Twinning Conference

Austria – Slovakia
Amsterdam 8th October 2004

“Situation of the protection of the landowners´ rights

in Slovakia“
Situácia v ochrane vlastníckych práv majiteľov pôdy
na Slovensku
Dr. Porubänová: The Asssociation of Landownwers
and AgroEntrepreneurs of Slovakia
The renewing of the landowners rights in Slovakia has began since
1991 with so called „ the law about the land „ number 229/1991
Zb. The law enabled to return the ownership to the owners, who lost
the ownership of the land and the other property in the wake of
confiscation mostly in 1950. It is about returning of the ownership in two
categories :
 ownership rights to the land and to the movable and immovable property
• the only condition of their admission was the Slovak nationality and permanent
residence (stay) in Slovakia (the foreign Slovaks were excluded)

 users rights to the land and to the movable and immovable property (this
category of the ownership didn,t lose the landownership rights
• previous users of the land ( agriculture cooperatives and other legal persons had
the duty to conclude the rent contracts with the land owners
The landowners had become the participants so called transformation
of the property of the agriculture cooperatives according to the
transformation law nr. 42/1991 Zb. The condition was to apply in writing
for the property from the transformation. The transformation law. The
agricultural cooperatives were obliged to divide their property in / in
accordance with the following ratio:
• 50 % of the property is bound to the soil
• 30 % is bound to machinery and animals / livestock
• 20 % as a compensation for the years of work in the cooperative
This is the way how the owners of the soil eventually became owners of
cooperatives´ shares with regard to the put / brought in land area,
livestock and dead stock or membership in the cooperative. (The ratio
of non-members to members according to the Food and Agriculture
Research Institute of Economy in Bratislava being 70/30).
The law about the land „ number 229/1991 Zb enabled the
revival of the farm/-er profession for the first time since 1950.
Landowners had two options:
• to terminate land rental contract with cooperative and set up a
business, i.e. become a farmer. In such a case a cooperative, as an
up to now / previous land “user“ had been obliged to hand over
cooperative´s share “in natura“ within 90 days since requested to do
so.
• to renew / prolong the rental contract with a cooperative – an
existing user. In this case a cooperatives have not been forced to
issue/return the shares of land to the owner. This could be returned
only after 7 years. However, the amendment of the transformation
law changed these proprietory shares /in natura/ to
securities/shares, so called “cooperative share certificate“
registered in Central Securities Depository.
• The worst situation turned out to be for landowners, who rented it to
/ did not retrieve it from cooperatives (appr. 80%). Proprietory
shares converted into shares are not negotiable in the stock
exchange and are of uncertain value. Only 30 % of the total value of
shares belonging to shareholders are registered in the Central
Securities Depository in Bratislava /SCP/ till now (the lack of the law
respect from the side of the cooperatives).
• In respect of this fact, The Ministry of Agriculture prepared the
amendment of the Transformation law, where the rightfull person on
the cooperative´s transformation / property shares, are allowed to
give the agriculture cooperative to bankruptcy, if their rights / claim
wil not be satisfied within the certain period.
• Land resources in Slovakia are typical for its fragmentation /
disintegration. Heritage process of the land was governed according
to the Hungarian law (Austro-Hungarian Empire).
The current problems of the landowners

• Users of the land / agriculture cooperatives pay very low rent for the
land or don´t pay at all. The reason is the frequent bankruptcy
proceedings, but very often caused artificially, in order to get rid of
their commitments.
• the landowners, who decided to cancel the rent agreement with the
agricultural cooperatives / previous user, have to face some
problems:
• Mutual consent has to be reached / owner and user / because the
land in question is not the one originally registered in land register /
cadaster (it´s just substitute land). The coop tendency is to give the
land of worse quality and worse shape of parcels.
• Nowadays there are the serious obstacles from the part of the
Ministry of Agriculture / Regional Land Offices, which are in charge
to measure the land. Since the beginning of the January 2004 the
Regional Land Offices didn´t get the financial funds for this purpose.
We have contacted the Minister of Agriculture Mr. Zsolt SIMON who
has promised to meet the case.
 The problems to be solved
• The Law about Land Rental No. 504/2003 Zb that came into force
on 1st January 2004 allows users to rent the rented land to another
user. His only duty is to announce this fact to the owner. This fact is
not in accordance with the Slovak Constitution (contravenes with the
Slovak Constitution).
The change of this law is of utmost importance. The question is,
whether this issue is in accordance with the European Union´s Law?
• The user of the land after 10 years of the using this land can make a
statement about the ownership of this land in spite of the fact, that
he is not the original owner registered in cadaster ( for example the
Hungarian citizen, who didn´t lose his ownership to this land in
Slovakia is still living in Hungary and is registered in cadaster, but
temporary user can also register himself in cadaster as an owner.