Land lease: what changed during the war

The state has changed the rules for food security.

During the martial law, the terms of land lease change significantly , rules of land auctions and the procedure for automatic renewal of lease agreements. Igor Yasko, a lawyer and managing partner of Winner Law Firm, explained to ZN.UA readers what and why the state is changing.

food security in martial law “, which makes significant changes in land lease procedures. All the changes that will be discussed later will lose their force with the restoration of peaceful life , and the state will return to the usual procedures for regulating land relations.

Why change anything at all and why food security?

It is known that a significant part of the land used in agriculture is leased. Because this year's crop issue is a matter of survival, and farmers in entire regions are simply deprived of the opportunity to cultivate their land, changes in land regulation have been necessary and urgent.

For example, due to the law 20,000 hectares of communal land will be transferred to agricultural production , which were prepared for lease at land auctions. Another 300,000 to 400,000 hectares of state-owned land will also be prepared for cultivation, which are currently used by state enterprises of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, NAAS of Ukraine, educational institutions. In fact, the government has done everything possible to ensure that farmers can cultivate as much available land as possible, using it under simplified procedures.

What has changed?

In particular, the law provides for the transfer by tenants and subleasers of the right to lease and sublease agricultural land of all forms of ownership for agriculture, except those that are already in permanent use citizens and private legal entities, public organizations, etc.

It is important that the authorities have simplified the acquisition of land use rights. Leases are automatically renewed for one year without entry in the relevant registers. That is, sublease agreements, emphyteusis, superficies, land easements, which expired after the imposition of martial law (after February 24, 2022), are renewed for one year without the will of the parties and without entering information about the renewal of the agreement in the State Register of Real Rights. And this is right, because currently the State Land Cadastre, the State Register of Real Property Rights and Encumbrances are not functioning, administrative services are not provided, and the transfer of land by the usual procedure is virtually impossible.

District military administrations can lease state and communal agricultural land plots for up to one year also without state registration.

Importantly, the agreement on the transfer by the authority of agricultural land of state and municipal property to farmers for rent:

• may provide for the lease of several land plots by one landlord;
• can not be renewed or concluded for a new term;
• does not contain information on the cadastral number of the land plot to be leased, and if the cadastral number of such plot is not assigned, the cadastral number shall not be indicated in the lease agreement of such land plot.

Lease agreements lands are concluded only for one year in electronic form without bidding. The norm that the rights to land plots of state and communal property may be acquired exclusively at land auctions shall be suspended for the duration of this law. And land plots, lease rights, emphyteusis, etc., for which land auctions were not completed before the entry into force of this law, will be leased under the conditions specified in subparagraph 2 of paragraph 27 of the Transitional Provisions of the Land Code.

This The clause stipulates that:

• the term of land lease under such agreements may not exceed one year. The requirements of the Land Code of Ukraine and the Law of Ukraine “On Land Lease” regarding the minimum term of a land lease agreement of seven years do not apply to such agreements;
• the amount of rent may not exceed 8% (ie may be less, but may not be greater) of the normative monetary valuation of land, determined from the average normative monetary valuation of arable land area in the region, and the lease is carried out without land auction.

The lessee of the land plot may not be entitled to:

• reimbursement of his own expenses for the improvement of the land plot;
• renewal of the land lease agreement, concluding a land lease agreement for a new term using the lessee's preemptive right;
• subleasing the land plot;
• establishment of land easement;
• change of lands of the land plot;
• construction of real estate objects (buildings, structures) on the land plot;
• establishment of perennial land plots on the land plot plantations;
• preemptive right to purchase a leased land plot in case of its sale;
• alienation, pledge (mortgage) of the right to use the land plot;
• division of land land, combining it with another land plot;
• use for own needs of common minerals, peat, forests, water bodies, as well as other useful properties of the land available on the land plot;
• change of the purpose of the land plot.

< The transfer of agricultural land, which is in constant use of state and municipal enterprises, institutions, organizations, and on which there are no crops, is carried out with the written consent of the head of the state, municipal enterprise, institution, organization, and The right to permanent use of land is not terminated. for the development of land management documentation for free transfer.