. The well-being of citizens and fair conduct is certainly not the first priority of state officials in the Czech Republic. It’s more likely to make your job easier and bend the system.
The expert shall be identified and selected by the State.
In 2022, i.e. at the time of the biggest boom in land prices, the bread was broken and we learned that for a building plot (meaning a plot buildable according to the zoning plan), the state, through the Regional Development Authority, offersus literally unbelievable 25 CZK per m2(and a few tens of pennies).
I wonder what goes through the minds of the people who signed? Nothing more for them, they are already aligned with the state at this price. It is true that no one else had land developable according to the zoning plan and they all accepted compensation for expropriation in the form of eight times the price offered, which is in the law.
Land for datacentre
The land for our third data centre – DC3 – is adjacent to a road that is to be widened by another lane and may become a motorway in the future. We have owned the land for almost 15 years, and the state stole it from us (according to the state, expropriated it) about 3 months before the 15-year period expired. We knew we would need a place for another datacenter and this is what it was designed for. The land has water, sewerage, fiber optic cables, plenty of electricity (there are several high voltage connections), the land is intended for similar development. Just perfect condition. There are not many such plots in the Czech Republic.
DC1 was filling up fast, and if we went into serverhousing as originally planned, we would need to build it quickly. In the end we decided to keep DC1 as private, then new technologies like HPE Moonshot came along and it wasn’t so hot to fill it up.
The land was to serve as a backup if we could not find another one in Hluboká near the swimming pool for DC2.
In the end, we decided to build the WEDOS DC3 building complex on it. We currently have all the building permits and necessary documentation. Only in the Czech Republic there was a construction boom and the prices of construction work, materials and the workload of construction companies did not favour the new project. That is why we postponed the implementation. Now prices are getting to a new normal, but the business environment in the Czech Republic, which is defined by the state, is changing.
How it started
We warn those of a weaker nature who still believe that the state system is there for you not to read any further.
When we learned that the road that runs through our property was going to be transformed and widened by another lane and may become a highway in the future, we naturally started calculating how much it would have to be reduced. However, this is a very large plot of land and so it will not disrupt plans for another datacentre.
Then the official negotiations began, when the contract was presented to us. We looked at her in disbelief. It was in the form of letters and then personal pressure. Sign quickly and don’t worry about a thing. Everyone has already signed it, you don’t want to cause trouble, do you? It’s a state interest! You’re the last ones who didn’t sign. These are verbatim quotes.
Hmm, does that remind you of anything? Pressure? Unilaterally advantageous contracts? We do – scumbag behaviour!
You know very well that if we don’t like something, we will oppose it. We opposed the nonsensical § 7b of Act no. 141/1961 Coll. Criminal Procedure Code, which gave every police officer the ability to shut down the web, various pressures from large interest groups and the police, and many other cases that we don’t even have time to write about. So in this case we decided to speak out against these dubious contracts.
And how do you think that turned out? After some time, our land was recorded as containing the state’s right of first refusal and we learned that part of it would be expropriated. When we contacted them, they replied that the decision we can appeal against was supposedly sent to our mailing address (the registered office address) as a regular letter. No one bothered to send it by post or even in their own hands. The land is owned by the company, which of course has a data box. The state is therefore obliged to communicate via data mailbox. So why do they tell us that they wrote by ordinary mail without a receipt? I don’t think they tried to send it… By the way, you understand that no letter has arrived, of course.
In the age of data boxes, this is absolutely incredible. And the state will do this for you, namely the cadastral office.
Of course, there was no possibility of appeal, so we were left with a sharp exchange of electronic correspondence with the authorities and a subsequent meeting, which was rather comical because the official “covered” the official.
When an “expert” determines the price of 25 CZK per m2 of building land
We were counting on losing a certain amount of building space. It does not matter whether it is 642 square meters or less or more.
We even incorporated the motorway into our WEDOS DC3 design. Buildings are designed to act as a noise wall to protect our future neighbours from noise. The state is not currently planning to build any noise wall in the section in question. He promised a noise wall to all the citizens of the village and everyone counted on it.
First, we received an official notification, which includes the price of the buyout. It was determined by an expert at CZK 25 per m2 for a building plot. Roughly 8 times lower than our purchase price. 70x – 80x lower than the usual price in the area (according to prices of sold building land in 2019).
Is there (and will there be in 2021) any building land in the Czech Republic with a price of 25 CZK per m2? How did the expert come up with that price?
If you know of such a plot of land that has fiber optic cables, high voltage, sewerage and water and can be developed into a datacenter and costs 25 crowns per m2, let us know immediately. We buy unlimited quantities.
And we’re still talking about normal supply and demand prices, where both buyer and seller want to sell. In this case, it is an expropriation where the state, in the public interest, interferes with the property rights of citizens who may have an emotional relationship to the land. How do they feel when they have to involuntarily hand over such a plot of land and get CZK 25 per m2 for it because they signed some papers and believed they would get a fair price for it.
As far as expropriation is concerned, the state gives as “pain” a certain multiple of the price determined by an expert. For non-building land, it is eight times the price determined by the expert. For building land, it is one and a half times. The price determined by the appraiser should be the normal price and this is a price close to (or equal to) the market price. The state took these coefficients into account and offered us eight times the price, but we have 2 reservations. The calculated price (determined by an expert) does not correspond to the current market price and so the eightfold does not make sense. In addition, our land is zoned as developable and we have been issued a building permit to build our third data center on the property.
Our land has all along been included in the zoning plan as developable land for mixed use development. Similar plots of land have been sold in the same village in the last 2 years for prices higher than 2.500,-CZK per m2. In the neighbouring, smaller village, prices of similar plots are 1,600 and more. Where did we get the prices? We had the prices of all executed contracts from the Land Registry for the last 5 years calculated.
We even had the price of one non-building plot of land calculated, which was subsequently changed to a building plot and is now developed. The land was sold for 80 crowns per m2. But do you know when? That was in 1998. Yes, it’s not a typo. In 1998, non-building land (a few metres away) was sold for 80 crowns per m2 and in 2021 the state will offer us 25 crowns for building land.
In past years, land in the same village has been sold at different prices. Yes, I have to strike the price of the land that the state realized in the buyout from the overview for the same reason as with us. There it is clear that the price and approach is the same or very similar. We need to consider only a truly market environment and not a situation where the state steals from its citizens.
But the state has simply robbed us, because according to the law, every expropriated person is supposed to receive “pain” in the form of eight times the price for non-building land and one and a half times for building land plus costs (damages caused by expropriation. Due to the fact that they quite deliberately offered us such a low price, we refused and in the course of further proceedings it is no longer possible to get these multiples (the painful ones).
During the appeal, the price was increased to 50 crowns per m2. In the end, we took it all the way to the ministry, and it awarded us 79 crowns. Then there is no protection. The only way out is through the courts.
The expropriation procedure itself was full of arbitrariness of individual authorities, non-compliance with the law or deadlines. The Regional Office of the South Bohemian Region, where the officials must have been making fun of us as well. We will be given 30 days to produce an expert report, which will then be rejected. In the spring of 2022, it was extremely difficult to get an expert witness who has the time and who can realistically produce an expert report in such a short period of time is a miracle. Most of us refused. Some of them argue that they will not enter into a dispute with the Road and Motorway Directorate (ŘSD) or the Regional Authority because they have contracts or most of the contracts from them. Eventually, we managed to get an expert who supplied us with an expert report, but since he was busy, he could not work with the data we have (you cannot get prices from the land registry on the spot). The regional authority rejected this report and has been working for almost a month on who will do a new report – an expert appointed by them. They give us a month (in accordance with the law) and do their own assessment for several months. It was the same at the Ministry, which took months to manage and gave us a deadline of 5 days…
We will add that the whole expropriation has already taken place and the land has been transferred to the state and now we have filed a lawsuit for compensation for the expropriation. We attach herewith a copy of our suit.
It is an additional cost for us, an additional cost for the state. More wasted money, more wasted time.
Conclusion
Do you think that if you pay over 40 million in various taxes to this state this year alone, that they won’t steal from you?
If we had focused on the business instead of negotiating and arguing with the authorities, we could have gone one step further and brought much more to the state. And we’re a company that’s never had any subsidies… (and there are plenty of them in our industry), because even without them we can do it… We never got anything from the state.
It may be a precedent-setting case, but we have to fight for it because this is daylight theft.