Summary

The Land Reform Legislation Amendment Act was passed by the Riigikogu on 30 April and entered into force on 7 July 1996. The purpose of this Act is to resolve problems relating to implementation of the land reform and to make necessary amendments to all legislation regulating the land reform.
Below, the author provides a few examples of the amendments enacted.
General Provisions. Before entry into force of this Act, land was also subject to contractual use pursuant to the Land Reform Act. According to the amendments, the Land Reform Act only provides for the establishment of building lease in favour of an owner of a building as a movable, lease of agricultural state land to current users and the establishment of usufruct in favour of a person using land pursuant to the ESR Farming Act. Restoration and compensation. Land restoration on the basis of maps and plans is provided for as the main principle in subsection 6 (1). This means that, on the basis of preserved immovable property plans and later catastre plans, a land plot plan is made, on which the boundary and area are marked. Designation of natural objects on a piece of land, cutting of boundary paths and more exact survey of the piece of land shall be effected later, at the request and expense of the land owner. As rule, land is restored wihin its former limits.
Privatisation. Land may be sold in two ways: a building is privatised together with the land under it, or the shares or stocks of an undertaking are transferred after the land under the buildings belonging to the undertaking has been transferred to the undertaking. The establishment of building lease in favour of a building being privatised is not excluded either. In the privatisation of land to aliens and Estonian legal persons, the Government of the Republic may prescribe a list of local governments where the consent of the county governor is necessary for the privatisation of land. In the remaining cases, acquisition of land by legal persons is possible without such consent.