Partial overlap of the land plot with forest fund lands requires an assessment of the feasibility of its division
When establishing the fact of partial overlap between the boundaries of the disputed land plot and the boundaries of forest fund land, the assessment of the possibility of its division or modification is carried out taking into account the requirements regarding the maximum and minimum sizes of formed and modified land plots.
Prosecutor filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Russian Federation against a citizen, seeking to remove land plots from state cadastral registration, reclaim them into the ownership of the Russian Federation from unlawful possession, and impose an obligation on him to vacate the disputed land plots by demolishing residential buildings located there.
By overturning the judicial acts of lower courts by which the claims were fully satisfied and referring the case for reconsideration, the Judicial Panel of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation noted, in particular, the following.
Based on the presented evidence, it has been established that only part of the area of the disputed land plots has an overlap on forest fund lands, and the real estate objects (residential houses) constructed by the respondent are located on the lands of populated areas, which was not taken into account by the courts when resolving the dispute in accordance with the provisions of Article 301 of the Russian Civil Code.
Taking into account the justification of the prosecutor's claims, the juridically significant and subject to clarification circumstances in relation to the content of the parties' disputed relations and the applicable material law norms include, among others, determining the boundaries of forest fund land, establishing the fact of inclusion of these lands into the disputed land plots, clarifying the question of which category of land the real estate objects constructed by the citizen are located on, as well as determining the possibility of forming [by exclusion from the boundaries of land plots of forest fund land]
of a new land plot (or land plots) meeting the requirements of legislation.
Since the court has established that the disputed land plots are only partially located on forest fund lands, the assessment of the possibility of dividing or altering such land plots should have been conducted taking into account the provisions of Article 11.9 of the Russian Land Code (ZK RF), in particular the provisions of paragraphs 1 and 2 of this article regarding the maximum and minimum sizes of land plots.
In another case, dismissing the defendant's arguments regarding the possibility of preserving his right to land plots in part due to the absence of intersection between their boundaries and the boundaries of forest fund lands, court proceeded from the fact that in this case parts of the disputed land plots could not be formed as separate property objects by reason of non-compliance with the minimum permissible size of agricultural purpose land plots established by the law of the subject
of the Russian Federation in accordance with paragraph 1 of Article 4 of Federal Law No. 101-FZ dated July 24, 2002 "On Circulation of Agricultural Land"
Source: Thematic Review of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation No. 11/2026. On the consideration by courts of cases related to land use rights for certain categories of land removed from circulation and restricted in circulation, and the use of such plots