Abuse of life-long and life-term support agreements frequently leads to violence against older persons, an issue the Ombudswoman Tena Šimonović Einwalter has been warning about for a long time.

In 2023, significant positive developments occurred for the first time, partly based on recommendations from the Ombudswoman’s annual report. Amendments to the Personal Relations Act introduced new protective mechanisms, to which we contributed as members of the working group. Among other things:

  • The number of agreements that one person can conclude as a provider of support was limited (to three);
  • The name of the agreements was changed to make the timing of property transfer from the recipient to the provider of support clearer;
  • The establishment of a register of these agreements was foreseen.

Comments on the Rulebook on the Register

The establishment and operation of the register will be governed by the Rulebook on the Register of Life-long and Life-term Support Agreements. The Ministry of Justice and Public Administration submitted the Rulebook for public consultation in April 2024, and it will enter into force on July 1.

During the public consultation, we emphasized that the Register should include a verification of available records, in order to prevent agreements from being concluded in contradiction of Article 170 of the Social Welfare Act. This article stipulates that a legal or natural person engaged in social welfare activities, as well as any person employed in the social welfare sector, may not “conclude an agreement with a beneficiary that involves the transfer or encumbrance of the beneficiary’s property, nor a life-long or life-term support agreement,” and that “any such agreement concluded contrary to this provision is null and invalid.”

Nevertheless, complaints we receive show that such agreements continue to be concluded despite the prohibition. In one such case, the owner of a care home concluded a null and void life-long support agreement with a resident and in return became the owner of her apartment. In this case, the Croatian Chamber of Notaries explained that notaries cannot know the nature of the relationship between the parties, i.e., that the agreement involved a care home owner and a resident of that same home.

It would therefore be beneficial to use the introduction of the Register to check such circumstances in advance, to prevent the conclusion of agreements in violation of the law, rather than continuing the practice of concluding such agreements regardless of legal prohibitions.

However, the issue is that notaries and courts do not have direct access to social welfare records to verify whether a legal obstacle to concluding an agreement exists. At the same time, the social welfare system itself lacks the necessary data on all individuals to whom this prohibition applies. For this reason, it is necessary to enable such verification through other means—for example, by requiring the provider of support to submit a certificate from the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute confirming the insured person’s employment status when entering into the agreement.

The Ministry of Justice and Public Administration did not accept this comment during public consultation, noting that it is up to the Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy to ensure a list or record of persons prohibited from concluding such agreements under the Social Welfare Act.

Since the risk remains that such agreements could still be concluded by persons legally prohibited from doing so, both ministries should make additional joint efforts to prevent such situations.

It is a positive development that, following our suggestion, the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration has included the State Attorney’s Office of the Republic of Croatia among the entities that will have the right to access the Register. We made this proposal considering that access to the Register could be important for state attorneys when dealing with criminal complaints related to concluded life-long and life-term support agreements.

Recommendations from the 2023 Annual Report of the Ombudswoman

The issue of abuse of life-long and life-term support agreements is regularly addressed in the annual reports of the Ombudswoman. The 2023 report includes the following recommendations:

  • To the Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy: to carry out a campaign aimed at better informing the public, especially older persons, about life-long and life-term support agreements;
  • To the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration: to collaborate with the Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy in making additional efforts to prevent legal or natural persons engaged in social welfare activities, or persons employed in this sector, from concluding life-long or life-term support agreements before courts or notaries.

More information on this issue can be found in the Ombudswoman’s 2023 Annual Report, in the chapter on the Rights of Older Persons.