According to a new decision of the Constitutional Court of Hungary, the right of the real estate owners to ask for compensation cannot be excluded in case a water line easement is established in favor of the state or local municipalities on the private property.
The Hungarian Water Utility Services Act provided a statutory framework in order to regularize situations where the water utilities de facto already existed, but the state or the local municipalities had not been registered as beneficiaries of the easement right in the land registry. However, in connection with the above, the Water Utility Services Act also stated that the establishment of the water line easement cannot serve as a legal ground for compensation. The Constitutional Court of Hungary declared that this provision is contrary to the Fundamental Law of Hungary since the right to seek proportional compensation cannot be excluded by law. The Constitutional Court of Hungary also underlined that the above does not affect the right of the state or local municipalities to prove that the real property owners received compensation in the past.
A similar decision had already been passed with regard to mining easement in 2015.
By Eszter Kamocsay-Berta, Partner, KCG Partners Law Firm
