Our note on the patterns and the first week is written from the buyer's side of the ledger and deliberately names no Criminal Code article. This is the other half: which offence it is, what sentence it carries, how long you have — and whether the criminal case can hand back the apartment, or only the money, or neither.
Two points at the start. "Press charges" and "sue" are not alternatives here: a Montenegrin criminal court can award damages, order return of the thing, and annul the transaction itself, inside the criminal judgment. And the clocks that most often defeat a foreign victim are not the limitation periods — they are eight-day and thirty-day notification clocks that run in Montenegrin, to the address the court has on file.
On currency — read this before relying on any number below. We worked from the Katalog propisa consolidations of the Krivični zakonik (chain ending at Sl. list CG 3/2020, 23.01.2020) and the Zakonik o krivičnom postupku (ending at Sl. list CG 28/2018, 27.04.2018). Montenegro's Official Gazette legal information system (PIS) shows both have moved since: the Criminal Code by *Sl. list CG* 144/2021 and 145/2021 (both 31.12.2021), 110/2023 (12.12.2023), 123/2024 (23.12.2024) and 121/2025 (published 21.10.2025, in force 22.10.2025); the Criminal Procedure Code at least by 54/2024 (11.06.2024). The consolidated texts carrying those changes sit behind the Official Gazette's paywall. Of the amending acts whose text is public, the one we read in full (the Government's 2021 proposal, EPA 197/XXVII) does not touch any of the property or procedure articles cited below. Treat every article number, threshold and sentence range here as verified only to the consolidation named, and check it against the current text before acting. Checked 29 August 2026.
Which offence: four candidates, not one
There is no crime called "property fraud" in Montenegro — only a set of offences a property fraud tends to satisfy at once. Which one leads matters, because it sets the sentence, the limitation period, and whether the prosecutor may dispose of the case without you.
| Article (Krivični zakonik) | Offence | Core conduct | Sentence range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Član 244 | Prevara (fraud) | With intent to obtain unlawful pecuniary gain for oneself or another, inducing or maintaining a false belief by misrepresenting or concealing facts, so that the victim acts or refrains to the detriment of property | Fine or up to 3 years; over €3,000 gain or loss: 1–8 years; over €30,000: 2–10 years |
| Član 249 | Zloupotreba povjerenja (abuse of trust) | Abusing authority given to represent another's property interests or manage their property | Up to 3 years; over €3,000: 1–6 years; over €30,000: 1–8 years; committed by a guardian or an advocate: 6 months–5, 1–8, or 2–10 years |
| Član 412 / 413 | Falsifikovanje isprave (forgery of a document) | Making a false document, issuing an untrue one, or altering a genuine one, with intent that it be used as genuine | Up to 3 years; where a public document, a will, or a book kept by law is involved: 3 months–5 years |
| Član 415 | Navođenje na ovjeravanje neistinitog sadržaja | Deceiving a competent authority into certifying, in a public document, minute or book, something untrue capable of serving as evidence | 3 months–5 years |
Two of these are more often the real offence in a cross-border purchase than plain fraud is.
Član 249 is the power-of-attorney article. It is committed by a person who, representing someone's property interests or managing their property, abuses the authority they were given. Foreign buyers here routinely complete through a power of attorney, so the person structurally able to commit this offence against them is the person they chose. Paragraph 4 writes that in: where the offender is a guardian or an advocate, every band moves up and the top band becomes two to ten years. If you are reading this before signing a power of attorney rather than after, our note on who can and cannot validly sell is the more useful page.
Član 413 lists the fact patterns by name. Rather than leaving forgery abstract, the Code enumerates five situations that count as forgery under Član 412. Three are the standard property-fraud scripts:
- filling in, without authority, a sheet on which somebody placed their signature with a declaration of legal significance — the blank-signed power of attorney;
- deceiving another about a document's content so that they sign it believing they are signing something else — the buyer who signs a Montenegrin-language document they cannot read;
- issuing a document in another's name without authority, or in the name of a person who does not exist — the invented seller, the impersonated owner.
The second matters: a signature you gave voluntarily does not put you outside the forgery provisions if you were deceived about what you were signing.
A fifth article matters on the other side of the transaction. Član 256 (prikrivanje) punishes acquiring or dealing in something obtained by a criminal offence, and paragraph 2 catches the person who could and should have known, not only the one who knew, with a fine or up to one year. Above €30,000, paragraph 3 raises the range to six months to five years. This gives the good-faith enquiry described in our note on registration, possession and good faith a criminal dimension as well as a civil one.
The thresholds decide more than the sentence
The €3,000 and €30,000 figures in Član 244 look like sentencing detail. They also decide how long the state can prosecute and whether the prosecutor may dispose of your case without you.
Limitation. Član 124(1) sets seven bands keyed to the maximum sentence, and Član 124(2) provides that where several penalties are prescribed the period follows the heaviest. Applied to the articles above:
| Provision | Maximum sentence | Limitation period (Član 124) | Absolute bar (Član 125(7)) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Član 244(1) basic fraud | 3 years | 3 years | 6 years |
| Član 244(3) over €3,000 | 8 years | 10 years | 20 years |
| Član 244(4) over €30,000 | 10 years | 10 years | 20 years |
| Član 249(3) abuse of trust over €30,000 | 8 years | 10 years | 20 years |
| Član 412(2) forged public document | 5 years | 5 years | 10 years |
| Član 415 false certification | 5 years | 5 years | 10 years |
Two rules govern how those periods run, and both are commonly misread.
Član 125(1) is not a discovery rule. The period runs from the day the offence was committed; where the consequence occurs later, it runs from the day the consequence occurred. Neither trigger is the day you found out. A fraud discovered nine years after completion is a fraud with one year left on the clock, not one with ten.
Član 125(4) interrupts the clock on any procedural step taken to detect the offence or the perpetrator, and Član 125(6) restarts it from zero after each interruption — which is why filing early is worth more than filing well, subject always to the uninterruptible absolute bar in Član 125(7).
Whether the prosecutor can dispose of it without you. Član 272 of the Criminal Procedure Code lets the prosecutor defer prosecution for offences carrying a fine or up to five years where the suspect accepts an obligation — including compensating the damage — and performs it within a period that cannot exceed six months; if they perform, the complaint is rejected. Član 273 allows outright rejection on equity grounds for offences carrying a fine or up to three years where the suspect, out of genuine remorse, prevented or has already fully compensated the damage.
The part rarely spelled out: in both cases Član 59 does not apply — that being the provision giving an injured party the right to take over a prosecution the state drops. Cross-refer that against the table. Fraud over €30,000 carries two to ten years and is outside Član 272's reach; basic fraud, forgery of a public document, false certification and first-band abuse of trust are all inside it. The size of the loss, and the article the prosecutor picks, decide how much control you keep.
Filing, and how long the prosecutor has
A criminal complaint (krivična prijava) goes to the competent state prosecutor, in writing or orally (Član 256 ZKP). Lodged with a court, the police, or the wrong prosecutor's office, it must be accepted and forwarded immediately — so a complaint handed in at a police station is not lost. An oral complaint carries a formal warning about false reporting and is minuted.
Član 256a ZKP puts the prosecutor on a clock:
- a decision must be taken within three months of the file being received;
- exceptionally, in complex matters — by volume or by factual or legal difficulty — within six months;
- in summary proceedings, within one month;
- where evidence was obtained through mutual legal assistance requests, within one month of that evidence arriving;
- an extension of at most one further month requires written justification and approval from the head of the office or the immediately higher office.
That last item matters for cross-border cases: where your evidence sits abroad and must come through a letter of request, the clock is anchored to that evidence arriving, not to your filing date.
If the prosecutor rejects it
Under Član 271(1) ZKP the prosecutor rejects a complaint by reasoned decision where the act is not a criminal offence, or not one prosecuted ex officio, or limitation has run, or other circumstances exclude prosecution. Two remedies then run in parallel on different clocks, and they are easy to confuse.
The complaint to the higher office — eight days. Under Član 271a the injured party (or the complainant, where there is none or they are unknown) may within eight days of receiving notice ask the immediately higher state prosecutor's office to review the rejection; it must report its handling within thirty days.
Taking over the prosecution — thirty days. Under Član 59 the prosecutor must within eight days notify the injured party, instruct them they may prosecute themselves, and deliver the rejection decision. The injured party then has thirty days from that notice to take over — or thirty days from the higher office's response if they used Član 271a. One never notified has six months from the rejection or stay to declare before the competent court that they are taking over (Član 59(5)).
A subsidiary prosecutor has the same rights as the state prosecutor, excepting powers belonging to the prosecutor as a state organ (Član 62(1)), and the state prosecutor may take the case back up to the close of the main hearing (Član 62(2)).
The trap that is specific to non-residents
Three provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code interact in a way that is harmless for a resident victim and dangerous for a foreign one.
Submissions go to the court in Montenegrin. Član 8 guarantees the right to use your own language and to have statements and written evidence translated through a court interpreter (Član 8(4)). But Član 9(1) requires complaints, appeals and other submissions to be addressed to the court in Montenegrin, and Član 9(3) has the court issue summonses and decisions in Montenegrin; the exception in Član 9(2) is for a person deprived of liberty. A victim living abroad therefore receives the notice that starts the eight-day and thirty-day clocks in a language the deadline does not wait for them to translate.
You must keep the court informed of your address. Član 65 obliges the injured party, the subsidiary prosecutor, the private prosecutor and their representatives to notify the court of every change of address or residence, and requires the court to warn them of the consequences.
Those consequences are the loss of the case. Where the prosecutor drops the charge at the main hearing, the injured party must declare immediately whether they will continue (Član 60(1)). If absent although duly summoned, or where the summons could not be served because they did not report a change of address, they are deemed not to be continuing (Član 60(2)), and Član 61(1) treats the same failures as abandonment. Restitution under Član 60(3) requires an application within eight days of receiving the judgment — again eight days, again in Montenegrin.
The practical conclusion is simple: a foreign injured party relying on the criminal route needs a representative with a Montenegrin address on the file from the day the complaint goes in, not from the day something goes wrong.
Getting the apartment or the money back
This is where Montenegrin criminal procedure is more generous than most people expect, and where its single most important limit sits.
The property claim. Chapter XV of the Criminal Procedure Code governs the imovinskopravni zahtjev. Član 234(2) makes its scope wider than damages: compensation of damage, return of the thing, or annulment of a specific legal transaction. It is submitted to the prosecutor or the court conducting the proceedings (Član 236(1)), at the latest by the close of the main hearing at first instance (Član 236(2)), by anyone entitled to bring it in civil proceedings (Član 235(1)). Withdraw it and it cannot be filed again in the criminal case (Član 237(1)).
Return of the thing. Under Član 240, if the claim seeks return of the thing and the court finds it belongs to the injured party and is held by the accused, a participant in the offence, or someone they gave it to for safekeeping, the judgment orders it handed over.
Annulment of the transaction. Under Član 241, if the claim seeks annulment of a specific legal transaction and the court finds it well founded, the judgment pronounces full or partial annulment of that transaction with the consequences flowing from it — and then the decisive words: "without touching the rights of third parties."
That clause is the whole answer to "will the criminal case get my apartment back". It will, against the fraudster; it will not, against a third party whose rights are already in place. Which is why the criminal route does not replace the civil one once the property has moved on, and why the annotation of a pending dispute described in our note on annotations and the register does work the criminal case cannot. The register here does not cure a defective chain, so an action to cancel a wrong registration remains the instrument that binds the title itself.
If the criminal court cannot decide the claim. Under Član 239(2) it may award the claim wholly or partly and refer the remainder to civil proceedings; where the facts established give no reliable basis and establishing them would substantially delay the criminal case, the claimant is referred entirely. On acquittal, rejection of the charge, or a stay, that referral is automatic (Član 239(3)), and under Član 239(5) the court may direct the parties to mediation.
Confiscation, and the queue for it. Separately from your claim, Član 112 of the Criminal Code provides that nobody may retain gain acquired by an unlawful act defined as a criminal offence, and Član 113(1) that it is taken from the perpetrator — or its monetary equivalent ordered paid where taking it is impossible. Član 113(5) extends confiscation to a person to whom the gain was transferred without consideration, or who knew, or could and should have known, its origin.
Član 114 sequences your claim against the state's: where your claim is upheld, confiscation covers only the excess (114(1)). If you were referred to civil proceedings, you must start that case within six months of the referral becoming final and apply for satisfaction from the confiscated gain within three months of your civil judgment becoming final (114(2)). If you filed no claim at all, the window is three months from learning of the confiscation judgment, and three years at the outside (114(3)).
What the criminal route will not do
It will not clear the register on its own. It will not defeat a third party who already holds rights, because Član 241 says so expressly. It will not run to your timetable — Član 256a's three and six months are decision deadlines for the prosecutor, not completion deadlines for the case. And it is not leverage: Član 388 of the Criminal Code carries three months to three years for reporting a person for an ex officio offence knowing they did not commit it, and Član 388(4) applies the same range to reporting an offence you know was not committed.
One constellation changes the route entirely. Član 257 of the Criminal Code makes prosecution by private suit for offences including Član 244, Član 249(1)–(3) and Član 256 where committed against a spouse, a partner in a lasting non-marital union, a direct-line relative, a sibling, an adopter or adoptee, or a member of the same household. A private suit must be brought within three months of learning of the offence and the perpetrator (Član 51 ZKP), and Član 52(2) treats a criminal complaint filed inside that window as a timely private suit.
Before you file
The useful work happens before anything is filed: which article the facts actually support, whether the loss crosses €3,000 or €30,000, whether the case sits inside or outside Član 272's five-year ceiling, and whether a property claim for annulment is available on your facts or only one for damages. Those four questions decide what the criminal route is worth to you, and all four are answerable from the documents.
If you are holding a purchase file you are no longer sure about, send us the documents before you sign or file anything further. We read the register extract, the contract and the power of attorney together, because here they are one document in three parts. Our criminal law practice works alongside the property side of the firm; if the exposure runs the other way — a construction file rather than a purchase file — the relevant note is the criminal layer of building without a permit.
