The city council does not have the authority to independently terminate the right to use the land. This was stated by lawyer Valery Dutka in an interview with Public Chernivtsi, the Information and Education Department of the UOC reports with reference to the lawyer’s Facebook page.

As the lawyer notes, in order to terminate the right to permanent use of a land plot, there must be a violation of the conditions for permanent use.

“That is, for example, a land plot was allocated for the construction of religious buildings, and a restaurant was built there, or it is used for another purpose,” the lawyer explained. Valery Dutka also noted that the city council does not have the authority to independently terminate the right to use the land, because there is a clear procedure in this regard. During this procedure, the inspector establishes the fact of a violation of the use of the land plot, then an order is given to eliminate this violation within 30 days, and only after that the city council goes to court with a claim to terminate the right to permanent use of the land plot.

“If a land plot was provided and it is used for its intended purpose, there is no violation, then there are no grounds for terminating the right of permanent use,” he said.

In addition, the lawyer noted that the ownership of religious buildings belongs to religious organizations, and even in the event of a decision to terminate the right of permanent use, there is such a thing as an easement, which provides the right to pass this land plot to service their buildings and structures.

“Religious organizations can establish a free servitude for the use and maintenance of their buildings, which are located on a land plot owned by communal property, in a judicial proceeding. Because if they are deprived of the right to permanent use, they will not be able legally, for example, to enter their buildings and serve them. They will need to establish an easement,” V. Dutka explained.