Establishing the boundaries of a land plot is an independent method of protection in the case of a dispute regarding the location of boundaries
Requirement for establishing the boundaries of a land plot is an independent method of protection aimed at eliminating uncertainty regarding the course of the boundary of the land plot, in the presence of objections from an interested party within the procedure for coordinating the location of boundaries.
Forestry Office (state-owned budgetary institution of a subject of the Russian Federation) refused to coordinate the location of the land plot's boundaries, since part of the proposed land plot belongs to forest fund lands.
Considering the refusal of the forestry office unlawful, the company approached the court with a claim to establish the boundaries of the land plot in accordance with the coordinates of the turning points specified in the cadastral plan prepared by order of the company. In support of its claim, the company stated that the disputed plot, registered in the cadastral register as a previously recorded object of real estate, does not form part of the forest land area, but belongs to the category "[land"
agricultural purpose](/enc/21049/ "Definition of the Concept 'Agricultural Lands' in the Legal Encyclopedia")".
The court of first instance satisfied the society's claims on the grounds that the parties do not dispute the actual location of the land plot's boundaries, but rather have a dispute regarding rights resolved in an earlier considered case, in which the society's claims for recognition of the absence of the Russian Federation's ownership right to the land plot, granted to its predecessor in rights on the basis of perpetual (indefinite) use, were satisfied.
Court of the appellate instance changed the decision of the court of the first instance and established the boundaries of the land plot according to the coordinates of turning points determined by the results of a judicial expert examination.
The Cassation Court, taking into account a decision that has entered into legal force regarding the recognition of the absence of ownership rights of the Russian Federation, annulled the judicial act of the appellate court, leaving in force the decision of the first instance court.
The judicial panel of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation annulled the court ruling of the cassation instance and upheld the court ruling of the appellate instance for the following reasons.
In accordance with paragraph 3 of Article 6 of the Land Code of the Russian Federation land plot as object of property rights and other rights to land is immovable property, which represents a part of the earth's surface and has characteristics allowing it to be identified as an individually determined object.
The description of the location of the boundaries of a land plot, as provided by paragraph 1 and paragraph 3 of paragraph 4 of article 8 of the Law on Real Estate Registration, belongs to the category of basic information about a real estate object, that is, characteristics that allow determining such [object](/enc/31736/ "Definition of the term 'Object' in the legal encyclopedia) as an individually defined item.
Software according to the meaning of part 3 of article 22 of the Law on Real Estate Registration, articles 39, part 5 of article 40 of the Law on Cadastral Activities [requirement](/enc/31827/ "Definition of the term 'Requirement' in the legal encyclopedia) for establishing (determining) the boundaries of a land plot is an independent method of protection aimed at eliminating uncertainty regarding the passage of the boundary of a land plot in the presence of objections from an interested party, raised, in particular, within the framework of the procedure for coordinating boundaries.
The result of considering the aforementioned requirement must be a judicial act, by which an adjacent boundary between land plots will be established based on the coordinates of turning points (or another method provided by legislation). The established boundary is entered into the EGRN.
According to the case materials land plot of the company was registered in the cadastral register without surveying and without determining its boundaries or specifying the turning points of each part. In a previously considered case, when resolving the dispute over the right to the plot, the question of its boundaries was not resolved.
Since the forestry department, as an adjacent land user, did not agree on the boundaries of the aforementioned land plot, citing that according to ГЛР data this plot is part of a forest plot in federal state ownership, consisting of lands, occupied by tree plantations and forest stands (birch trees, coniferous trees aged 50 years and older), and falling within the boundaries of the forestry department, court ordered a judicial expertise to establish the coordinates of boundary turning points.
of the land plot and for determining the issue of the intersection of its boundaries with the boundaries of plots belonging to adjacent users.
Taking into account the circumstances presented and the absence of evidence regarding the conversion of a forest land plot from the forest fund category to another category of land, the presence in the state real estate cadastre of a record assigning the entire disputed area to categories of land of agricultural purpose does not indicate that its part covered by perennial forest plantations does not belong to categories of land of the forest fund.
Source: Thematic Review of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation № 11/2026. On the consideration by courts of cases related to land rights for certain categories of land removed from circulation and restricted in circulation, and the use of such plots