Osijek - Croatia

[Damir]

Hello, I have a few questions.

Does anyone have the contact details for Drazen Srb in Osijek? I believe he used to work with Ivan Vekic. (Working hours)

Where can I obtain details on land that I own in Osijek? Plot number/maps etc?

How can I open a bank account in Croatia and which banks are there?

How do I change my residential address on my passport to a Croatian address?

Many thanks for your time,

Damir

[Peter Ellis]

Hi Damir

Sorry to be slow. I missed this at the weekend. You could try

SRB DRAZEN , odvjetnicki ured
31000 Osijek, Park kralja Petra Kresimira IV 1

[phone]

You'd need either a Kataster Plan of the plots or the Katastar Nos (K.c. broj) to check on current ownership.

Opening a bank account here just involves producing your ID or passport.
The biggest bank is Zagrebacka Bank although they are always insufferably slow and don't seem to have many people in branches who speak anything other than Croatian. Raiffeisen or Erste both have a good branch network and are much better in all respects. There are lots of smaller regional ones as well, but some of them may want to hang on to money deposited in your account and not let you withdraw it for several days.

You didn't mention what nationality your passport is. British ones only have a place for emergency contact addresses and you can change those yourself. If it is a Croatian one, I guess you would need to contact the embassy.

Kindest regards

[Damir]

Thank you for your response, very helpful.

Could you please answer me one more question: My father would like me to act on his behalf for his interests in Croatia. What would I have to do to be given offical authority to act on his behalf?

[Peter Ellis]

You will need to do a Power of Attorney (Punomoc) naming you and signed by him, in Croatian. You'll need to get it notarised and if you are outside Croatia, fixed with an Apostille by the Foreign Ministry (State Dept if in US) of the country that you are living in. If you do it whilst in Croatia, you just need the notarisation.

HTH

[Damir]

Very helpful, thanks Peter. Do Croatian Lawyers require a Punomoc to act on our behalf. I've recently spoken to one from Osijek who has asked for 6 signed copies of Punomoc? Is this the procudure?

[Peter Ellis]

If you do a Punomoc for someone else it should be worded quite specifically as to what you are allowing them to do on your behalf. Don't just give them carte blanche. Badly defined powers of attorney (Punomoc) can lead to all sorts of problems.
Do you know the lawyer concerned?

[Damir]

Hi Peter, Thanks for your reply. The lawyer is based in Osijek. I'd prefer a lawyer that can speak english as my Croatian isn't to a business level. Would it be better to go through a lawyer in Zagreb? I'd prefer to instruct the lawyer rather than do a Punomoc?

[Peter Ellis]

It depends what you want them for. If it is something local, involving checks on court documents, you are better using someone local. They will either walk round and get what they want or send a staff member round. If they are in Zagreb, they will do everything by post and it will tale forever.
Have a look at this webpage. It lists Croatian lawyers who are members of the Bar Association. This is the English version.
If you look bottom left, you will see that you can select by town. You'll then need to scroll down for Osijek. There are 4 pages altogether for Osijek lawyers. Once you've got there, you'll see that if they profess to speak any foreign languages it is listed in a column on the right. There are several English speakers.
www.odvj-komora.hr/WebStuff/Bar.html