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Yesterday, the Klaipėda Regional Prosecutor’s Office launched a pre-trial investigation for possible misappropriation and damage to the property of Villa Auska in Palanga. This decision was made at the request of the Mayor of Palanga, Šarūnas Vaitkus.
Prosecutors will have to unravel whether Auska’s then tenant, Ambra Investicijos, has legally sold more than 1,500 different items for a nominal price.
The Baltic state company made such a strange deal 7 years ago, even though the rented hotel was already managed by the Property Fund at that time, which later became the Property Bank.
Foreclosed property lost
The municipality of Palanga, which took over the hotel this month, lost its old property in Auska.
Through a government resolution passed in November last year, the old hotel, a 22-hectare seaside pine forest owned by the country’s leaders, was rescued from privatization and moved to the complex.
Together with the hotel, the municipality also took over the lease agreement concluded in 2011 with the Vilnius company Amber Investicijos, which had been in force for the last few months.
After reading the lease of the building complex signed by the then Baltic state company, the municipal commission also began to count the items leased to Ambra Investicija and described in detail in the contract: interior details, equipment, furniture and even hooks on the trash cans or wall.
Then it turned out that the entire property within the building in 2014 was mysteriously sold to the same owner for a ridiculous price.
All tangible assets were leased for 30 thousand. LTL (around 8.7 thousand euros) per year, but almost seven years before the lease, Baltija, which is transforming into the company, sold everything for only 42 thousand LTL. LTL (around 12 thousand euros).
Only buildings were delivered
Due to such waste of state property, the municipality criticized the Property Bank, which had administered the lease, to which Auska had been transferred in trust since April 2012.
“How could Baltijos Holiday House sell the property of another owner’s building? Why was the state property sold without auction?” Palar Mayor Šarūnas Vaitkus asked publicly.
According to the tourist municipality, the Property Bank, which took over Auska, did not include all the state properties specified in the annexes to the lease, did not control it and allowed the half-life to be wasted.
However, the representatives of the Property Bank stated that the property in Auska did not belong to them because the Government had not transferred it to the Property Bank.
“By Government Resolution, in April 2012, only the real estate owned by the Baltic Company was transferred to the then Property Fund: the buildings of the Auska Hotel complex.
A year and a half later, through a separate government resolution, we were sent 141 more photographs.
Therefore, we only assumed the lease of the buildings, and the furniture in Auska was not transferred to us. How can we rent and maintain a property that does not belong to us? ”Explained Justė Žibūdienė, Head of the Legal Department of Turto bankas.
According to her, the Baltic company that transferred the buildings from Auskas to the Property Bank continued to own the tangible assets and leased them further.
Bought to stop paying rent
Vitalijus Baranauskas, director of the Ambra Investicijos company, also stated that in 2011 two separate lease contracts were concluded: buildings and equipment and personal property :.
The old Auska property was already worn, the furniture needed to be repaired, so it was not convenient to rent it later. It seems to me that at that time Baltija had written off all his assets and offered us to buy them for the residual value as unnecessary. We agreed, because after buying this property, we no longer had to pay its rent, ”said V. Baranauskas.
He said that during that year part of the property Baltijos bought was depreciated and discarded or replaced, while presidential furniture and other massive upholstered furniture from former tenants were left because they had nowhere to put them.
The owner of Ambra Investments considered whether it would be worth litigating this furniture with the municipality, as the value of the remaining property in Auska is low.
The contract reads differently
However, the agreement signed 10 years ago is evaluated very differently by the municipality of Palanga.
According to the resort managers, Auska’s lease also included the lease of the tangible property inside, for which a separate rental price was agreed.
All assets transferred to the lessee are specified in detail in the Deed of Transfer and Acceptance of Structures and Equipment, which was named as Annex No. 10 of the Contract. The real estate contract, which discussed the lease terms for that property, was another addendum to the contract.
The main agreement states: “This agreement, as well as all its modifications, additions and annexes, constitute a single agreement between the parties and cannot be divided in any way.”
Inseparable from the hotel
According to the municipality’s attorneys, the massive furniture, interior details, furnishings, carpets and stained glass windows created especially for this representative villa are an integral part of the historic building and emphasize the authenticity and exclusivity of Auska.
“Without the property on the inside, the hotel could not function in this building, so the secondary elements are an integral part of the main element.
If the hotel building was handed over to the Property Bank, it was handed over together with the elements of the hotel with which the building was rented ”, explained the municipal lawyers.
Turto bankas does not want to agree with such position of the municipality.
“According to the requirements of the legal acts, when real property is transferred to the Government together with it, no tangible property is transferred. This can be done through a separate government resolution, in which all transferred items are assessed and listed, ”explained J.Žibūdienė, Head of the Legal Department.
He said he did not know how the property was sold without an auction because the Property Bank did not own or rent it.
Suspicious of a corrupt deal
Prosecutors are also asked to investigate this lease and the sale of items on suspicion of a corrupt arrangement.
It is suspected that the municipality has a clause in the contract that allows the return of the building without repair at the end of the lease.
The contract stipulates that the tenant must deliver the buildings and equipment neat, clean and renovated in such a state that they can be used for at least 5 years without major repairs.
However, at the discretion of the tenant, instead of this condition, due to the condition of the structures and equipment, he was allowed to provide 4 million. LTL insurance policy against fire, floods, natural disasters, theft, malicious damage to the property of third parties.
“The whole building is like after the war. It seems that after last summer, the building no longer had heating: the whole” Auska “felt mold, the wallpaper on the wall peeled off the humidity.
The building has been handed over to us in such a way that no hotel activity is possible for a new tenant without serious investments, ”said Š.Vaitkus.
“Auska” will be rented by Vilnius residents
However, even in such a condition, Auska Villa attracted the interest of the new tenant of this building: the Vilnius company Roko virtuve, which manages the chain of restaurants and hotels.
This week, a two-year short-term lease was signed with the winners from Vilnius.
“Roko virtuve” will pay the municipality about 145 thousand LTL for the rent of “Auska” euros. Until the villa is rented, the municipality will decide how to make better use of the famous building taken.
“A feasibility study has been commissioned, which should serve the best purpose for which Auska could be used.
In addition, we have already started the spatial planning procedures and there will only be enough space near Auska to maintain the building, and we will transfer about 20 hectares of forest to the state so that no one thinks of furnishing this coastal area with private villas. ,
