A three-year litigation ended within days: the couple will be able to privatize the land plot

Publication date: May 26, 2023

The NGO “Ukrainian Paralegal Association” was addressed by Tetiana*, a resident of Storozhynets, Storozhynets community, Chernivtsi oblast, who for more than three years could not resolve the issue of land privatization…

The woman told paralegal Nataliia Horvasiuk that she had a notarized power of attorney from her husband. According to the will, he inherited a plot of land and a small house on it. Intending to privatize the property, the young couple turned to a private land surveyor in 2020 to draw up the necessary documentation. However, by March 2023, the case had not moved. When Tetiana asked the land surveyor what the problem was, she received an answer that he repeatedly sent requests to assign a cadastral number to the plot, but each time he received a refusal. According to the land surveyor, the reason for the refusals was the wrong coordinates of the neighboring plot, which was privatized in 2006-2007 by another private company. And the company went bankrupt, and despite the fact that he applied to the State Service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography, and Cadastre from 2021 to 2023, he constantly received repeated refusals “due to the overlapping of land plots one on top of another.”

The land surveyor also noted that during martial law it is impossible to privatize this land.

To solve Tetiana’s problem, the paralegal involved a lawyer from the Vinnytsia NGO “Podillia Center for Human Rights” Mykhailo Bardyn. Together, they reviewed the list of documents available to the client. With joint efforts, they demanded from the land surveyor a printout of the refusal from the  State Service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography, and Cadastre, and cadastre.

• As a result, the private enterprise of the land surveyor, who is working on the client’s case regarding the privatization of her plot, submitted a second request for the assignment of a cadastral number, after which the privatization process can be completed. The company that made the mistake admitted it and undertook to correct it at its own expense, having received a response regarding entry into the register, Nataliia Horvasiuk explains.

Four days later, the State Service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography, and Cadastre received a positive response, and the land surveyor completed the preparation of the documentation. Now Tetiana has already submitted a package of documents to the Center for the Provision of Administrative Services to complete the privatization of the plot.

*Name has been changed for ethical reasons.

The material was created with the support of the international charity platform GlobalGiving and the Legal Empowerment Fund (Fund for Global Human Rights program) and the Legal Development Network. The content of the publication is solely the responsibility of the Legal Development Network and does not necessarily reflect the views of the previously mentioned organizations.

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