The Problem of the Undetermined Legal Status of Land under Flowing. Poland – a Case Study

Abstract

The new Water Law Act, which entered into force on 1 January 2018, has introduced numerous changes regarding the management of land covered by water. One of the most important changes concerns the procedure for determining the course of the shoreline. According to the previous act, the shoreline was determined ex officio during the modernisation of the land register survey. After the change in the legal regulations, it is no longer obligatory. The natural change in the course of the shoreline results in a change in the extent of ownership rights and the need to define the legal status of the land adjacent to the water, as flowing waters and the land beneath in Poland belong exclusively to the State Treasury. The problem of the undetermined legal status of private land occupied by water is significant because the land covered with flowing water is not subject to civil turnover. Without performing a demarcation procedure between the land occupied by a watercourse and the adjacent land, the owner cannot sell the property. The lack of the obligation to determine the course of the shoreline during the modernisation of the land register survey results in the aggravation of the problem of the undetermined legal status of land under water. This work analyses the boundaries of plots occupied by the watercourse in two provinces (Świętokrzyskie, Śląskie) where the land register survey was modernised after the entry into force of the new Water Law Act. The aim was to determine the scale of the problem of the land use Wp (flowing water ) occurring on private land.