The Council of Europe in collaboration with the European Union has announced a new initiative whereby it will provide a free helpline for Albanians seeking information on the registration of land property titles.
The helpline will be open Monday-Friday 14:00-17:00 between March and June and it will be supported by the Tirana Legal Aid Society and the Faculty of Law at Tirana University.
A focus of the helpline will be to give advice to women property owners who will be able to access specialized support from operators.
The CoE said:
“This initiative aims to improve the legal understanding by interested citizens on the applied registration procedures and to ensure consistent application of the property rights’ legislation, along with effective enforcement of property owners’ rights in Albania.”
The statement adds that they hope the ongoing support will help to “close a long-standing gap” in the registration of agricultural titles and ownership in the country.
Albania suffers from an issue whereby an extremely low number of women are property owners. UN Women estimates that only 8% of the female population own a property. This is not due to legislation or civil law, but rather a lack of information on their rights. Traditionally, women were not allowed to own property and this attitude still persists in some parts of the country.
