Gabrovo Regional Governor Georgi Pepelanov returned as unlawful Decision No. 313 of the Nedelino Municipal Council, under which an 80 sq m room in the building of Vasil Levski Primary School in the village of Sredets was to be leased for five years at an initial monthly rent of €40.90 excluding VAT. The decision was adopted unanimously by all 13 councillors on 29 June, without a single question or statement concerning the legal restrictions on the use of school properties.
The proposal was submitted by Mayor Boyan Kehayov following the expiry of a previous lease agreement signed on 8 March 2021. The room is located on the ground floor of the school building, which is public municipal property.
According to the municipal property programme adopted by the council, premises in the school in Sredets may be leased for “production activities, storage facilities and other services for the local population”.
This, however, is where the problem lies – one that was overlooked by the proposal’s author, the committee and all 13 municipal councillors.
The committee discussed the rent, but not the law
The Standing Committee on Budget and Finance approved the proposal with five votes in favour. The only amendment it made was to stipulate in the future lease agreement that the municipality could adjust the rent if the applicable tariff changed.
The committee did not ask whether a school property could be used for production activities or as a warehouse in the first place.
Nor did any councillor raise the question during the meeting.
After reading out the draft decision, council chairman Veselin Kehayov moved directly to a roll-call vote. All 13 councillors voted in favour, without debate.
The 80 sq m premises were therefore to be offered at an initial monthly rent of €40.90 excluding VAT. That amounts to just over €0.51 per square metre.
The council also decided that 30% of the rent should be used for activities of local importance in Sredets. At the initial rent, that would amount to €12.27 a month, or around €147 a year.
Meanwhile, the premises were referred to as a “site” rather than a room in the decision itself – another indication of how the document had been prepared.
A school does not stop being a school simply because it is closed
During its review, the regional governor found that the file contained no information establishing whether Vasil Levski Primary School had been closed and whether the designated use of the building had been changed under the Spatial Development Act.
Even if the school has been closed, this does not automatically change the status of the property. Under the law, it remains an educational facility.
The Pre-school and School Education Act provides that properties released following the closure of schools may be used for educational, healthcare, social or humanitarian activities.
Production premises and warehouses are not among the permitted uses.
Use for other purposes is possible only if several conditions are met simultaneously: no public need for the permitted activities has been established for a period of two years; the Minister of Education has issued a positive opinion; and the settlement has fewer than 5,000 inhabitants.
The case file contains no evidence that the municipality had established whether the building was needed for educational, healthcare, social or humanitarian purposes.
There is also no positive opinion from the Minister of Education.
Nor is there the legally required written consent from the relevant minister to change the designated use of a municipal property intended for educational purposes.
According to the regional governor, the decision was therefore adopted in violation of the relevant provisions of the Pre-school and School Education Act and is consequently unlawful.
The previous lease remains unexplained
The mayor’s comments to the councillors make clear that the premises were not being leased for the first time.
The new competition was proposed precisely because a five-year lease agreement signed in March 2021 had expired.
This raises questions about the conditions under which the previous agreement was concluded, what activity was carried out in the premises and whether the legal requirements governing the use of school properties had been met at that time.
There are no answers to these questions in the mayor’s report or in the minutes of the council meeting.
On 23 July, the Nedelino Municipal Council is due to reconsider Decision No. 313.
It is the first item on the agenda of the meeting, and the council’s published report already lists it as “revoked”.
The unanimity seen on 29 June will therefore have to be repeated, but this time in the opposite direction – to revoke a decision that passed through the mayor, the standing committee and the entire Municipal Council without anyone noticing that a school building is not simply an ordinary warehouse available for rent.
