A woman from Arad won 25,000 lei in moral damages in court after being wrongly taxed for over ten years for an unpaved street. The municipality claims that the street is on the list for paving, but the work has not yet been completed.
Strada Someșului in Arad was included, approximately ten years ago, in a higher tax category, although it did not benefit from the appropriate infrastructure. Residents thus ended up paying higher taxes for an unpaved street, without sidewalks and without minimum conditions of civilization.
The woman made several reports to the City Hall, but they were ignored. Finally, he decided to go to court. In 2024, the Arad Court ordered the municipality to pave Someșului Street and set up sidewalks, but the decision has not been fully implemented even to this day. Only the sidewalks were completed, not the roadway, according to Agerpres.
In 2025, the Timișoara Court of Appeal decided definitively to award moral damages in the amount of 25,000 lei. The judges appreciated that, by not paving the street, the right to dignity and privacy of the inhabitants was seriously violated.
“By not paving the street, the right of those who live there to human dignity and the right to private life was seriously violated, which is why the moral damages were granted. From what I know, it is a unique case at the level of the municipality of Arad. It should be emphasized that, although from December 2024 the City Hall had to enforce the asphalting obligation, this has not happened until now either. Only the sidewalks have been built, in the course of last year, not the carriageway”, lawyer Marius Ovidiu Chiş declared for Agerpres.
The court also fined Arad City Hall for each day of delay in the execution of the works and established daily penalties in favor of the plaintiff.
“Based on Article 24 paragraph 3 of the Administrative Litigation Law No. 554/2004, the Municipality of Arad applies to the defendant a fine of 20% of the gross minimum wage per day of delay, starting from 10.12.2024 and until he fulfills the obligations established on the basis of the civil sentence No. 395/14.03.2024, pronounced by the Arad Court in file no. 2236/108/2023 – amount to be paid to the state budget – based on Article 24 of the Administrative Litigation Law no. 10.12.2024 and until he fulfills the obligations established on the basis of the civil sentence no. 395/14.03.2024, pronounced by the Arad Court in file no. 2236/108/2023, but no more than 3 months from the date of communication of this decision”. the Court of Appeal decided.
According to the quoted source, the Arad City Hall communicated that it will respect the court rulings and that Someșului street is in the stage of drawing up the technical-economic documentation for asphalting.
“The City Hall of the Municipality of Arad has always implemented the sentences pronounced by the courts. As for Someşului street, it is in the attention of the municipality even before the sentence was pronounced. It is included in the list of dirt streets in the municipality that are to be asphalted. Currently, the investment is in the stage of drawing up the technical-economic documentation, after which the necessary stages for implementation will be completed the project”, the City Hall sent.
In the meantime, the woman has opened a new process through which she requests the exact calculation of the penalties and compensations that she has to collect.
