The liquidation of undivided common land ownership in Hungary

Abstract

The issue of undivided common land ownership is a special anomaly in Hungarian land law that has been waiting for a solution for decades. As a result of the reorganization of land tenure relations after the change in regime and the legal successions that have taken place since then, almost one-third of Hungarian farmland is in common ownership. The legal institution of undivided common land ownership creates a bureaucratic obstacle to the circulation of farmland; the land register is unorganized due to the lack of knowledge of the co-owners, which exists only on the surface because of the small ownership they have, all of which lead to administrative burdens for land users and public administration and, in sum, reduce the competitiveness of Hungarian agriculture. As a result of the legislator's action in 2021, new rules allowed the liquidation of joint ownership, and from 2023, special land inheritance rules were introduced into the Hungarian legal system. This study focuses on the introduction of undivided common land ownership, relevant legal problems, and particularities of liquidation.