Additional agreements to land lease agreement concluded after 1 January 2013 do not require state registration - SC GC

As a general rule, the terms of a land lease agreement concluded after 1 January 2013 (after the legislative regulation on the cancellation of the need to register the lease agreement itself) are changed for the parties to the agreement from the moment of signing an additional agreement, and not its state registration.

This conclusion was reached by the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court.

In the circumstances of the case, the Department of the City Council and the individual entrepreneur entered into a land lease agreement, and the lease right was registered for the defendant until 24 October 2018. Subsequently, the parties signed an additional agreement, which, inter alia, extended the term of the agreement, set the annual rent at 3% of the normative monetary value of the land, and agreed to pay for the actual use of the land in the period from 25 October 2018 until the state registration of the land lease, and provided that the new version of the lease agreement would come into force from the date of its signing by the parties.

At the same time, from January to December 2020, the defendant paid monthly rent in the amount set out in the pre-amendment agreement.

The courts of previous instances satisfied the claim.

The defendant argued that the obligation to pay the rent did not arise because the supplemental agreement and the lease right itself had not been registered with the state.

Based on the review of court decisions, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court found that, as a general rule, the terms of a land lease agreement entered into as of 1 January 2013 are amended by mutual agreement of the parties in writing, and their rights and obligations in binding legal relations change from the moment they reach such an agreement and sign the relevant document (usually an additional agreement).

At the same time, it is the real right to lease a land plot (relevant information about it) that is subject to state registration on the basis of the above transaction, and not the terms of the land lease agreement, in particular the amount of rent. The state registration of a real right to land lease on the basis of a land lease agreement concluded since 1 January 2013 does not determine the moment of occurrence and change of rights and obligations of the parties to the agreement in binding legal relations.

The courts did not establish, and the parties to the case, in particular the defendant, did not argue, that there were circumstances that would give rise to the conclusion that the additional agreement or contract established a different moment from which the obligations under it would change than the moment when the parties reached the relevant agreement.

Thus, the obligations under the agreement, in particular, to set the rental rate at 3% of the normative monetary value of the land plot, changed for the parties from the moment they reached such an agreement and signed the supplemental agreement.

The Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court also distinguished between cases in which it is possible to deviate from the conclusion on the application of a rule of law and cases in which a certain conclusion can be qualified as made per incuriam (from Latin: "by mistake").

Thus, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court concluded that the conclusions of the Administrative Cassation Court of the Supreme Court regarding the need for state registration of an additional agreement to a land lease agreement made per incuriam (as a result of application of the provisions of the Law of Ukraine "On Land Lease", which were repealed as of 1 January 2013) and in the presence of the conclusion of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court on application of the law in similar legal relations, are not subject to consideration in subsequent cases and do not require derogation.

Resolution of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court of 15 October 2025 in case No. 907/882/22 - https://reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/131130798.

This and other legal positions of the Supreme Court can be found in the Database of Legal Positions - https://lpd.court.gov.ua.