Status of a land plot: what does it mean, how to find out?

published: 06.11.2017

A plot of land may not have established boundaries for various reasons. In some cases, we are talking about plots that are not registered at all in the state real estate cadastre, and sometimes about areas that were previously registered.

If the site has not passed cadastral registration, the legislation distinguishes several categories of land plots, and this article will consider two of them:

unaccounted for
previously taken into account.

Unregistered land plots include those that are not registered with the state cadastral register in the manner prescribed by law. Such land plots do not have a cadastral (conditional) number and are not registered in the state real estate cadastre; accordingly, the Unified State Register of Real Estate does not contain any information about them.

The situation when a land plot is not registered with the state cadastral register could have arisen as a result of changes in legislation, including in connection with the adoption of the Land Code of the Russian Federation, federal laws dated July 24, 2007 No. 221-FZ “On the State Real Estate Cadastre” (hereinafter - old cadastre law

) and dated July 21, 1997 No. 122-FZ “On state registration of rights to real estate and transactions with it” (hereinafter referred to as the old Law on State Registration). The reasons for this could be either biased - information about the state registration of the land plot was lost for some reason, or objective - the land plot was never the object of land relations either before or after the adoption of the old Cadastre Law.

By virtue of the direct instructions of paragraph 1 of Art. 37 of the Land Code of the Russian Federation, the object of purchase and sale can only be land plots that have undergone state cadastral registration. State cadastral registration of land plots in accordance with the provisions of Art. 70 of the Land Code of the Russian Federation is carried out in the manner established by Federal Law No. 218-FZ of July 13, 2015 “On State Registration of Real Estate”, hereinafter referred to as the Law on State Registration of Real Estate

(until January 1, 2021 - by the old
Cadastre Law
).

You may be interested in: Preparation of a legal opinion.

In accordance with Part 7 of Art. 1 of the Law on State Registration of Real Estate, state cadastral registration of a land plot is the entry into the Unified State Register of Information about it, which confirms the existence of a plot with characteristics that make it possible to define it as an individually defined thing, or confirm the termination of its existence.

Thus, state cadastral registration of a land plot is mandatory in order for the plot to become an independent object of land relations. Without cadastral registration, the turnover of a land plot is not provided for, legal confirmation of rights and securing information about it is difficult. The legal protection of rights to such a land plot also seems questionable. Accordingly, in this case, it will not have legal significance whether the boundaries are established for such a land plot or not, since without registration with the state cadastral register, the turnover of the land plot is impossible.

As an example, we can cite the Determination of the Moscow City Court dated March 15, 2016 No. 4g-2095/2016. In this case, the court found that the land plot, the right to which the plaintiffs wanted to register, was provided to one of them by the state farm for temporary use. The plaintiff did not apply to the executive committee to grant ownership of the plot when such a right could be exercised; therefore, as of 1998, he lost the right to use the plot due to the expiration of the temporary use period and the lack of documents confirming its extension.

You may be interested in: Support of real estate transactions.

At the same time, the court noted that the land plot was provided to the plaintiff by order of the state farm for a vegetable garden; the plaintiff did not present any other title documents for the plot. The entry in the household register indicates that the plaintiff owned the land plot for ten years after its provision in 1988. The right to the plot was not registered in the district land committee, a certificate of ownership of the specified plot was not issued, and the land plot was not included in the State Property Committee. Thus, in the opinion of the court, there are no grounds for satisfying the claim to establish the boundaries of the land plot and recognize the ownership of it.

A similar conclusion is made in the Appeal ruling of the Moscow City Court dated November 16, 2015 in case No. 33-41571/2015, in which the court indicated that if the land plots are not formed with boundaries established and are not registered in the cadastral register in accordance with the old Cadastre Law, This means they do not have all the characteristics of an individualized thing and cannot be the subject of civil law relations. At the same time, the position expressed in the Ruling of the RF Armed Forces dated December 6, 2005 No. 4-B05-42 seems interesting. In particular, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized as unfounded the conclusion of the lower court that the land plot does not belong to real estate, the rights to which are subject to state registration, and, as a result, cannot be considered an object of real estate and the subject of any transaction, if the boundaries it is not described and not certified in the prescribed manner, recognizing it as contrary to Art. 130 Civil Code of the Russian Federation and Art. 1 of the old Law on State Registration.

You may be interested in: Real estate registration for large copyright holders.

Information about the site is in the State Property Committee, but its boundaries have not been established

Another category of land plots with unidentified boundaries - previously recorded - includes land plots that were subject to cadastral registration, but the boundaries of such land plots on the ground were not established or were established in a way that does not allow their location to be determined with sufficient accuracy.

In particular, these may be cases (see letter from the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia dated May 19, 2014 No. OG-D23-3716):

lack of information in the state real estate cadastre about the coordinates of characteristic points of the land plot boundary;
when the coordinates of characteristic points of the border of a land plot contained in the state real estate cadastre are determined with an accuracy lower than the standard accuracy of determining coordinates for lands of a certain purpose;
when the coordinates of any characteristic point of the border of a land plot contained in the state real estate cadastre do not allow one to unambiguously determine its position on the ground (the state real estate cadastre contains several values for the coordinates of the specified characteristic point).

For example, in practice, the location of a land plot with undefined boundaries may be a specific cadastral block or a settlement consisting of several cadastral blocks.

At the same time, the lack of information about the boundaries of such a plot does not allow certain types of cadastral activities to be carried out in relation to it. Such land plots have limited properties and cannot be used on an equal basis with those land plots for which boundaries have been defined.

At the same time, one should take into account the position set forth in the Resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated June 24, 2014 No. 4890/14 in case No. A67-1041/2013, according to which the conclusion of the cadastral chamber and lower courts that the division of a previously registered land plot is incorrect put on cadastral registration without establishing boundaries, are prevented in their entirety by the requirements of paragraph 6 of Art. 11.4 Land Code of the Russian Federation, Part 3, Art. 25 of the old Cadastre Law.

If there is no information about the boundaries of the land plot, a corresponding note is made. In particular, according to clause 39 of Appendix No. 7 of Order No. 378 of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia dated June 20, 2016 “On approval of certain forms of extracts from the Unified State Register, the composition of the information contained in them and the procedure for filling them out, as well as requirements for the format of documents containing information from the Unified State Register <... >" when preparing an extract on the main characteristics in order to confirm the entry into the Unified State Register of information about a land plot as previously registered in the absence of information about the coordinates of the characteristic points of the border of such a land plot, as well as in the event that the coordinates of the characteristic points of the boundaries of such land contained in the Unified State Register of Real Estate plots are determined with an accuracy lower than the standard accuracy of determining coordinates for lands of a certain purpose, the words “The border of the land plot is not established in accordance with the requirements of land legislation” are indicated.

What statuses of land plots exist?

There are several categories of land ownership, assigned upon registration and changed only under certain conditions. Speaking about land territories, it is meant that they may have the following statuses:

taken into account;
previously taken into account;
temporary;
canceled;
archival.

It is worth understanding what the status of a land plot means. From the moment of registration of property rights and cadastral registration, the plot belongs to the registered category. As for “previously registered” plots, these include land territories, the right to which was registered before March 2008.

Most often, these are objects with undemarcated boundaries and in the register they are listed as areas that do not have precise boundaries. Land classified in this category may be used only to a limited extent. The land user acquires the opportunity to fully dispose of the allotment only after land surveying .

The recorded areas are distinguished from previously recorded ones by the fact that for the former there is complete information about their boundaries and other characteristics. Records of this are included in the state real estate cadastre. In addition, a certificate confirming the owner’s ownership is issued for registered objects.

Temporary cadastral status of a land plot is assigned to plots with undefined boundaries and non-privatized plots leased for a certain period. Also, a property acquires temporary status for the period while the full registration procedure lasts.

If the registration procedure is not completed properly within the established time frame, then after 5 years the plot will be automatically removed from the cadastral register. In this case, it will receive the “cancelled” status, and all actions will have to be repeated from the very beginning.

The status “archive” is assigned to territories under the circumstances established by law and after a certain time. The procedure is carried out without a request from the land user.

Lack of information about the boundaries of the land plot in the Unified State Register of Real Estate

The absence in the Unified State Register of Real Estate (formerly in the State Property Committee) of information about the boundaries of land plots does not prevent the owners of such plots from filing adverse claims in defense of their rights. This legal position is formulated in the Ruling of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation dated October 20, 2015 No. 14-КГ15-7, in which the Judicial Collegium for Civil Cases of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation indicated that, based on Part 9 of Art. 38, part 1 art. 45 of the old Cadastre Law, land plots whose cadastral registration was carried out before the entry into force of this law, and land plots in respect of which cadastral registration was not carried out, but the ownership right was registered, are considered taken into account, and their boundaries are determined in accordance with the requirements of the law , in force at the time of the formation of these areas. And the fact that the boundaries of land plots are not established in accordance with current legislation does not, according to the RF Supreme Court, prevent owners from protecting their rights by filing a claim to remove obstacles to the use of land plots.

Why do you need information about the status of a site?

Today, most of the previously recorded land areas are not demarcated. According to the current legislation in the field of land use, the owner is obliged not only to have documents confirming that the land is owned, but to register the exact boundaries of his plot.

The absence of boundaries established by the cadastre engineer as a result of boundary work prevents transactions with these land areas.

Therefore, owners have to find out the current status of the land plot in order to know about the existing rights.

The fact is that inaccurate boundaries of land objects one way or another lead to the intentional or unintentional seizure of land from neighboring territories. The difference between the actual dimensions and those registered in the title documents can sometimes be quite significant.

In addition, in this case, the calculation of the fee for operating the facility also becomes erroneous.

What path did the legislator choose to solve the problem?

Currently, a large number of land plots on the territory of the Russian Federation, information about which is contained in the Unified State Register of Real Estate, and was previously contained in the State Property Committee, do not have an accurate description of the boundaries. Often these are boundaries that are described verbally, schematically, without coordinates or with coordinates in a non-existent coordinate system or with low accuracy. As a rule, the reason for this situation is the fact that previously the legislation did not provide for mandatory and uniform description of the boundaries of land plots.

The lack of necessary and reliable information significantly complicates the civil circulation of real estate. Since the ability to fully dispose of plots without precise boundaries is difficult and not always possible, copyright holders ensure that the boundaries are clarified at their own expense as necessary (for example, during alienation, pledge, etc.).

An attempt to radically resolve the current situation was made back in 2013, when the Russian Ministry of Economic Development developed a draft federal law “On determining the exact boundaries of land plots and the location of buildings, structures, unfinished construction projects and on amending some legislative acts of the Russian Federation” (posted on the portal regulation.gov.ru under ID 00/04-3832/06-13/12-16-4

). This project proposed carrying out massive cadastral work to clarify information about the boundaries of various real estate objects.

The bill established the concept of “complex cadastral work”. The result of such work should have been a map-plan of the territory containing information necessary for state cadastral registration about land plots, buildings, structures, unfinished construction objects located within the boundaries of the territory for complex cadastral work (an element of the planning structure of a settlement).

Moreover, according to the project, it was assumed that from January 1, 2021, any disposal (coordination of disposal) of land plots for which the state real estate cadastre will not have information about the location of boundaries established in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation will be prohibited. The Russian Government never submitted the project to the State Duma. This decision could be due to many reasons: a short transition period for registering land plots, low awareness of land owners about upcoming changes, and the lack of necessary conditions and resources for implementing measures for mass state cadastral registration.

Causes

First, you need to understand what is meant by the status of an object being cancelled. First of all, it means deregistration of real estate from the state register, that is, cancellation of all data on a land plot from the cadastre service. Also, all information about the land will be canceled from the cadastral map. This happens in several cases:

According to the law, if a plot of land was registered with the cadastral authority more than two years ago, but the owner has not officially registered the right to property during this period of time, then information about it is canceled and deleted from the state cadastre.
If the land plot was registered after March 1, 2008, then it had a temporary status, as determined by this legislation. If rights are not registered within a two-year period from the date of registration, then the object assumes a canceled status.
If the address of the land plot has changed, as well as the description of its location.
A plot of land was combined or divided with neighboring plots.

Parts of the land plot also undergo this procedure. Information about them may be excluded from the state cadastre one year after their registration.

Cancellation of these parts of a land plot does not mean that all information about the plot of land itself will be deleted. They will only acquire current status, and its characteristics and area will remain unchanged.

After the entry is deleted from the state register, the plot becomes unaccounted for, which prevents the registration of ownership rights to it . After all, their registration for real estate that is not listed in the state register is impossible.

The validity period of all data entered into the state register can be suspended only if a judicial act is drawn up on the land plot.

Watch the video: How to remove a land plot from cadastral registration

Resolution of the Moscow District Court of July 20, 2016 No. F05-9957/2016 in case No. A40-189908/15

In this case, the court rejected the arguments of Rosreestr, which refused the applicant to register ownership of the land plot, about the lack of information about the coordinates of the characteristic points of the boundaries of this plot. The court noted that the note in the cadastral extract of 2015 about the failure to establish the boundaries of the land plot in accordance with the requirements of land legislation (if there was a description of the location of the boundaries of the land plot) only indicated that information about the boundaries was taken into account in the new coordinate system, despite the fact that the cadastral plan of 2005 contained information about the coordinates of characteristic points of the boundaries of this land plot.

Thus, the court recognized as legitimate the description of boundaries that existed before the introduction of the old Cadastre Law. Rosreestr's argument about the possibility in this case of refusing state registration by virtue of paragraph. 14 clause 1 art. 20 of the old State Registration Law, the court rejected it.

Resolution of the Moscow District Court of February 20, 2016 No. F05-663/2016 in case No. A40-77214/2015

In this dispute, Rosreestr refused to register the applicant’s ownership of the land plot he acquired, pointing out the lack of information about the coordinates of the characteristic points of the land plot’s boundaries. Having received the cadastral passport of the land plot through interdepartmental interaction, Rosreestr learned that the boundary of the land plot was not established in accordance with the requirements of land legislation. The applicant, in turn, presented a cadastral extract as evidence of coordination of the boundaries of the land plot. Resolving the dispute, the court indicated that the cadastral extract is the same source of information from the State Property Committee as the cadastral passport. At the same time, the registrar did not request a cadastral extract if there were doubts about the information provided, and left the information contained in the cadastral extract without attention. The decision of Rosreestr was declared illegal.