Some Problems Of Regulation Of The Institute Of Acquisitive Prescription Under The Civil Legislation Of Ukraine

Abstract

The scientific article has been devoted to the research of the separate problems of regulation of the institute of acquisitive prescription according to the civil legislation of Ukraine. The Civil Code of Ukraine establishes various grounds for acquiring property rights: on the basis of transactions, by inheritance, to a processed thing, to newly created property and objects of unfinished construction, to publicly available gifts of nature, to an ownerless thing, find, etc. At the same time, an important place among such grounds has been occupied by the institute of acquisitive prescription, which was first introduced into the legislation of Ukraine in connection with the adoption of the Civil Code of Ukraine on January 16, 2003. Among other things, the introduction of the institute of acquisitive prescription in the civil legislation of Ukraine as a basis for the acquisition of property rights has been due to the expediency of providing legal certainty in the regulation of property relations.

Based on the content of Art. 344 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, a person that bona fide came into possession of somebody’s property and continues to possess the immovable property during ten years and movable property during five years shall acquire the ownership right in this property (acquisitive prescription), unless otherwise stipulated by this Code, and acquisition of the ownership right in the land parcel by acquisitive prescription shall be regulated by the legislation. At the same time, despite more than fifteen years of experience in law enforcement, there have been still problems in judicial practice in the application of statute of limitations in civil and commercial cases. In the course of improving the relevant civil law regulation of the institute of acquisitive prescription in Ukraine, it is expedient, in particular, to envisage the peculiarities of acquiring property rights on this basis for certain types of property, as well as to consider the possibility of legislative regulation of suspension and interruption of acquisition prescription.