For more than a year, there has been an active period of formation of judicial practice in the field of land relations, which directly affects farm lands and the possibility of their preservation. This was noted by the Secretary of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court, Vitaly Urkevich, during a round table discussion on the topic "Farming Lands".
The speaker highlighted the latest legal conclusions of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court regarding land relations. First of all, he referred to the decision of the Supreme Court of Ukraine dated April 18, 2023 in case No. 357/8277/19. According to the circumstances of this case, in 2013, an individual leased a plot of land for agricultural use. The contract was signed, but the lease right under this contract was not registered. Later, another lease agreement was concluded. Therefore, in its resolution, the Supreme Court of Ukraine clarified the preliminary legal opinion of the Supreme Court of Ukraine and noted that the contract is concluded from the moment of reaching agreement on all its essential terms, but the real right of lease arises after the state registration of such a right. This resolution is also interesting in that it provided an interpretation and procedure for the application of Art. 27 of the Law of Ukraine "On Land Lease". In particular, according to this article, the lessee is provided with the protection of his right to the leased land plot on a par with the protection of the ownership right to the land plot. By its court decision in this case, the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court demanded a land plot from the possession of another person for the temporary, fixed-term possession of the proper land user.
In the context of the possibility / impossibility of privatization of land plots by members of farms, Vitaly Urkevych drew attention to the decision of the Supreme Court of Ukraine dated June 20, 2023 in case No. 633/408/18. In 2021, the Administrative Court of Cassation as part of the SC concluded that such privatization is impossible. Instead, in the specified resolution, the Supreme Court of Ukraine gave a slightly different interpretation: members of farms can privatize the land plot of the respective farm, but only those persons who participated in the creation of the farm can do so.
In addition, as noted by the Secretary of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court, the question of whether the statute of limitations should be applied in relation to the conclusion of an additional agreement on the renewal of the land lease agreement is covered in the resolution of the Supreme Court of the Supreme Court of July 5, 2023 in case No. 904/8884/21. Among other things, the VP of the Supreme Court stated that this case is about an ongoing offense on the part of the counterparty, who did not sign an additional agreement to the land lease agreement.
The event was organized by the National Association of Lawyers of Ukraine as part of the Land Law Week, initiated by the NAAU Committee on Agrarian, Land and Environmental Law.