The first results of the start of the land market, related issues and ways to solve them, opinions and suggestions of experts, government officials and agricultural producers - these topics became the main ones during the national round table "Agricultural Land Turnover: practical implementation, recommendations to the land market players".

The event was held in the framework of implementation of the project "Support to the reform of the StateGeoCadastre by agribusiness and rural communities of Ukraine", which was conducted by the UAC with the support of the USAID Program on Agrarian and Rural Development - AGRO.

From April to July the UAC’s and USAID AGRO’s experts together with representatives of regional state administrations, the main departments of the StateGeoCadastre and the Notary Chamber discussed different problematic issues with agricultural producers and local governments’ representatives. 48 round tables were held, which were attended by 4,309 participants. The organizers received 432 requests from farmers and local governments. Problematic issues collected during regional round tables were also discussed during 2 national round tables.

"The meetings were concerned the current problems that have existed in the agricultural sector for the last 20-30 years and there were no clear answers. These are issues such as field roads, field protective forest belts, unallocated land plots and unclaimed shares. According to results of the round tables, we sent information about problematic issues to the StateGeoCadastre and its main departments in the regions, to the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. We have already received some of the answers, which would give an opportunity to convey information to all participants of the discussion, so that problematic issues were minimized in the future," the UAC lawyer on land issues Victoriia Kipriianova said.

However, most of the participants were interested in the introduction of the land market, the implementation of the preemptive right to purchase land, the procedure for redemption of farmland, the possession of which was carried out on the right of permanent use.

The UAC Deputy Chairman Mykhailo Sokolov emphasized the fact that the land market in Ukraine started without anxiety. He mentioned that the beginning of the reform means that adopted law on agricultural land was good. However, there were problems. One of the biggest problems nowadays was lack of notaries in rural areas.

"Conclusion of a land contracts takes a long time and this has exacerbated the problem of lack of notaries in rural areas. Although, this problem has been there before. However, the land market will increase the workload on a notary. Therefore, until the state takes care of increasing the number of notaries, the problem will remain. However, in this context, the issue of the corruption component needs to be solved. After all, to pass the exam and get a notary certificate a bribe is required. Today, this problem is one of the worst," the UAC Deputy Chairman explained.

Serhii Bilenko, assistant-consultant of the People's Deputy of Ukraine Mykola Solskii, continued the topic of the problems that appeared with the land market start, noting that they were of a technical nature.

"When the order of verification was prescribed by the law, it was planned that it would be an automatic verification, because all our registers are electronic, linked by certain identifiers. Unfortunately, it did not happen as we thought. The inspection procedure developed by the Cabinet of Ministers appeared too late. It could be adopted and improved six months ago. In addition, the automation of the check is not done. These problems are very old and have existed for years. First, we have bad software of the Register of Real Property Rights, register of legal entities and self-employed individuals, a huge list of errors in the StateGeoCadastre. For a long time, information was entered chaotically and was not checked. These problems became apparent at the start of agricultural land turnover and this means that they will be solved gradually. Currently, both the Ministry of Justice and the StateGeoCadastre discuss ways to improve this procedure and introduce its automation," Serhii Bilenko said.

The UAC participant and farmer Serhii Rybalko, using his own experience, also talked about the impact of the land market on agribusiness and cooperation with notaries:

"The purchase and sale procedure is too complicated. With the help of two notaries, we tried to predict how it would move. The first thing we wanted to know was how long it would take to make such a contract. If the land is not limited by obligations, such a transaction can be carried out within 2-3 days. If the plot is limited by lease agreements, or they want to put it up for auction, then such a procedure will take 3-4 months. Once all the documents are ready, the execution of the contract of sale will take about 5 hours. That means, one working day is one contract. Therefore, it is necessary to simplify these processes," the farmer said.

In addition, he mentioned, it was very difficult for a notary to find out how much land have those who want to buy it. Even more difficult was to determine the origin of the money for which the buyer wants to buy a land plot.

Serhii Kubakh, Head of Land Reform at the USAID AGRO Program, congratulated everyone on the launch of the land market and noted that its start is a renewal of the constitutional rights of Ukrainians. He noted that land market start was predictable, controlled and according to the model which was laid down in the law. And that in fact there was no problems.

"Talking about statistics, since the beginning of the month (and according to July 15) there have been 774 cases of land sale. 224 contracts have been signed for the last week. We, as experts, say that all procedures with land, notarial cases must work in such a way as not to interfere with the land market. I think there are no problems. Nowadays 3.5 thousand notaries work with the StateGeoCadastre. Assuming that each notary will have one case to do with the alienation of land during the day, we see that the system's capabilities are to draw up 3.5 thousand plots of land per day. We have 224 cases a week. So, the system is able to service cases, there is no anxiety. There the state check of those who want to buy a land plot. But taking into account an amount of corruption schemes in this sector, it is necessary. We stand by making land market legal, paying taxes and destroying corruption schemes," Serhii Kubakh said.

No individual or legal person and would be able to acquire more than the amount of land provided by the law. The StateGeoCadastre carried out constant land market monitoring, the results of which were reflected on the official website of the department. Thus, the public could also follow those processes. The First Deputy Head of the StateGeoCadastre Anatolii Miroshnychenko emphasized this.

"We understood that with the introduction of a full-scale land market, society wanted to see on a regular basis the processes taking place in the land market. Therefore, without waiting for the adoption of laws and bylaws, we have introduced land monitoring as part of the monitoring of land relations. On the site, anyone can see the list of expropriated lands, their area, prices, rental rates and lists of those who own more than 100 hectares of land. Thus, according to July 1, more than 1,000 individuals owned more than 100 hectares of agricultural land. However, since July 1, their number has changed. Despite the rather detailed mechanism of verification by notaries, today we have additional 4 positions in the list of persons who own more than 100 hectares," said the official.

First Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine Yevhen Ghorovets noted that after two weeks of the land market functioning there are some remarks, but the agency does not receive any critical ones.

"As a lawmaker, the Ministry of Justice has developed a procedure for inspecting the right of ownership of agricultural land. In our country, the land market works as a very interesting and complex model. From the point of view of the land market functioning, there are certain legal difficulties that will be resolved by a court. We have many declarative requirements. For example, regarding payment in non-cash form. Lawyers have questions about the consequences of non-compliance with this requirement. I think, if the transaction is made by cash, it will not always be a reason for invalidating the transaction. However, it will be interesting to observe a case law," the official said.

Notaries were ready to perform transactions on land plots. The representative of the Notary Chamber of Ukraine Inna Bernatska emphasized this issue. At the same time, with the start of the land market, notaries had more work with land plot owners.

"We have done this before with other land plots. Since July, agricultural lands have been added. Yes, the system is not perfect. Notaries receive a very serious burden every time new reforms are implemented. They operate in «turbulence mode». Nowadays we need automation of technical processes. Its absence takes up most of the time of notaries. We observe that the start of the land market has had a greater impact on landowners. When owners of land units come to us for a consultation, their main question is how to save the land,” Inna Bernatska said.

Head of the Palanka UTC (united territorial community) Ruslan Yaremchuk spoke about the specifics of buying farmland, the seller of which was UTC. Farmers have a benefit from the state - they have the right to buy the land plots they use according to the nominative monetary valuation on 10 years installment plan.

"There are farmers who have small land plots and have already received some of them in private ownership through division and further distribution among their relatives. There are farmers who have a large area more than ​​50 hectares and did not use schemes of division and distribution, because it also costs money. In addition, there is another category - they seem to be tenants, but in fact provided this land to others and received rent. As a result, the users and owners of these land plots are other persons who are interested to get right of ownership for it. However, they can get it only when the real owner buys it and gives it to them. However, there are technical problems: UTCs and notaries are not technically ready for all processes. But we understand that notary services market is also a market that is developed and everything will be improved, it just needs some time," Ruslan Yaremchuk said.

The video of the round table can be viewed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e9fbb3xCpM