Dmitry Uryakin commented to Pravo.ru on the position of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation regarding the registration by a gardening cooperative of ownership rights to plots of land provided for collective joint ownership of its members

The Mechta gardening cooperative received a permanent perpetual right to a plot of land in 1993, most of which was subsequently transferred to the ownership of the dacha owners. At the same time, 2.41 ha, where mainly the paths between the dachas were located, became the collective joint property of the members of the gardening cooperative. In 2020 the association applied to the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography (Rosreestr) to register its title to the disputed land, but was rejected because it was impossible to register the individual ownership of the association as a legal entity on the land. The Mechta cooperative challenged this decision in court. Three courts sided with the plaintiff, stating that the Land Code of the RSFSR, which allowed assigning the property to a gardening cooperative, was in force at the time the land plot was granted. However, the Supreme Court overturned the lower courts’ rulings and dismissed the suit.

Dmitry Uryakin, Associate at Maxima Legal explained to Pravo.ru that Article 66 of the Land Code, based on which the Mechta cooperative was granted collective land ownership, did not provide for the possibility to grant the common use land plot as an individual property of the cooperative as a legal entity. Such land was to be collectively owned by all members of the association. Therefore, the partnership’s claim was unreasonable.

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