Owners of unclaimed agricultural land shares and their heirs have been given additional time to formalise their land rights. Ukrainian Law No. 3993-IX moved the deadline from January 1, 2025 to January 1, 2028. The extension was introduced in response to the consequences of the war, which prevented many people from completing the required procedures on time. According to Ukraine’s State Service for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre, more than 104,400 unclaimed land shares remain in the country.
By January 1, 2028, the owner of a land share or their heir must register ownership of a specific land plot. Rights to such land may belong not only to citizens who originally received land share certificates but also to their heirs. Where documents are missing or the right to a land share cannot otherwise be confirmed, it may in certain circumstances be established through court proceedings.
If ownership is not registered by the deadline, the owner or heir will generally be considered to have waived the right to receive the land plot. Once the unclaimed share has been formed into an individual land plot, the relevant local authority may seek its transfer into municipal ownership through court proceedings under the rules governing ownerless property. However, if the deadline was missed for a valid reason, a court may grant the owner or heir additional time to complete the registration.
Even after such land becomes municipal property, Ukrainian law provides an additional safeguard for former owners and their heirs. For seven years after the registration of municipal ownership, the land generally cannot be transferred into private ownership to another person, except when it is transferred to the original holder of the unclaimed land share or their heirs. Owners of old land share certificates and potential heirs should therefore check their documents in advance rather than postponing registration until the end of 2027.