Restoration of the Rights of Ownership to the Existing Real Property in Lithuania

Citizens of the Republic of Lithuania, whose real property was nationalised under the laws of the USSR (Lithuanian SSR), or which was otherwise unlawfully made public, can apply due to the restoration of rights of ownership to the existing real property, which is regulated by the Republic of Lithuania Law on the Restoration of the Rights of Ownership of Citizens to the Existing Real Property.

This law shall also regulate the procedure and conditions of the restoration, as well as the recognition of continuity of the restoration of the rights of ownership to the citizens of the Republic of Lithuania to the real property, restoration whereof has been initiated according to the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on the Procedure and Conditions of Restoration of the Rights of Ownership to the Existing Real Property, while evaluating the established objective public economic relations.

Ownership rights to the real property shall be restored to the following citizens of the Republic of Lithuania:

1. the owner of the property;
2. the persons to whom the now-deceased owner of the property left his property by a will, irrespective of the fact that there is no evidence in the will of a devise of land or other real property, and upon their death - their spouses, parents, children or the spouses and children of such persons;
3. the spouse, parents, children, if they are citizens of the Republic of Lithuania, of the owner of the property who died without making a will or emigrated abroad during the occupation period (1939-1990) and there received the citizenship of another country, upon losing the citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania - to a part of the existing real property falling to them;
4. the spouse of the now-deceased child of the owner of the property - to a part of the existing real property falling to the deceased;
5. the persons to whom the property is transferred by a will (holographic will) without adhering to the form and manner established by law or by a contract (purchase-selling, donation or any other written document), as well as the persons to whom successors to the rights of ownership left the property by a will. Citizens who wish to restore the rights of ownership must apply to the court regarding the establishment of a fact of legal significance.

These citizens can restore rights of ownership to the following real property:

1. land;
2. forests;
3. water bodies;
4. structures used for economic and commercial purposes together with their appurtenances;
5. residential houses together with their appurtenances.

Applications for the restoration of the rights of ownership to the land, forest and water bodies shall be examined by the National Land Service under the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania.

Rights of ownership to residential houses, their parts, apartments, structures used for economic and commercial purposes shall be examined by the director of municipal administration or other institution authorized by the Government in accordance with the procedure established by the Government.

It is established in part 1 of Article 10 of the Republic of Lithuania Law on the Restoration of the Rights of Ownership of Citizens to the Existing Real Property that applications for the restoration of the rights of ownership to the existing real property had to be submitted until 31 December 2001. It is stipulated in part 4 of the same Article that together with an application for the restoration of the rights of ownership, a document certifying citizenship shall be submitted and the documents confirming the rights of ownership and relation by blood with the owner shall be enclosed.

Citizens, who submitted applications for the restoration of the rights of ownership to the existing real property, but failed to provide the documents confirming the rights of ownership and relation by blood with the owner, had to submit such documents until 31 December 2003.

A missed deadline can be renewed for those citizens, who missed a set deadline due to reasons which are recognized by the Court as significant.

A provision is formulated in the Law that all documents specified had to be submitted together with an application for the restoration of the rights of ownership, and only the documents confirming the rights of ownership and relation by blood with the owner might be submitted later.

In the opinion of the Court, the Law does not provide for that a document certifying citizenship, which has not been submitted together with an application for the restoration of the rights of ownership within a term indicated by Law, should be submitted later, i.e. within a term during which the documents confirming the rights of ownership and relation by blood with the owner can be submitted. Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania is one of those assumptions established by Law, the signs whereof a person must comply with in order to be recognized as a suitable subject of legal relations of the rights of ownership to the existing real property. Hereby, a person had to acquire citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania and also to become a suitable subject until 31 December 2001.

Therefore, the rights of ownership to the existing real property cannot be restored to persons who did not have and failed to submit to certain institutions a document certifying citizenship within terms established by law for the submission of applications for the restoration of the rights of ownership.

– the rights of ownership shall be restored only to citizens of the Republic of Lithuania, if applications thereof for the restoration of the rights of ownership have been submitted until a certain term which may be renewed by the Court, provided it had been missed due to important reasons;

– the rights of ownership shall not be restored to the persons having no citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania, such persons shall not be entitled to submit applications for the restoration of the rights of ownership until the aforementioned term, and the Court cannot renew this term for them.

Documents which must be submitted for the restoration of rights of ownership:

- application;

- documents approving Lithuanian citizenship;

- Documents confirming the rights of ownership and relation by blood with the owner. Documents confirming the rights of ownership can be as follows: extracts from mortgage books or asset transfer agreements, judicial decisions, property nationalisation acts, wills or other documents established by the Government.

A citizen must submit documents confirming the rights of ownership and relation by blood with the owner to the Land Use Department of the County Governor’s Administration according to the location of land, forest, water bodies.

Applications of citizens shall be examined and a decision regarding the restoration of the rights of ownership shall be taken within 6 months from the date of submission of documents. Decisions taken may be appealed to the court within 30 days from the day of delivery of decisions.

MIGRATION LAW CENTER