70 | Annual Report 2018 Ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs The following statement on a case concluded in 2018 has been published: 2018-38. Holiday home owner had the duty to maintain pipeline passing under his land The chairman of a house owners’ association complained to the Ombudsman on behalf of a holiday home owner because the municipality and subsequently the Danish Environment and Food Board of Appeal had imposed the duty to maintain a pipeline which passed under the plot of his holiday home on him. The pipeline was used to carry surface water from a town to an inlet, and according to the complaint to the Ombudsman, the owner of the plot had no direct benefit from the pipeline. In addition, the owner had not been aware that the pipeline passed under his plot until his lawn was flooded because of a defect in the pipeline. The pipeline had been included in the wastewater plan of the municipality for 1995 to 2010. On that basis, the pipeline was legally classified under the category of wastewater facilities from 1995 until 2010, with the consequence, among others, that it was the waste­ water utility company that had the duty to maintain the pipeline during that period. However, the pipeline was not included in the wastewater plan of the municipality for 2010 onwards – presumably because it had been decided to switch to separate sewer systems in the area. For this reason, among others, the pipeline could no longer be regarded as belonging to the category of wastewater facilities but was now to be considered a watercourse. The Ombudsman could not criticise the decisions by the municipality and the Environment and Food Board of Appeal that the pipeline now had the status of a private watercourse under the Watercourse Act and that the owner of the plot had the duty to maintain the pipeline unless otherwise provided. The Ombudsman advised the owner of the plot – as the municipality and the Board of Appeal had also done – to contact the watercourse authority, i.e. the municipality, if he wished a different apportionment of the duty to maintain the pipeline. Ministry of Finance No statements on cases concluded in 2018 have been published. Ministry of Defence No statements on cases concluded in 2018 have been published. Ministry of Justice The following statements on cases concluded in 2018 have been published: 2018-18. Monitoring visit to Departure Centre Kærshovedgård – foreign nationals with tolerated residence status who were required to reside at the Centre In October 2017, the Ombudsman carried out a mon­ itoring visit to Departure Centre Kærshovedgård together with DIGNITY – Danish Institute Against Torture and the Danish Institute for Human Rights. The visit focused on the conditions for foreign nationals with tolerated residence status who were required to reside at Kærshovedgård and in fact resided there. The visit comprised 13 persons who had had tolerated residence status and had been required to reside at the Sandholm asylum centre or at Kærshovedgård for up to 10 years. The report prepared by the Ombudsman on the visit is to be regarded as a follow-up on the report prepared by the Ombudsman in 2014 on the conditions for the same category of persons, who were at that time placed at the Sandholm asylum centre.

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