Ownership as the prerequisite for the entitlement to claims arising from the Warsaw decree

The article presents the issue connected with the application of the mechanism of real property communalisation in Warsaw, raising a great deal of doubt in literature and diversely assessed in the case-law. The issue concerns the requirement adopted by the communist authorities in the decree of 26 O...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kamil Zaradkiewicz
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MINISTERSTWO SPRAWIEDLIWOŚCI (Ministry of Justice POLAND) 2019-06-01
Series:Nieruchomości@
Subjects:
Online Access:http://kwartalniknieruchomosci.ms.gov.pl/gicid/01.3001.0014.0531
_version_ 1811249743587704832
author Kamil Zaradkiewicz
author_facet Kamil Zaradkiewicz
author_sort Kamil Zaradkiewicz
collection DOAJ
description The article presents the issue connected with the application of the mechanism of real property communalisation in Warsaw, raising a great deal of doubt in literature and diversely assessed in the case-law. The issue concerns the requirement adopted by the communist authorities in the decree of 26 October 1945 on ownership and usufruct of land on the area of Warsaw (so called the Warsaw decree) pursuant to which persons applying for (former) heritable building rights of superficies, and currently the right of perpetual usufruct were possessors of their former real properties. The decree communalised (nationalised) all land plots within Warsaw in order to rebuild the city destroyed by the war. A person fulfilling the condition of possession or their legal representative could have submitted within 6 months from taking possession of the land by the commune a request for establishing the right allowing the use of the real property compulsory taken over. Granting the possibility to submit requests for establishing the right to the land was to enable its former owners to take part in the reconstruction of the capital city. Granting the right involved essential obligations, for example in the form of the construction of a building or other facility as well as their maintenance in an appropriate condition. The main controversy concerns the fact whether the possession order as the condition for granting the right to use the land by the commune relates to former owners or only their legal successors (including mainly their heirs). If the interested party did not own the real property, they could not have claimed the right to establish the right to the land in an efficient way. The requirement concerning the ownership as the possibility to exercise efficiently the actual control over the real property was assessed under the rules of the Napoleonic Code applicable in the central parts of Poland, whereas later under the new Polish property law of 1946. The ownership as the condition for acquiring the right to the land was aimed at establishing the possibility to co-participate in the reconstruction of buildings destroyed as well as allowed the determination whether the persons entitled to the land were alive or had died during the years of war turmoil (in particular in the Holocaust). The article presents arguments for assuming the necessity to analyse the existence of the ownership lying with former owners (and not only with their legal successors). Nowadays, the problem is also essential due to practical reasons as requests submitted in the 1940s are being still currently processed, and failure to prove in that time the title to the land by requesters applying for granting the relevant right results also today in the necessity to reject establishing the right of perpetual usufruct.
first_indexed 2024-04-12T15:53:01Z
format Article
id doaj.art-976543f48878458c92e282ee3d567ed8
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2657-8247
2719-8030
language English
last_indexed 2024-04-12T15:53:01Z
publishDate 2019-06-01
publisher MINISTERSTWO SPRAWIEDLIWOŚCI (Ministry of Justice POLAND)
record_format Article
series Nieruchomości@
spelling doaj.art-976543f48878458c92e282ee3d567ed82022-12-22T03:26:27ZengMINISTERSTWO SPRAWIEDLIWOŚCI (Ministry of Justice POLAND)Nieruchomości@2657-82472719-80302019-06-0111134410.5604/01.3001.0014.053101.3001.0014.0531Ownership as the prerequisite for the entitlement to claims arising from the Warsaw decreeKamil Zaradkiewicz0Uniwersytet WarszawskiThe article presents the issue connected with the application of the mechanism of real property communalisation in Warsaw, raising a great deal of doubt in literature and diversely assessed in the case-law. The issue concerns the requirement adopted by the communist authorities in the decree of 26 October 1945 on ownership and usufruct of land on the area of Warsaw (so called the Warsaw decree) pursuant to which persons applying for (former) heritable building rights of superficies, and currently the right of perpetual usufruct were possessors of their former real properties. The decree communalised (nationalised) all land plots within Warsaw in order to rebuild the city destroyed by the war. A person fulfilling the condition of possession or their legal representative could have submitted within 6 months from taking possession of the land by the commune a request for establishing the right allowing the use of the real property compulsory taken over. Granting the possibility to submit requests for establishing the right to the land was to enable its former owners to take part in the reconstruction of the capital city. Granting the right involved essential obligations, for example in the form of the construction of a building or other facility as well as their maintenance in an appropriate condition. The main controversy concerns the fact whether the possession order as the condition for granting the right to use the land by the commune relates to former owners or only their legal successors (including mainly their heirs). If the interested party did not own the real property, they could not have claimed the right to establish the right to the land in an efficient way. The requirement concerning the ownership as the possibility to exercise efficiently the actual control over the real property was assessed under the rules of the Napoleonic Code applicable in the central parts of Poland, whereas later under the new Polish property law of 1946. The ownership as the condition for acquiring the right to the land was aimed at establishing the possibility to co-participate in the reconstruction of buildings destroyed as well as allowed the determination whether the persons entitled to the land were alive or had died during the years of war turmoil (in particular in the Holocaust). The article presents arguments for assuming the necessity to analyse the existence of the ownership lying with former owners (and not only with their legal successors). Nowadays, the problem is also essential due to practical reasons as requests submitted in the 1940s are being still currently processed, and failure to prove in that time the title to the land by requesters applying for granting the relevant right results also today in the necessity to reject establishing the right of perpetual usufruct. http://kwartalniknieruchomosci.ms.gov.pl/gicid/01.3001.0014.0531communalisationnationalisationownership and title to the real propertyreal properties in Warsawright to the landconcealment
spellingShingle Kamil Zaradkiewicz
Ownership as the prerequisite for the entitlement to claims arising from the Warsaw decree
Nieruchomości@
communalisation
nationalisation
ownership and title to the real property
real properties in Warsaw
right to the land
concealment
title Ownership as the prerequisite for the entitlement to claims arising from the Warsaw decree
title_full Ownership as the prerequisite for the entitlement to claims arising from the Warsaw decree
title_fullStr Ownership as the prerequisite for the entitlement to claims arising from the Warsaw decree
title_full_unstemmed Ownership as the prerequisite for the entitlement to claims arising from the Warsaw decree
title_short Ownership as the prerequisite for the entitlement to claims arising from the Warsaw decree
title_sort ownership as the prerequisite for the entitlement to claims arising from the warsaw decree
topic communalisation
nationalisation
ownership and title to the real property
real properties in Warsaw
right to the land
concealment
url http://kwartalniknieruchomosci.ms.gov.pl/gicid/01.3001.0014.0531
work_keys_str_mv AT kamilzaradkiewicz ownershipastheprerequisitefortheentitlementtoclaimsarisingfromthewarsawdecree