On August 24, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed the Measures to reliably protect the inviolability of property rights, prevent unjustified interference in property relations, and increase the level of capitalization of private property decree, the Ministry of Justice said.

The Decree cancels from September 1, 2022, a number of procedures and requirements that provide for direct or indirect restriction of the right to own, use and dispose of private property, noting that they prevent the full implementation of the principles of a market economy in property relations.

In particular, restrictions on the use of the right to land plots, the exercise of property rights to housing, the use of land plots, buildings and structures, vehicles owned by individuals and legal entities, as well as corporate relations, shall be lifted.

The right of ownership can no longer be terminated by canceling the document on the basis of which it arose, that is, a mayor will no longer be able to cancel the decision which had allocated land and property. If a decision is received illegally, it can only be invalidated by a court.

Minister of Justice Ruslanbek Davletov said that over the past 2.5 years, the rights to more than 2,500 land plots (101,000 hectares) provided by decisions of mayors were canceled by them or higher authorities, including on the basis of prosecutorial protests, without a court ruling.

Voluntary abandonment of land shall be carried out on the basis of a notarized application of the owner. This no longer requires the decision of a mayor. According to the Minister of Justice, this innovation is especially relevant for farmers. Over the past 2.5 years, 20,543 land plots (2.6 million hectares) have been returned to the reserve by the decision of the mayor on the basis of a "statement of voluntary abandonment of the land."

When a legal entity is liquidated, its right to a non-agricultural land plot does not terminate and the land shall not be withdrawn to the state reserve. Now these lands shall be transferred to the founders of the liquidated legal entity.

Within the framework of the Habeas Corpus, a procedure has been introduced for consideration by the court of decisions of the investigator and interrogating officer on the seizure of property. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev noted that the value of the seized property is often higher than the identified damage. For example, over the past three years, investigators have seized property worth twice the amount of damage identified (1.5 trillion soums).

The Decree has defined the circumstances that are the basis for bringing to administrative and criminal liability for violation of the right to private property. In particular, now for the penetration into private property and its territory without the permission of the owner, measures up to criminal liability could be applied.

From now on, the owner or his representative have a reasonable right to independently protect their property from any encroachment in proportion to the violation of the right and as a necessary defense to prevent the violation of the right.

From January 1, 2023, "Integration Information System for Registration of Cadastre and Real Estate" (UZKAD) will unify information on real estate. At the same time, the authenticity and reliability of information in the system shall be guaranteed by the state.

If a house was purchased based on incorrect information in the UZKAD system, then after three years it will be impossible to reclaim this housing from a bona fide purchaser. Damage to the original owner shall be compensated by the state, which shall be later recovered from the perpetrator.

Demolition funds under the government and regional governor’s offices been transformed into republican and territorial trust funds to compensate for property damage caused to individuals and legal entities (compensation funds).

Compensation funds will compensate for the following losses caused to residents and business entities:

• losses caused to the owner as a result of unlawful actions of a government body, an official, in particular, an investigator, an interrogating officer, a prosecutor and a court, determined by a court decision;
• losses caused to individuals and legal entities that acted by trusting the state register of rights to real estate, as a result of entering illegal or inaccurate information into it;
• losses caused to the owner as a result of the impossibility of recovering from a bona fide purchaser of a dwelling.

The number of government bodies (now over 20) that shall be exempt from state duty when filing property claims against citizens in courts will be reduced, and citizens shall be waived from paying fees on claims for the recovery of their property from illegal possession by other persons.

Minister of Justice Ruslanbek Davletov said that the Ministry of Justice was instructed to amend the Protection of Private Property and Guarantees of the Rights of Owners Law including the provisions of the above decree.

“We worked on this decree for a long time, it took 3 months to develop it, and 5 months to agree with the ministries. Because it is a very serious innovation. We believe that this Decree will largely contribute to the full implementation of the right to property as a high value in the system of state bodies and will strengthen confidence in the state guarantee of property rights,” he stressed.

According to him, economic and social development is impossible without reliable protection of property rights, since private property is the main driving force of the economy.