The three faces of simplified land consolidation: Which statutory route is yours?

2. Who pulls the strings?

Depending on the type of simplified land consolidation involved, who acts as the applicant or investor, and who must initiate the proceedings before the district office, also changes.

• Farmers and large landowners. For simplified land consolidation for agricultural and forestry use, the Act defines only in general terms an "applicant for simplified land consolidation". In practice this is most often an agribusiness, an agricultural cooperative, a larger landowner or a group of owners who need to rationalise the management of the land, consolidate plots and create coherent farming blocks. Already in the preparatory proceedings, the applicant must prove that they can finance the land consolidation – without that, the district office will not authorise it.
• Developers, investors and municipalities. For simplified land consolidation on the ground of the future use of the land for purposes other than farming, the Act again works with the concept of an "applicant for simplified land consolidation". Typically this is a developer or another investor who wants to prepare the area for construction (housing, industry, logistics, civic amenities), or a municipality that wants to create a new residential district or a development area. The applicant must:
  • prove financing of the costs of the land consolidation,
  • prove that the future purpose of use complies with the zoning plan (or with a resolution of the municipality and the opinions of the authorities concerned, where there is no zoning plan),
  • reckon with the fact that the value of the plots will be determined according to their future purpose of use by an expert valuation paid for by the applicant.
• Major investors and the state in large constructions. In simplified land consolidation for investment construction, the actor is no longer an "applicant" but an "investor carrying out a construction" that will substantially affect the management of the land. The Act clearly states that the investor is obliged to ask the district office to assess the construction's impact on the management of the plots. If the district office assesses the impact as significant, it will by decision require the investor to secure the financing of the land consolidation and the necessary technical measures.

In practice these will be entities such as the National Motorway Company, the Railways of the Slovak Republic, energy and transport undertakings, or the investor in a strategic park. The key point for owners is that the costs of reorganising ownership and use relations where a major construction intervenes are borne by the investors, not by ordinary landowners.

3. The zoning plan: Without it, you may not get anywhere

The link to land-use planning determines how strict the conditions are that you must satisfy even before filing an application for simplified land consolidation.

• Agricultural and forestry consolidation. For simplified land consolidation aimed at agricultural and forestry use, the Act does not make authorisation of the proceedings conditional on compliance with the municipality's zoning plan. Since the functional use of the area is not changing, the zoning plan is more of a "backdrop", and the district office focuses mainly on the expediency of the consolidation, the owners' interest and proven financing, not on a change of functional use.
• Consolidation for future construction and other non-agricultural use. Here, compliance with the zoning plan is a key condition. The Act expressly requires that the future purpose of use of the plots within the project area correspond to the municipality's valid zoning plan. If the municipality has no zoning plan and is not required to have one, the process has two steps:
  1. a resolution of the municipal council by which the municipality approves the future use,
  2. the consent of the authority concerned under special legislation.

For a client this means that a clear land-use planning basis (or the substitute mechanism under the Act) is an indispensable condition for the district office to be able to authorise simplified land consolidation under § 8d at all. This is not a separate construction-permitting process, but a verification that the JPÚ project complies with the planning documentation (or its substitute).

• Consolidation for investment construction. The Land Consolidation Act does not expressly address the link to the zoning plan for this type of consolidation. The premise, however, is that the construction is or is to be sited in accordance with the planning documentation. What is decisive is that, through its intervention under § 2(1)(c), it will substantially affect the management of the land, regardless of whether the entire permitting process under the construction regulations has been fully completed or the construction is being permitted under a special regime (for example major transport and engineering linear constructions or strategic investments). The land consolidation follows on from the already determined route or siting of the construction, and its task is to settle the construction's impact on ownership and use relations in the area. In practice it works as a "supplementary reorganisation" – once the route of the road, railway line or utility networks has been bindingly determined in the planning documentation and the permitting proceedings, the plots are rearranged through land consolidation so that the remaining plots are reasonably usable and accessible.

4. Financing and financial settlement: Who pays for it?

Land consolidation is a costly process (the project, surveying, expert valuations, technical measures, legal representation). In practice, the Act leads to the costs being borne, in general, by the party for whose benefit the consolidation is carried out, while at the same time protecting the owners through a compensation mechanism.

• The § 8c and § 8d regimes. In simplified land consolidation under both § 8c and § 8d, the applicant must, already in the preparatory proceedings, prove that the financing of the costs is secured – by a contract concluded with a person under § 25(1). If the applicant fails to prove the expediency of the project under § 7(2)(a), the conditions of the owners' interest under § 7(2)(c) are not met, or the applicant fails to prove secured financing, the district office will not authorise the land consolidation. Specifically in the "construction" regime under § 8d, the applicant additionally:
  • pays for the expert valuation by which the value of the plots is determined according to their future purpose of use,
  • must reckon with the possibility that the owners may, in the principles for the placement of new plots, adopt a rule that all of them will contribute to a new plot for public facilities and measures (e.g. roads, greenery), which the municipality will acquire for compensation,
  • the state and the municipality contribute to these public facilities to the extent of unregistered plots, unless these have been used for common facilities and measures under § 11(7). Financial settlement in money is, under § 8c(3) and § 8d(7), carried out directly between the applicant and the landowners within the time limit set in the decision approving the project.
• The investment-construction regime (§ 8e). In this land consolidation, the investor carrying out the construction asks the district office to assess the construction's impact on the management of the land. If the office assesses the intervention as substantial, it will by decision require the investor to secure the financing of the costs of the new arrangement of the plots and the necessary technical measures. The investor must demonstrate real financial cover – either funds in an account or an approved loan for this purpose. In practice, therefore, the owners are not expected to finance the consequences of an investment construction; the costs are borne by the party carrying it out.

At-a-glance summary: Typical examples from practice

Which route to take?

Simplified land consolidation is an extremely effective tool, but success depends on getting the start right. If you know exactly what your goal is (making a farm more efficient, building a district, or remediation after infrastructure construction), you can choose the right legislative procedure and avoid unnecessary delays before the authorities.

Are you preparing simplified land consolidation? Set up the right legal framework from the outset – consult VLKOVÁ, advokátska kancelária, before filing your application.