Without land requisition procedures, is it legal to lease land to build roads?
Author: Beijing Yingtai (Shanghai) Law Firm.
Case playback] On February 25, 2014, the relevant departments of a county in Hebei Province decided to implement the construction of the H project in the form of an announcement of the "Work Report". The nature of the land it occupies is cultivated land contracted by the villagers in accordance with the law. Since June 2014, the county authorities have instructed their subordinate departments and town authorities to occupy Shen's contracted land for road construction projects by signing a Land Lease Agreement with Shen without obtaining any legal land acquisition approval documents. Because the county authorities did not have legal land acquisition procedures, renting land to build roads was an illegal act, Shen did not agree to use the contracted farmland for road construction in the form of lease, and most of the villagers did not sign the "Lease Land Agreement". After the construction of the section of the road was not completed.
In order to achieve the purpose of illegally occupying land and building roads, in March 2016, despite Shen's opposition, the county authorities organized hundreds of people to use a number of large construction machinery to violently drive away Shen and others who protected cultivated land in accordance with the law, and forcibly occupied them, including Shen 1About 60 acres of cultivated land, including 6 acres of contracted land, were used for road repair projects, and the cash crops such as honeysuckle that Shen had cultivated and planted on the contracted land for many years were eradicated, causing economic losses to him, and his violent actions also caused injuries to some villagers. Shen believes that the county organs, as the county-level people, should administer according to law, and they know that the road repair project should be planned in accordance with the law, land acquisition, and compensation under the premise that they can occupy land and repair roads. However, he forcibly occupied agricultural land by means of administrative coercion and other means without obtaining legal approval documents, which seriously violated the "Land Management Law" and other relevant laws and regulations. Therefore, the lawsuit was brought to the court, requesting confirmation that the county organ's occupation of Shen's contracted land was illegal.
Yingtai lawyer on the law].
Article 44 of the Land Management Law of the People's Republic of China: If the land occupied by construction involves the conversion of agricultural land into construction land, the approval procedures for the conversion of agricultural land shall be handled. If the permanent basic farmland is converted into construction land, it shall be approved by ***. Within the scope of the construction land of cities, villages and market towns determined in the overall land use plan, if the agricultural land other than the permanent basic farmland is converted into construction land for the purpose of implementing the plan, it shall be approved by the organ that originally approved the overall land use plan or its authorized authority in batches according to the annual land use plan in accordance with the provisions of the first department. Within the scope of the approved conversion of agricultural land, the land for specific construction projects can be approved by the people of the city and county. Outside the scope of the construction land of cities, villages and market towns determined in the overall land use plan, the agricultural land other than the permanent basic farmland shall be converted into construction land, which shall be approved by the people of the province, autonomous region and municipality directly under the Central Government.
In this case, although the county organ denied that it had carried out the act of occupying Fan's land, based on the evidence submitted, it could be confirmed that the county organ organized and carried out the construction of Project Y, which occupied part of Fan's contracted land, so it was a qualified defendant in this case. The evidence provided by the county organ cannot prove that the occupation of Fan's land by Project Y has fulfilled the relevant approval procedures stipulated in the above-mentioned law, so there is no legal basis for the county organ to occupy Fan's contracted land for road construction, and its behavior should be found to be illegal.
In summary, the county authority's argument that the construction of Project Y was not carried out cannot be sustained. The road construction did not have legal land use procedures, and it was illegal to occupy the land contracted by Shen. In the end, the judgment confirmed that the county organ's occupation of Shen's contracted land was unlawful.
Yingtai lawyer reminds].
This practice of the expropriator is "renting instead of expropriating", which refers to the act of converting agricultural land into construction land without going through legal land acquisition procedures. This behavior is against the law. If you encounter "renting land", you must stay sober and refuse sensibly when you should refuse. If it is forcibly occupied, everyone can defend their rights through legal means.