Who owns what?

Today is my first day back at work. The first thing my coworker tells me is that we have to be gone from the building in two months.

Apparently, this building (and it's HUGE) used to be a single family dwelling. There are probably close to twenty apartments here along with the Institute. I'd say the building is almost a hundred years old.

During the Communist times, Ceasescu repossesed many privatly owned buildings and gave the ownership to the State, or used them to house numerous families. I guess our building falls into the latter category.

Now, the previous owners want their stuff back, to put it bluntly. Turns out the man who owns our building went to the authorities with the proper paperwork and says everyone has to leave within two months. I have no idea what's going to happen to the others who live here. Many of the old office buildings in the area used to be single-family houses too. I think another building has been turned into a high school.

On one hand, it's good to get back what was stolen from you. On the other, this also seems like a microchosm of the situation of ethnic Hungarians abroad. How far back do we have look?

If I owned a building which was forcibly taken from me by the government, I'm be pretty pissed off. If I had the chance to get it back, twenty or thirty years later, having only to show a bit of paperwork, I'd be pretty happy and would jump at the chance. I guess the Institute and everyone else who lives here is just collateral.

On the bright side, at least the building is staying in Romanian hands, at least for now. Nothing pisses me off more (well, there are lots of things, but I'm trying to stay on topic) than seeing foreigners buy up local land for their own profit. I see it back in Canada and I see it here too. Turns out a Syrian man owns most of the downtown buildings and is trying to charge 5000 euros a month for rent for a tiny office space.