„I am convinced that I will die without ever having a roof of my own”
Bojan
This is how Bojan, a young man who has been living with his partner Milan for 14 years, vividly describes the situation in which the majority of same-sex couples in Serbia find themselves.
Over these 14 years, they have lived in different housing arrangements – secretly in Milan’s apartment, with roommates in what they nostalgically call a „queer commune,” then independently… and now they live in a house that belonged to Milan’s grandfather. They have gone through a lot, but they still have not managed to create a home that both can call their own.
„My greatest wish is to have a roof of my own. If something happens to Milan, I have no guarantee that I can stay here; I would become a tenant again, I could lose my job, money, home. That situation terrifies me.”, Bojan admits, saving all his money to gather a down payment for a mortgage. But that day seems increasingly distant due to the constant rise in real estate prices.
„Since the war in Ukraine began, prices have been constantly rising, and our savings are essentially shrinking. Even though it grows, prices grow much faster, inflation eats up your savings, and you are constantly in a race where you cannot reach the goal”, Bojan adds.
If they do not have savings or an inheritance to sell, the only option for taking out a mortgage would be a collateralized loan – and this is when real difficulties arise for same-sex couples.
David and Nikola have lived together for a long time, both were entrepreneurs and freelancers with stable incomes – but according to bank rules, David was not creditworthy, and for Nikola, a mortgage was the only option. They decided to buy an apartment together in Novi Sad, with David paying the down payment while Nikola took the loan – however, due to the mortgage, the apartment had to be registered only in Nikola’s name.
„The bank imposed this on us. I spoke with the agent and told her I have a boyfriend and that we are buying the apartment together, but she explained that everything must be in my name because our partnership is not recognized.”, Nikola adds. Thus, David’s invested capital remained invisible.
Same problems exist for same-sex couples in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Mihaela and her partner, after five years of being together, decided to buy a house in the suburbs of Banja Luka.
„We also looked at apartments, but apartment prices in Banja Luka are terrible. So we realized that a house somewhere in the suburbs, farther from the city, would actually be the best option.”, Mihaela says.
When they finally found their dream house, paperwork became a barrier. The first problem was that the property was not legalized, and then – the mortgage.
„Because same-sex partnerships are not legalized, it was impossible for both of us to be registered as owners. My initial plan was that after all the papers are sorted and the house officially becomes my property, we would go to a notary so I could register her as co-owner of the house. However, that is where the whole complication begins, because the house is mortgaged and ownership cannot be changed, since currently the bank and I are co-owners.”, Mihaela explains.
In practice, this means that the two of them must wait 15 years, for the loan to be repaid, so that Mihaela can freely manage the property and transfer her share to her partner. If their partnership were registered, this property would be considered marital property – and both partners would automatically have equal rights and equal ownership shares.
This is exactly how the status of same-sex partnerships was resolved in Montenegro, which, after a decade of activist struggle, in 2020 became the first country in the Western Balkans to adopt a law on life partnerships for same-sex couples.
„Same-sex couples who enter a life partnership acquire the right to maintenance, inheritance of joint property and pensions, partner visits in hospitals and prisons, as well as in the social protection and health insurance system.”, explains Staša Baštrica, executive director of Queer Montenegro, emphasizing that when applying for a bank loan in Montenegro, it is possible to indicate that the individuals are in a registered life partnership, which fully equalizes them in rights and obligations with married couples. In this way, same-sex couples have the right to jointly acquired property during the life partnership, as well as inheritance rights in the event of the death of one partner.
Without inheritance rights
The inability to inherit represents the greatest fear for same-sex families in countries that do not legally regulate the status of these partnerships.
„All of us in same-sex partnerships think long-term, but none of us think about what happens in the event of death.” notes Jelena Vasiljević, executive director of NGO Rainbow Ignite, emphasizing that in Serbia, in the event of death, only the primary family has the right to identify and bury the deceased. The same-sex partner is completely excluded from the process.
This is exactly what happened to Marija*, whose wife Jelena*, with whom she had been in a relationship for more than seven years, died in a car accident. The family, with whom she had no contact, buried Jelena in the cemetery of her hometown, which she had long left, and Marija and her close friends were not even informed of the burial time.
This couple did not have joint property, but they did have bank accounts where both were authorized and where joint savings were kept. Just one day after Jelena’s death, the bank account in her name was emptied.
„Immediately before this whole situation, I had transferred a large sum of euros to her from my account, and the day after she passed, the entire amount was withdrawn from that same small place where she was born. At the moment of a person’s death, her parents were able, without any problem, to collect all the savings from the account the next day.”, Marija recounts.
Inheritance rights, which in heterosexual families are resolved automatically and ex officio, can only be exercised by same-sex couples through long-term planning, extensive paperwork, and expensive procedures. The most common route is writing a will or signing a lifelong maintenance agreement. However, even these have their limitations.
„In the case of a will, there is a right to a mandatory portion for legal heirs, who can challenge part of the estate. Heterosexual unmarried partners also do not have the right to legal inheritance, and this is an issue the state must address – to equalize marital and non-marital unions, and then to grant same-sex partnerships the status of a non-marital union.”, says Milena Vasić, a lawyer at the Human Rights Committee YUCOM.
This is another similarity between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Filip Novaković, a lawyer from Banja Luka, explains that a partner can inherit only based on a will, and in the absence of a will, there is no legal basis for a partner to inherit, as the partner does not have the status of a legal heir under the applicable inheritance law.
„Even if a partner designates their partner as a testamentary heir, their legal heirs can object, challenge the will in court, and in that way either dispute the rights of the testamentary heir or secure for themselves the mandatory share, which amounts to one-third of what they would inherit by law.”, Novaković explains.
The only way for property to be exempted from inheritance is to sign a lifelong maintenance agreement. In that case, the property specified in the agreement is excluded from the estate, and legal heirs have no legal grounds to claim that property, unless they challenge the agreement in court, which rarely happens. This legal principle functions identically in both Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
„The inheritance laws recognize the Lifelong Maintenance Agreement and the will as a form of legal protection for all citizens of BiH, including same-sex partners. In that sense, there is currently no obstacle for same-sex partners to enter such an agreement or create a will that would protect them in terms of property inheritance. On the other hand, there is no possibility for same-sex partners to receive tax benefits, mandatory health insurance advantages, or social protection under the same conditions as married or unmarried heterosexual couples, and this constitutes systemic discrimination based on sexual orientation.”, explained Amil Brković from the Sarajevo Open Center.
This means that a person whose partner has died under a lifelong maintenance agreement will have to pay inheritance tax, which in Serbia amounts to 2.5% of the appraised value of the property. A same-sex partner would therefore pay €2,500 in tax on an apartment valued at €100,000, while a heterosexual partner would be exempt from tax.
The child does not exist here
The situation becomes even more complicated when children are involved.
Jelisaveta married her partner in Sweden, and they had a son together. Her partner is the biological mother of the child, and in the Swedish documents, both are listed as the child’s parents. However, in Serbia, the boy is legally invisible.
„In the process of registering the birth in the civil registry, I sought recognition of parenthood so that my son could become a Serbian citizen. There is a problem because our forms still have ‘father’ and ‘mother’ fields, not ‘parent 1’ and ‘parent 2,’ and there were all sorts of ideas on how to overcome this – how should I be recorded, as a father or as a mother. In the end, because of a form I could not complete, he never had the chance to become a Serbian citizen.”, Jelisaveta says.
Because his legal connection to his mother is unrecognized, the boy lacks a range of rights in Serbia, including the right to inherit his mother’s property one day.
„I have a will that I created with a lawyer, which is actually very complicated. My idea was to find a way so that tomorrow, if something happens to me, what I have would go to my son. It is very difficult because he does not exist here.”, says Jelisaveta, explaining that the only option was to leave everything to her partner, who would then pass it to their son. However, the additional complication is that she and her partner have since separated, so in the absence of a systemic solution, everything depended on their agreement and mutual relationship.
„I actually have to leave my property to his mother, with whom I no longer have any emotional relationship, because she is my greatest guarantee that when he turns 18, it will pass to him, as she is his biological mother. That part was difficult because, in fact, she is my only guarantee.”, Jelisaveta adds.
In both Serbian and Bosnian-Herzegovinian legislation, children from same-sex partnerships are completely legally invisible. In these situations, it is no longer only a matter of the right of same-sex couples to independently determine their shared life, but a matter of the child’s welfare, says lawyer Milena Vasić.
„We very often encounter situations where the rights of the child are violated in cases of same-sex partnerships because the aspect that the child, formally and legally, does not have two recognized parents is completely ignored, even though the child lives with two parents and has a family relationship with both. Consequently, the parent with whom the child does not live, in the event of a separation of the partnership, should have certain rights and obligations towards the child. That is, the child should have rights in relation to that parent.”, Vasić says, emphasizing that this constitutes discrimination against the child.
„In practice, if you are heterosexual partners and one partner has a child, the other can adopt that child and become the legal parent. The same should apply to same-sex partners. In the event of the death of one partner, the other does not have the right to custody of the child or the right to inherit. These are serious problems. The European Court of Human Rights, in numerous rulings, refers to Article 8 of the European Convention – the right to private and family life – and almost always rules in favor of the child.”, Vasić explains.
This problem is recognized by lawyers and activists in the legal practice of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
„The Sarajevo Open Center, through strategic cases, has documented situations where a person cannot legally inherit a deceased life partner, and such a situation directly affects the existential needs of the heir, as well as situations where a child of a same-sex couple living abroad, whose biological parent is a BiH citizen, cannot obtain BiH citizenship solely because the parents are of the same sex.”, says Amil Brković.
The situation of not being able to register one’s biological child, born in a same-sex marriage, also happened to Ana, who gave birth in Switzerland. The problem with our institutions arises because both partners are listed on the child’s birth certificate as parents.
„This created an incredible problem for me with the Serbian authorities because I wanted the child, as my biological child, to receive a Serbian passport. They said, ‘No chance, because the birth certificate lists both parents.’ I said, ‘Well, just put my name. I am the biological mother and I can prove it.’ But they said even that is not possible. So the child cannot receive a Serbian passport.”, Ana explains, adding that she was suggested to resolve it in a way that she considers document falsification.
„The embassy suggested that I first obtain a birth certificate with only my name, and later get a certificate with both parents – but I did not want to take the risk: the child is ours and has rights, both from her and from me. In Switzerland, everything is automatic: we had all the documents, the child was born, and the birth certificate arrived at our home address in three days. It would not have been possible to falsify the document – that would have been falsification.”, Ana adds.
This case is a clear example of discrimination, and there is no legal basis for preventing the child from exercising their rights in Serbia, says lawyer Milena Vasić.
„She has the right to register the child, regardless of the fact that the child is from a same-sex marriage. That marriage may not be recognized by our authorities, but that does not affect her parental right or the child’s right to be recorded in the civil registry and obtain citizenship.”, Vasić explains, adding that this may be due to ignorance rather than malicious intent, considering that there have been no such cases before – and that it is important that this case is pursued to the end and before other authorities.
Joint parenthood is an area that is not regulated even by the law adopted in Montenegro. This, Staša Baštrica explains, was a compromise that activists had to accept in order for the law to be passed.
„Same-sex couples in Montenegro, under this law, do not have the right to jointly adopt children, and the law does not recognize the right to joint parenthood. Furthermore, same-sex couples do not have adequate access to medically assisted reproduction in the way it is systemically provided for heterosexual couples.”, Baštrica explains, adding that Queer Montenegro has information that there are couples in Montenegro raising children together, but even in Montenegro those children are legally invisible.
It is important to have a single law, not rights „through the back door.”
The adoption of a law that will allow legal recognition of same-sex parenthood is one of the strategic goals of activists in Montenegro, while in other Western Balkan countries the fight to adopt laws on same-sex partnerships is still ahead. Baštrica emphasizes that, alongside the fight for the law, it is important to work on changing social awareness; otherwise, the law will remain a dead letter on paper.
„According to the information we have, many couples are still not ready for this step or do not feel free and safe enough, due to the high level of homophobia. People in same-sex partnerships still put enormous effort into hiding their sexual orientation, fearing loss of employment, family rejection, verbal and physical abuse, and therefore choose not to use this law.”, Baštrica notes.
The fact that fear of coming out is still very present in Montenegro is also shown by the fact that no couple who entered a same-sex partnership was willing to speak to the media about their experience, even with guaranteed identity protection. The aspect of protecting partners’ privacy is also important when drafting the law itself. Entering a partnership, Baštrica emphasizes, involves institutional coming out, but not public coming out to society, because that information is protected under the law on personal data protection.
„However, the problem arises when partners try to exercise their legal rights – tax benefits, the right to take leave to care for a sick partner, or a joint housing loan. That document from the registry must be taken to the competent office, bank, or health center. People are aware that Montenegro is a small community and everyone knows everyone, and then the perception arises that everyone will quickly learn their sexual orientation or the fact that they have entered a life partnership with a same-sex person.”, Baštrica concludes.
To facilitate the exercise of rights and protect privacy as much as possible, based on experience from Montenegro, it is necessary to adopt an overarching law, not individual legislative acts.
„It is much more effective to implement the law through a single special law, in this case lex specialis, than to fragment the issue of life partnerships across multiple other laws, because primarily, that way marriage itself is not defined.”, Baštrica concludes.
This view is shared by lawyer Milena Vasić, who participated in the public debate when the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights, headed at the time by Minister Gordana Čomić, drafted the law.
„One overarching law is necessary. First, out of respect, because these people have suffered systemic discrimination for years. The state owes them a special law that will recognize their existence and regulate their relationships. Second, this law should contain a general provision that its rules apply to other laws regulating the rights of unmarried partners. Otherwise, you would have to amend a large number of individual regulations, which is an extremely complex task. It is important that it is a single law, clearly named, and not that rights are introduced ‘through the back door’.”, Vasić emphasizes.
In Serbia, this law has been sitting in a drawer ever since President Aleksandar Vučić stated that he would not sign the law, even if the National Assembly adopted it. By the decision of one person, the rights of a large number of citizens have been halted.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the law is still only in preliminary stages. According to information from the Sarajevo Open Center, the only process underway is in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), where a procedure for drafting a Lex Specialis Law on life partnerships of same-sex persons has been initiated, following a decision by the FBiH Government from June 2025.
„The working group began its work in October 2025, and up to this point the drafting of the Law has not been completed, so it is premature to speak about the content of the draft law until it is finalized.”, emphasizes Amil Brković. However, even if this draft is adopted, it will not solve the problems of all same-sex partnerships in Bosnia and Herzegovina, because each entity passes its own laws.
„The regulation of protection of the family life of same-sex partners falls under the jurisdiction of the entities and the Brčko District of BiH as a special administrative unit. In that sense, hypothetically, if a law regulating same-sex partnerships were adopted only in one entity within BiH – and it is objectively most likely that this would first happen in the FBiH – such a situation could create legal uncertainty for same-sex couples who, for example, live in East Sarajevo (Republic of Srpska entity) but enter into a same-sex partnership in Sarajevo (FBiH entity) or any other cities. These situations are not unrealistic in practice, because, for example, many people work in Sarajevo but live in East Sarajevo,”, Brković explains, concluding that such situations would not be compatible with the constitutional framework of BiH, as they directly contribute to legal uncertainty.
„We must be careful with potential speculation because we do not know the scope of rights that a registered same-sex partnership in the Federation will cover. That draft law has not yet been published, to my knowledge. But hypothetically, if they were granted certain privileges to take out a loan in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina for a property purchased in the Federation, that would apply exclusively to the territory of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and not to the Republic of Srpska.”, adds lawyer Filip Novaković.
In Serbia, the law remains in a drawer, and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it may only apply in one part of a city – and not in another. Meanwhile, a growing number of same-sex couples and their children live in institutional limbo – unrecognized and deprived of rights. All rights that are automatic for heterosexual couples are either unattainable for them or achievable only with extensive paperwork and high fees, making legal security a form of class privilege.
*Names of interviewees marked with an asterisk have been changed to protect their identities. The real names of the interviewed individuals are known to the author.
Author: Nemanja Marinović
Research assistants: Marina Nenadović and Teodora Šulj
