Land consolidation proceedings
The purpose of land consolidation is to improve production and working conditions in agriculture and forestry as well as to promote the general culture and development of the country . In order to be able to fulfill this purpose, according to the Land Consolidation Act , there are various types of land consolidation procedures with which rural property can be reorganized.
Since a land consolidation procedure usually has a duration of several years, the choice of a suitable procedure is very important. The type of procedure should always be selected with which the desired goals can be achieved as easily, quickly and inexpensively as possible.
Redesign of the land consolidation area (Section 37 FlurbG)
The redesign of the land consolidation area, also known as regular land consolidation, is the "basic procedure" for land consolidation . The route and water course as well as the existing property will be completely redesigned in accordance with the procedural objective. As a result, this process is very time-consuming, labor-intensive and costly. It is therefore only used in individual cases.
The area should be designed in such a way that it offers the greatest possible benefit for those involved and the general public. For this purpose, paths and facilities that are to be used jointly are laid out, soil improvement measures ( melioration ) are carried out and the landscape is designed according to the requirements of state planning . After the land consolidation, the paths (communal facilities) are mostly owned by the community and are financed by contributions from those involved. In between, the parcels are laid out in such a way that real estate is as uniform as possible in terms of location, shape and size.
A redesign of the land consolidation area results in an average duration (from the ordering of the procedure) of approx. 6 years until the transfer of ownership and approx. 10 years until the final determination.
Simplified land consolidation (Section 86 Land Act)
A simplified land consolidation procedure can be initiated in order to enable or carry out special measures of land development, in particular measures to improve agricultural structures, village renewal , the development of water bodies or the design of the locality and landscape. Usually these special measures are locally limited to certain parts of the district (e.g. location in a village renewal measure). The simplification compared to the regular land consolidation results in particular from the concentration on the specific procedural objectives and a procedural delimitation adapted to these objectives.
Simplified land consolidations in accordance with Section 86 of the Land consolidation act are a way of accelerating land consolidation, which can always be used in proceedings with little need for reorganization if the legal provisions do not allow an accelerated merger procedure (see below) to be ordered.
A simplified land consolidation procedure results in an average duration (from the ordering of the procedure) of approx. 4 years until the transfer of ownership and approx. 7 years until the final determination.
Company land consolidation (§ 87 Land Act)
Company land consolidation is usually only ordered for a special reason. Are major construction measures such as For example, if the construction of a motorway or a railway line is planned, the land losses for the individual directly affected owners of agricultural land are enormous. In addition, the remaining pieces are usually cut inappropriately and are no longer economically viable. To avoid this, the delimitation of the process around the facility is greatly enlarged so that the land losses can be distributed proportionally to many owners. In this way, the land loss of each individual owner within the process is kept as small and tolerable as possible. Due to the increased number of participants, however, the total area required for the planned large-scale construction project still results.
For a company land consolidation there is an average duration (from the order of the procedure) of approx. 5 years until the transfer of ownership and approx. 12 years until the final determination.
Accelerated merger procedure (Section 91 FlurbG)
The accelerated amalgamation procedure is the simplified and faster variant of the standard procedure according to § 37 FlurbG. The accelerated amalgamation process is always used when the real estate only needs to be reorganized and the new construction of the road and waterway network and other structural measures can be dispensed with. This is e.g. This is the case, for example, with areas that have already been cleaned up (second adjustment). In practice, the route network is reduced to the necessary connections. The resulting larger blocks are then the basis for the realignment of the properties.
For an accelerated merger procedure there is an average duration (from the ordering of the procedure) of approx. 2 years until the transfer of ownership and approx. 7 years until the final determination.
Voluntary land swap (§ 103a ff LandG)
The voluntary land swap is based on the "principle of voluntariness". If the owners concerned are willing to carry out the property swaps by mutual agreement, the voluntary land swap is basically the simplest and fastest land management procedure . The purpose of the voluntary land swap is the quick and easy reorganization of rural land to improve the agricultural structure . There are no special provisions regarding the size of the procedure, so that the voluntary land swap also applies to smaller projects. Since the principles of compensation of equal value do not apply to voluntary land swaps, monetary compensations can also be agreed in the event of differences in area or value.
In the case of voluntary land swaps, the land swap plan replaces the land consolidation plan . In addition to general information on people and properties, the exchange plan also contains the following things in particular:
- mutual agreements of the owners concerned in writing,
- possibly cash benefits,
- all rights to the old and new properties that are entered in the land register, in particular the rights in rem.
Voluntary exchange of use
The voluntary exchange of use does not constitute a procedure under the Land Consolidation Act. It is a new initiative to create competitive farming units in order to enable the farmers to exchange cultivated areas on the basis of lease agreements. The voluntary exchange of use is a simple, quick and inexpensive variant and, in contrast to the classic land consolidation, the ownership of the land remains unchanged. Questions of equal compensation do not play a role in this procedure.
literature
- Seehusen / Swede: Land consolidation act comment . Aschendorff Rechtsverlag, Münster, 7th edition 1997 ISBN 3-402-04148-0
- Seehusen / Swede: "Flurbereinigungsgesetz Standardkommentar" Agricola-Verlag GmbH, Butjadingen-Stollhamm, 8th edition 2008 ISBN 978-3-920009-04-9
- Henties, Volker; Harmsen, Claus: Resistance according to plan, land consolidation and risks for farmers, DLG-Mitteilungen 3/2008
- Henties, Volker; Harmsen, Claus: Bypass road: No thanks! , Company land consolidation, Land & Forst No. 35, August 30, 2007