LARGE-SCALE ZONING APPLICATIONS, EXPROPRIATION, AND PROPERTY RIGHT VIOLATIONS
The Administration’s Power of Expropriation and the Conflict of Property Rights The right to property is one of the most fundamental rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Constitution. However, large-scale zoning plan amendments, urban transformation projects, or urgent expropriation procedures carried out by the administration on the grounds of public interest constitute the most severe interventions against an individual’s right to property. In these processes, backed by powerful administrative and economic dynamics, the blurring of the boundaries of the concept of “public interest” and the establishment of operations based on disproportionate rent make administrative judicial review mandatory.
Urgent Expropriation and Difficulties of Judicial Review The institution of “urgent expropriation,” applied particularly in cases such as infrastructure projects, energy investments, or the declaration of disaster-risk areas, can turn into a routine administrative procedure in practice, even though it should be an exceptional path. The administration’s seizure of real estate without the property owner’s consent or the determination of a fair price undermines the essence of the right to property. In such disputes, the legal defense must be built upon refuting—through technical reports (city planning, engineering)—whether the “public interest” decision underlying the act serves a concrete, realistic, and compelling purpose.
Strategic Approach in Annulment and Price Determination Lawsuits In the legal processes conducted against the administration’s dispositions over real estate, the primary objective is either to ensure the annulment of the act on its merits or to fairly establish the real and current equivalent of the property right. Within the scope of the process:
- Questioning the compliance of zoning plans (1/1000, 1/5000, etc.) with urban planning principles, planning fundamentals, and public interest through annulment actions in Administrative Courts,
- Having the true market value of the real estate redetermined through independent real estate valuation expertise in expropriation or de facto expropriation lawsuits,
- Securing the contractual and in rem rights of property owners against the administration and contracting companies during urban transformation processes.
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