The Influence of Undetermined Legal Status of Real Properties on the Process of Determining Compensation for Properties Expropriated for Roads

The regulations contained in the Act on Special Rules for the Preparation and Implementation of Investments in Public Roads have significantly accelerated the process of real estate expropriation for roads. These improvements, however, do not apply to compensations, which are determined in separate proceedings much later, facing surveying and legal problems. Under this Act, public entities gain ownership rights to real properties or their parts, also with regard to real properties with undetermined legal status, i.e. when it is not clear who is deprived of this right. This study aims to analyse the influence of undetermined legal status of expropriated real properties on the process of determining compensation. The research thesis of this article is the statement that undetermined legal status makes it necessary to suspend compensation proceedings in order to determine the extent and entities of the expropriated rights. Basing on the performed studies regarding the compensation proceedings conducted in Krakow in the period of 2014-2016, an attempt was made to identify the problems existing in practice, especially those related to the undetermined legal status of real properties expropriated for roads. The author emphasises the need of introducing precise legal regulations concerning the procedure in such situations, which would allow to eliminate non-uniform practice as well as discordant judgments of administrative courts. The additional problem is the lack of regulations on the rules for determining compensation if a given real property is subject to numerous limited property rights.