On April 7, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed draft law No. 12089 "On Amendments to the Civil Code of Ukraine to Strengthen the Protection of the Rights of a Good Faith Acquirer".
The draft law proposes to limit the term for returning to state or municipal ownership of land plots illegally alienated into private ownership to 10 years. That is, after this term, all such plots will remain in private ownership without the possibility of being returned to the state or communities.
In addition, if the court decides to return the plot of land to the state or community, they will be obliged to compensate the private owner for its market value.
The European Business Association called for support for this document. They argued that the law is designed to strengthen the rights of bona fide purchasers and prevent owners from losing assets due to past mistakes or inaccuracies. According to the business community, this will contribute to strengthening legal stability and investment protection.
As the Chesno movement emphasizes, the draft law provides for exceptions for lands of strategic importance, critical infrastructure, the environmental fund, and cultural heritage, but contains nuances that make such return difficult or impossible.
It also fails to take into account that the boundaries of nature conservation fund or cultural heritage lands are often not clearly defined and not recorded in the State Land Cadastre. In such cases, the state completely loses the mechanisms for returning these assets to its own benefit, Chesno experts emphasize.
"In addition, the wording proposed in the bill may complicate the return of property and land in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, although this was directly indicated by the Main Legal Department of the Verkhovna Rada," the organization added.
Back in March, the human rights organization Transparency International Ukraine called on the president to veto the law. Lawyers are convinced that the approved 10-year limit effectively legalizes the illegal alienation of property from the state or community through fraudulent schemes and abuse of office.
"In addition, the bill changes the approaches to the beginning of the statute of limitations in disputes regarding the recovery of property and establishes it from the date of transfer to a bona fide purchaser or state registration of ownership rights to it. In practice, this will reduce the time when the state or territorial community can return its property to 3 years instead of 10," human rights activists emphasize.
They gave the example that if this law had come into effect earlier, the capitalʼs community would not have been able to return the land around the Museum of Folk Architecture in Pyrohova, and the state would not have been able to return the Tereshchenko estate in the Zhytomyr region.
A petition calling for the law to be vetoed was even published on the presidentʼs website — it garnered the necessary 25 000 votes for consideration. It has not yet received a response.
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