Another victory for the lawyers of WinnerLex in a land dispute with the State Geocadaster

Quite often, government bodies and local authorities create unjustified bureaucratic obstacles for land users in the process of registering land leases. This was the case with our client – an industrial enterprise with foreign investments that intended to lease a plot of land for business activities.

After developing a land management project based on the city council’s approval, the client, following the legally established procedure, submitted the project to the State Geocadaster for approval. The project was not approved on the first attempt, as the regional office of the State Geocadaster, which received the project, included certain remarks in its conclusion. These remarks were addressed, and the land management project was resubmitted for approval. According to the existing approval procedure, the corrected project was sent to another regional office of the State Geocadaster. However, despite addressing all the previous remarks, the State Geocadaster again did not approve the land management project. The reasons for refusal were entirely new and unrelated to the previous remarks.

Given that this approval process, with new and recurring objections, could have lasted indefinitely, the client was advised to seek legal protection in court.

Our lawyers’ position was based on the fact that, according to the law, the approval of a land management project for land allocation can only be denied if the shortcomings pointed out in the previous conclusion were not rectified. It is unlawful to refuse approval of the project for other reasons or to indicate different shortcomings.

Considering this position, the Dnipropetrovsk District Administrative Court ruled that the negative conclusion of the regional office of the State Geocadaster was unlawful and ordered it to reconsider the land management project. The appellate court also ordered the regional office of the State Geocadaster to provide an opinion approving the land management project. The appellate court agreed that since the State Geocadaster unlawfully refused approval of the land lease, without any legal grounds for such a decision, it was necessary to resolve the dispute substantively and compel the State Geocadaster to approve the project. Furthermore, the appellate court rejected the appeal of the regional office of the State Geocadaster as unfounded.

The Supreme Court put an end to the case by returning the State Geocadaster’s cassation appeal without consideration. As a result, our client can now expect the approval of their land management project by the State Geocadaster, which will allow the successful completion of the land lease registration process.

This victory was made possible thanks to the work of the team of lawyers from WinnerLex, including Hryhoriy Chumas (Kyiv office) and Viktoriya Chekhuta (Dnipro office), under the leadership of managing partner Anna Vinnychenko.