Dead landowner – what to do about it?

It is not uncommon to find an owner or co-owner who is already dead on the title deed. This is either because of his or her date of birth, or you simply know about it because you knew him or her.

Owner without address

The dead owner of the land may not have a residence address on the title deed – in such a case, it is usually the so-called undetermined owner, who is represented by the Slovak Land Fund (SPF) under Act No. 180/1995 Coll.

Such property can only be bought or leased from the SPF if the conditions set out in the law are met, and even then there is no certainty that the SPF will comply.

Owner with address

If the deceased owner’s residence address is listed, it is likely that for some reason the inheritance proceedings did not take place after his or her death, or that a plot or plots of land were not negotiated in the inheritance proceedings. As the real estate registry was in disarray under socialism, notaries often did not have the necessary information to find out about all the testator’s land.

Nowadays, when landowners are re-investigated, land and shares that have been overlooked in the past in the inheritance procedure are often discovered.

How to proceed?

If you are interested in a property registered in the name of a deceased owner, you need to initiate additional inheritance proceedings. Subsequently, when the property is disinherited, you can approach the heirs and buy the land, for example.

A petition for supplementary succession proceedings shall be filed pursuant to Section 211 of the Code of Civil Procedure:

Ҥ 211

(1) If, after the order closing the succession proceedings has become final, further property of the testator or, where applicable, a debt is discovered, the court shall, on application, conduct additional succession proceedings in respect of that property. If only the testator’s debt is discovered, no supplementary succession proceedings shall be held.

(2) In justified cases, in particular at the initiative of a court, a notary public, a state authority or a local authority, the court may initiate proceedings on the property referred to in paragraph (1) without a petition.

(3) The court shall discontinue the supplementary succession proceedings if the property specified in the petition was not in the possession of the testator.”