The participants of the information session “The Latest Changes in Land Legislation: From Free Privatisation to Lease” for the municipalities of Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa and Kherson regions learned about the legal features of regulating land relations under martial law in connection with the entry into force of Law of Ukraine No. 2698.
This was reported by Olena Tertyshna, head of U-LEAD with Europe Regional Office in Dnipropetrovsk region.
“On 19 December, the regulations of the Law of Ukraine No. 2698-IX ‘On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts Regarding the Restoration of the System for Registration of Lease Rights for Agricultural Land Plots and Improvement of Legislation on Land Protection’ will enter into force. The programme experts prepared clarifications on the changes in the land legislation affecting local self-government bodies and provided answers to the participants’ questions. The timeliness and necessity of the event are confirmed by the fact that almost 70 participants joined it,” she said.
The speakers of the information session were experts in spatial planning and management of natural resources from U-LEAD with Europe Oleksandr Prydatko and Oleksandr Hnitetskyi. They noted that this law amends the Land Code of Ukraine (LCU) and a number of other laws in this area.
“This is already the third law that regulates land legislation during martial law. First of all, this document returns land auctions for the transfer of agricultural land plots for use, as it was in the pre-war period. It partially restores the possibility of free privatisation for real estate owners and those who had the right to it earlier, before the entry into force of the LCU,” said Oleksandr Hnitetskyi.
In particular, the following norms entered into force with this law:
- the lease of agricultural land plots is possible on the condition that the plot is registered in the State Land Cadastre and information about the rights to it is entered in the State Register of Property Rights. If the plot was leased and not included in these databases, it must be registered within two months;
- the automatic renewal (without the agreement of the parties to the contract) of contracts for the use of land plots, the term of which expired after the introduction of martial law, is terminated;
- compensation for losses of agricultural production, which were paid as a result of withdrawal of agricultural land plots from economic circulation, as well as in the case of deterioration of land quality, is cancelled.
The mentioned law also regulates the activities of the State Cartographic and Geodetic Fund of Ukraine. Now it will be possible to transfer cartographic materials through the geographic information system online.
Experts announced that Resolution of the CMU No. 1364 of 6 December 2022 (published on 10 December in Uryadovy Courier (“Governmental Courier”) No. 262) would be put into effect in the near future. The peculiarity of this document is that it defines the mechanism of formation of a single list of territories where hostilities are (were) taking place or which are temporarily occupied by the russian federation.
“Three types of territories are envisaged: those with possible hostilities, those with active hostilities, and temporarily occupied territories. And they will be determined not by the order of the State Service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre, but by the order of the Ministry for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine. As a result, there will be fewer municipalities with suspended access to the State Land Cadastre, because now these will be only municipalities where active hostilities are taking place and temporarily occupied territories. And it is important that now not the whole municipality can be turned off, but just part of it, individual settlements, etc. This is a much more flexible system, which will allow us to dispose of a larger territory in Ukraine as a whole, and more landowners and land users will not be limited in their rights,” said Hnitetskyi.
The information session “The Latest Changes in Land Legislation: From Free Privatisation to Lease” took place on the basis of U-LEAD with Europe Regional Office in Dnipropetrovsk region.
