Two additional cases initiated regarding the amount of the fee for land use
On Tuesday, 10 December, two additional cases were initiated before the Constitutional Court in relation to conformity of the second sentence of Section 38, Paragraph two of the law On the Time Period of Coming into Force and the Procedures for the Application of the Introduction, Parts on Inheritance Rights and Property Rights of the Renewed Civil Law of 1937 of the Republic of Latvia with the first sentence and the third sentence of Article 105 of the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia.
The contested norm stipulates that the amount of the fee per year for statutory use shall be four per cent of the cadastral value of the land in use, but not less than EUR 50 per year.
The applicants own land on which several multi-apartment residential houses are located with privatised apartments belonging to other persons. According to the applicants, the contested norm substantially reduces the possibility of the land owner to derive income from the property owned thereby. The fee for land use established in the contested norm cannot be considered as a fair and economically justified remuneration for the use of land. Moreover, the measures laid down in the legislation related to the contested norm do not ensure a fair balance between the rights of the owner of the land and the rights of the owner of the building on the land thereof. In general, the legislator has not taken into account the findings of the Constitutional Court previously expressed in the judgment in Case No. 2022-02-01. The applicants therefore consider that their right to own property, as enshrined in the Constitution, has been infringed.
Taking into account that Case No. 2024-21-01 “On conformity of the words “four per cent” in the second sentence of Section 38, Paragraph two and Section 42, Paragraph seven of the law On the Time Period of Coming into Force and the Procedures for the Application of the Introduction, Parts on Inheritance Rights and Property Rights of the Renewed Civil Law of 1937 of the Republic of Latvia with Article 1 and the first sentence and the third sentence of Article 105 of the Constitution” was initiated on 24 July 2024 and the authority which issued the contested act, i.e. the Saeima, has already submitted a letter of response detailing the factual circumstances of the case along with the legal justification, the Constitutional Court decided to invite the Saeima to submit a response by 10 February 2025 in case it had any additional observations.
Linked case: 2024-31-01
Linked case: 2024-32-01