Protecting landowners’ rights in 2026: Law No. 4292-IX and the ten-year limit on recovery

Law No. 4292-IX, passed as bill No. 12089, has been in force since 9 April 2025. It gave Article 388 of the Civil Code a new wording: the state or a territorial community cannot recover property from a good-faith acquirer where more than ten years have passed since their title was registered. Where recovery happens sooner, the acquirer receives the market value in compensation.

On 9 April 2025 the Law of Ukraine No. 4292-IX “On amendments to the Civil Code of Ukraine to strengthen the protection of good-faith acquirers” took effect. Publications still call it “law No. 12089”, but 12089 is the registration number of the bill in parliament, not of the statute. In the legislation register it must be looked up as 4292-IX.

Before these changes, the owner of a plot that had once left state or municipal ownership lived with an open-ended risk: the prosecutor would bring a vindication claim 12, 15 or 18 years after the privatisation, and the court would return the land to the community even where the current owner had bought it on the secondary market and knew nothing of any irregularity. The new wording of land law protecting owners’ rights closes that risk with a ten-year limit.

What Law No. 4292-IX changed in Article 388

Article 388 of the Civil Code governs recovery of property from a good-faith acquirer, that is from someone who bought from a person with no right to dispose of it. The general rule stands: property can be recovered where it was lost, stolen or otherwise left the owner’s possession against their will.

The change concerns cases where the claimant is a public owner. Where the claimant is the state, acting through a prosecutor or an authority, or a territorial community, and the disputed property has been registered to a private person for more than ten years, the court refuses recovery. Time runs from the entry in the State Register of Real Property Rights, so the date of the contract or of an official decision makes no difference.

The second half of the change is financial. Where property is recovered before those ten years are up, the good-faith acquirer is entitled to compensation of its market value from the state, the community, or whoever was at fault for the property leaving public ownership. Previously such an owner was left with neither the land nor the money, and a recourse claim against the seller was often pointless because the seller had nothing.

Who counts as a good-faith acquirer

Good faith is presumed: the acquirer does not have to prove it, and it is for the claimant to rebut it. In practice the court asks whether the buyer could have learned from available sources that the seller’s title was defective. The main evidence is a register extract as at the date of the deal showing no encumbrances or attachments, the absence of any litigation over the plot in the Unified State Register of Court Decisions, and a market rather than a nominal price.

An acquirer loses that status where a ban on disposal was already in the register when they bought, where the plot was bought from a connected person at several times below its normative value, or where the buyer was part of the very scheme that stripped the land out. That is why a pre-purchase legal review of the plot is kept with the contract: ten years on it becomes the principal evidence.

How the ten years are counted

Time runs from the state registration of that particular acquirer’s title. Where the plot has changed hands, each new entry starts its own clock, so previous owners’ periods are not added to the current owner’s. A plot privatised in 2011 and resold in 2020 is protected in the current owner’s hands not by the privatisation date but by the 2020 entry, and their ten-year point falls in 2030.

Compensation instead of land: when the state pays

The right to the market value arises when the recovery judgment takes effect. The amount is set by a valuation as at the date of the taking, not by the price the acquirer once paid, so the valuer’s report should be commissioned at the same time as the appeal. Recovery from the state goes through enforcement proceedings under the general rules, and in practice it stretches over months.

The compensation claim is not raised automatically with the defence: it is a separate claim with its own matters to prove. It can be brought in the same proceedings or by a separate claim after the recovery, and a litigation lawyer chooses according to whether a particular authority’s fault has already been established.

When the ten-year protection does not work

The ten-year limit does not cover every category of land: it does not apply to land that under the Land Code cannot be privately owned — defence land, nature reserve land, forestry land beyond the permitted limits, water fund land within coastal protective strips. There the ground for return is the ban on privatisation itself, and the acquirer’s conduct is irrelevant: ten years do not cure that defect.

The protection also does not extend to property whose rights were never registered in the State Register of Real Property Rights: with no entry there is no starting point. A separate category is plots acquired under decisions quashed in criminal proceedings, where the acquirer appears as part of the scheme.

Limitation and martial law

From 2 April 2020 the running of limitation was suspended by the quarantine and wartime provisions, and that moratorium artificially extended the window for old claims. Law No. 4434-IX restarted limitation on 4 September 2025, so the general three-year period under Article 257 runs normally again.

For a landowner that means two independent lines of defence. The first is the ten-year limit in Article 388, which blocks recovery outright. The second is limitation, which applies only where the respondent pleads it before the first-instance court gives judgment. If it is not pleaded, the court will not apply it of its own motion.

What to do if a recovery claim has already been filed

1. Order an information certificate from the State Register of Real Property Rights and fix the exact date your title was registered: that decides whether the ten-year limit applies.
2. File the defence within the deadline the court sets in the order opening proceedings, and plead limitation at the same time — after the first-instance judgment such a plea has no effect.
3. Gather the evidence of good faith: the register extract as at the purchase date, the payment documents, the valuation report, the correspondence with the seller.
4. Check the designated purpose in the State Land Cadastre, to remove the prosecutor’s argument about restricted land in advance.
5. If the risk of recovery is real, bring a counterclaim for the market value and support it with a fresh valuer’s report.
6. Where necessary, start a parallel claim for recognition of ownership of the buildings on the plot: their fate is decided by different rules.

Typical mistakes landowners make

• Counting the ten years from the date of the sale contract. A contract without a register entry starts no clock, and in court the gap between the two dates is often the few months that decide the case.
• Not pleading limitation. The court does not apply it on its own, so a deadline the claimant missed counts for nothing unless the respondent raises it.
• Destroying “unnecessary” papers after the transfer. Ten years on it is the register extract as at the purchase date that proves there were no encumbrances then.
• Selling the disputed plot during the case. The registrar makes the entry, but the new owner inherits the same dispute, and the seller receives a claim for compensation from the buyer.
• Counting on the ten-year rule for water fund land or nature reserves. For those categories the ground for return is the ban on privatisation, not the acquirer’s bad faith.

When you do not need a lawyer

If your title was registered more than ten years ago, the plot has an ordinary designated purpose and there is no litigation, paying for legal support achieves nothing. Order an information certificate from the State Register of Real Property Rights once a year through the Diia portal and keep your title documents. An extract from the State Land Cadastre about the designated purpose can likewise be obtained alone. Help is needed once a claim, an attachment in the register or a prosecutor’s enquiry appears, or where the plot is to be sold with a chain of transfers containing an official decision that a court later quashed.

Questions and answers

What is the number of the law protecting good-faith acquirers

Law of Ukraine No. 4292-IX of 12 March 2025, in force since 9 April 2025. The number 12089 belongs to the bill under which it passed through parliament.

Can land be recovered 15 years after privatisation

Not from a good-faith acquirer whose title has been registered for more than ten years. The exception is land that cannot be privatised at all.

From what moment are the ten years counted

From the state registration of that particular acquirer’s title in the State Register of Real Property Rights. Previous owners’ periods are not added to the current owner’s.

What if the land is taken before the ten years are up

The acquirer is entitled to the market value from the state, the territorial community or whoever was at fault for the property leaving public ownership. The value is set by a valuation as at the date of the taking.

Does the law cover flats and houses

Yes; Article 388 concerns property generally, and the ten-year limit attaches to the registration of title to real property, not to what kind of property it is.

What is the court fee on a claim to recover a plot

The claim is monetary, so for an individual the fee is 1 % of its value, but no less than 1,331.20 UAH and no more than 16,640 UAH in 2026. Filing through the Electronic Court reduces it by 20 %.

Do I have to prove my good faith in court

No, an acquirer’s good faith is presumed, and it is for the claimant to rebut it by showing the buyer knew or could have known the seller’s title was defective.

Does the law protect me if I bought from the previous owner’s relative

A connection between the parties does not by itself remove the protection, but the court weighs it together with the price and what the buyer knew. A nominal price combined with a family link often leads to a finding of bad faith.

What if an attachment appears on the plot in the register

An attachment means a dispute already exists or is being prepared. Order an information certificate listing the grounds of the encumbrance and check the Unified State Register of Court Decisions to see which case produced it.

Does the ten-year rule apply to plots in occupied territories

Registration actions there are suspended, so time is counted from the last entry made in the State Register of Real Property Rights before the suspension. Such disputes are heard by the courts to which jurisdiction has been transferred.

Sources

• Law of Ukraine No. 4292-IX on strengthening the protection of good-faith acquirers
• Civil Code of Ukraine, Arts. 257, 330, 388
• Land Code of Ukraine
• Law of Ukraine “On State Registration of Real Property Rights and Their Encumbrances”
• Law of Ukraine “On Court Fees”
• The Diia portal: extracts from the State Register of Real Property Rights

Protecting landowners’ rights with Svarog

We trace the chain of transfers of title to the plot, prepare the defence to a prosecutor’s recovery claim, plead limitation and pursue the claim for the market value in compensation. A consultation costs from 1,500 UAH, a written opinion on the risks attaching to a particular plot from 5,000 UAH, and full handling of a civil case starts at 25,000 UAH; the remaining items are on the page of legal service prices.

+38 095 554-54-24 · Kyiv, 7 Khoriva Street (Podil) · Mon–Fri 9.00–18.00