Prescription of acquisition implies the acquisition of the right of ownership of vacant property by one person and the termination of this right by another due to the expiration of a certain period provided by law and the achievement of certain conditions.
In an interview with Iravaban.net, lawyer Marat Atovmyan, the founder of “Atovmyan” Law Firm, stated that the institution of statute of limitations is very important, but unfortunately, not all citizens have a correct idea of what statute of limitations is.
“It seems to them that if they have lived in a place for more than ten years, regardless of the owner of that area, they can go to court and have their ownership recognized by virtue of the statute of limitations.” Article 187 of the Civil Code refers to the statute of limitations of acquisition, but it should be emphasized that there are 4 mandatory conditions, and this is also recorded by the precedent decisions of the Court of Cassation, and the courts take these circumstances into account. The first is possession of the premises must be bona fide, and bona fides of possession is assessed when the person actually takes possession of the property. The property must be transferred to the actual possession of the person without any violence. The possessor must have the conviction that he acquires the property on legal grounds. Possession must be based on such facts as may give the possessor sufficient grounds to believe that he will possess the property as his own.
Second, the actual owner must own the property as his own, that is, the actual owner of the property must participate in the management of the property, take care of its maintenance, as in the case of his own property.
Third, possession must be for ten consecutive years, that is, possession of the property must not be interrupted during ten years.
Fourth, possession must be open, that is, the actual possessor must not possess the property secretly from third parties. At the same time, these four points must be present so that the court can have a basis to satisfy the claim and recognize the person’s ownership right to the given area by virtue of the statute of limitations of acquisition,” the lawyer elaborates.
Marat Atovmyan also mentioned that they have experience in such cases and the cases that have been in the court have been successful in all cases.
“For example, there was a problem with one of our cases that a person had acquired a certain plot of land and a building from his late brother’s family in 2008 with a notary sale contract and it was stated in the contract that this person paid 2 million drams. It turns out that at the time of signing the contract, these people they got that land by sale. Further there was a problem, my client did not register in time with the Cadastre body and the case remained pending. Then there was a dispute between relatives regarding the land of that area. We filed a lawsuit related to the statute of limitations. We also presented relevant facts and documents, justifying the four points mentioned above. Our arguments were acceptable to the court and the court noted in its ruling that even the fact that my client was absent from Armenia several times during those ten years did not mean that he did not satisfy these four components, did not accept them as his own, did not improve that area. In other words, the court found that it is not mandatory to be in the given area every day for ten years. And the ownership right of our client was recognized,” the lawyer said.
Lawyer Marat Atovmyan notes that quite extensive work is being done. Gathering facts is a long process.
He presented the factual data collected for one of the ongoing cases.
“All these receipts have been collected and we have to present them to the court with a receipt to prove that the given person really lived there,” he said.
The lawyer emphasized again that living in the area for ten years or owning the property is not a sufficient condition for the recognition of the ownership right due to the statute of limitations.
Hasmik Sargsyan
