Land law: the unification of land

A land plot is a part of the land surface with boundaries defined in accordance with the current legislation. There are two ways to create a land plot:

• The formation of land from free (unused) land, which at the time of allocation are owned by the municipal or state.

• Section, consolidation, redistribution of land plots, as well as allocation from land plots that were previously owned by physical (legal) persons.

Regardless of the method of formation of a new piece of land, it is necessary to carry out this operation in strict accordance with the land legislation. What stages involves the formation of a land plot when two (or more than two) previously existing plots of land are merged? Who has the right to conduct such an operation with land? What documents will be required in order to accomplish a legitimate unification of land plots?

General requirements

The procedure for uniting land plots is understood as the totality of cadastral work, the result of which will be the receipt by the owner of a cadastral passport (statement) of a newly formed land plot. Only those land plots whose boundaries have been officially registered in accordance with the Order of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation of 17.08.2012 are subject to the association. If there is a discrepancy of at least one of the plots with these norms, before the commencement of the merger procedure it will be necessary to specify the area and boundaries of the owner's land.

The land legislation establishes general requirements for the consolidation of land plots (section). The sites must meet the following requirements:

• Plots of land belong to the same owner at the time of their unification on the property right or are in shared ownership with two or more owners (subject to obtaining the official consent of all owners).

• Are located within the same municipal entity.

• Have the same target value and belong to the same category of land.

• Have a common boundary, that is, they are contiguous.

Is it possible to unite land plots that do not belong to the right of ownership?

Most often, such a question can arise if it is a question of uniting the plots of land granted to one person on the right:

• Permanent permanent use.

• Gratuitous urgent use.

• Lifetime inherited possession.

The unification of such plots by law is allowed provided that all the land plots to be unified are provided to one person and under the same conditions, for example, the right of perpetual permanent use. At the same time, the person using the plots has the right of permanent (perpetual) use to the formed site without changing the conditions and conducting additional auctions or trades (clause 4, Article 11.8 of the RF LC).

Sites with encumbrance

Is the law allowed to unite plots of land, if one of the plots has any encumbrance? If a piece of land is, for example, in a mortgage or leased on lease, it will additionally be required to obtain consent to the procedure from the pledgee (tenant, land user). It should also be taken into account that when consolidating plots, one of which is in pledge, the right of pledge will be extended to the entire newly formed land plot, except for cases when the agreement with the pledge holder establishes other conditions.

Stages of uniting plots

How to properly register a site formed by combining two (several) plots of land? With what it is necessary to begin the unification of land plots? Land law defines the following procedure for the preparation and registration of a land plot formed with the help of an association:

• Obtaining the consent of all owners who own land plots (which is not required if all plots belong to the same owner).

• Appeal to the land (cadastral) engineer, with the conclusion of a contract for engineering and technical work and the formation of documentation.

• Obtaining a cadastral passport for a site , registration of a joint newly formed land plot in the state registration chamber.

The consent of the owners of the unified plots

In accordance with the provisions of paragraph 5 of Art. 11.2. ZKRLF, if it is planned to realize the unification of land plots, according to documents belonging to several persons at the same time or the combination of land plots owned by different owners, the basis for starting this procedure is always the written consent of each site owner. Written consent is drawn up in a form, with an obligatory attachment of an extract from Rosreestr and a copy of the passport (an identity document). The form (below, see the sample) of the association of land plots is filled individually by each interested person and is confirmed by a signature.

Important! All tenants, tenants, land users or pawnbrokers are not required to consent if the joint plot is compulsory on the basis of a court decision.

As a result, there is a merger of land owners owning a newly formed land plot on the right of shared ownership. The size of the share of each owner is determined when registering the right to a joint plot and indicated in the certificate of land.

Defining the boundaries of the future site: who to contact?

The unification of land plots for the beginning requires a definition and coordination of the boundaries of the newly formed site. To survey, that is, fixing borders, only cadastral engineers who have passed vocational training and who are necessarily licensed for this type of work have the right.

Cadastral (land, land management) engineers act as specialists acting under the contract with the customer (owner of the site) and are not government employees. The cost of services for the formation of a land-surveying business is established by the cadastral engineer, depending on the estimated amount of work. A single all-Russian register of these specialists is publicly available on the website of Rosreestr.

Functions of cadastral engineer

After choosing a specialist, the owner is required to enter into a contract with the land engineer and provide him with research documents for all land plots that are planned to be merged into a single territory. The task of the cadastral engineer includes:

• Study and analysis of documentation for land plots to be merged.

• Departure to the territory of land and carrying out measuring work to determine the area of land and the exact location of borders.

• Coordination of the actual boundaries of the land with the owners of the neighboring territories and, if necessary, with the local administration.

• Preparation and drawing up of documents on the basis of conducted geodetic actions.

The boundary plan

The work of the cadastral engineer should be a package of documents for the official registration of a newly formed site in the territorial department of cadastral registration bodies.

• Technical plan of the site.

• The boundary plan. The document is an actual drawing of the land plot, a scheme of combining the plots with the annexes. In addition, the information on the specialist who carried out the work on the definition of boundaries and the formation of a land survey plan, including the Land Survey Plan, is certified by the signature (digital signature) of the land engineer who compiled the document.

Act of inspection.

• If there are discrepancies and controversial points, additionally, as an appendix to the land surveying plan, a cadastral (land) engineer's conclusion is drawn up. This document should contain detailed information on all violations or inconsistencies found during the investigation of the documentation for sites and work on the ground, as well as the expert's recommendations for their removal.

Registration of a site formed by combining

The procedure for registering, as well as registration of a newly formed plot of land, is determined by the Federal Law "On the State Real Estate Cadastre" of July 24, 2007, No. 221-FZ (Article 24) (hereinafter - the Federal Law).

The final stage of the merger procedure is to apply to the cadastral chamber at the site of the territorial affiliation of the site with the application for merging the existing land plots into a single territory and issuing a cadastral passport for a new land plot. To the application, all available documentation should be attached to the sites to be merged and the boundary case (a detailed list of documents in Article 22 of the Federal Law). As a result of consideration of the package of documents, the owner (owners) of the new site receive a cadastral passport on hand.

At the same time, the newly formed plot is put on temporary inventory in the state cadastre of real estate objects. The owner is given a period of up to 5 years from the date of registration for registration of ownership of the newly formed land (except for the registration of the right of lease, the term is 1 year). During this period, you should apply to the territorial registration chamber with the following documents:

• Cadastral passport for the formed land and cadastral passports of the united areas.

• Decision on the unification of land plots.

• Documentation for the sites to be merged.

After the expiration of the consideration of the package of documents, the ownership of the land formed by the association is registered, the land plot is assigned an individual number. The owner (the lessee) is issued a certificate of registration. Simultaneously, the plots at the expense of which a registered plot of land was established, cease to exist legally, certificates for them are canceled.

If the time has passed and the owner (tenant) has not applied within the established time limits for the registration of the property right, all information about the newly created site is excluded from the cadastral register, and the results of the merger are canceled. Documents provided by the owner of the land for cadastral registration are returned to the applicant for signature within one year. However, provided that during this period, no one has claimed the documents, they are being destroyed.