A private company which came into possession of a bus station and garage thorough a decades-old mistake by the land registry office is locked in a battle with the city of Budapest, which refuses to compensate the firm for the land. According to daily Népszabadság, a predecessor of the company, which is now called Estivo Kft., gained possession of the facility on Bogdáni út in District III in 1979 due to an error, and now the firm has given the city an ultimatum to pay Ft 1.5 billion (roughly €6.5 million) with interest, or leave the property by September.
While both sides apparently agree that the company came into the property by mistake, the law is on Estivo’s side. The city turned to the courts in 2000 to challenge Estivo’s ownership, but lost its case seven years later. And last year the Supreme Court (Legfelsőbb Bíróság) made a final ruling that the land under the bus station, which serves 13,000 passengers a day, belongs to Estivo.
Budapest transit operator BKV says it would take at least six months and cost Ft 1 billion to move the station, most likely to part of a parking on Szentendre út, where bus lines 6, 86 and 118 would then terminate.
Earlier, Estivo accepted an offer which would have exchanged some other properties – including a shopping center on Tétényi út – for the bus station.