BOUNDARIES OF LAND PARCELS IN THE POLISH CADASTRE

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1 BOUNDARIES OF LAND PARCELS IN THE POLISH CADASTRE Wojciech Wilkowski Department of Cadastre and Land Management Faculty of Geodesy and Cartography Warsaw University of Technology SUMMARY Cadastre is the basic, official, public register, which operates in all countries of the European Union. The information content, covering lands, buildings and premises is diversified, depending on the country. The basic spatial attributes in every of those cadastres are boundaries of cadastral parcels. In the cadastres of the EU countries, boundaries of cadastral parcels were delineated following various legal-and-technical procedures. The author presented legal-and-technical procedures, which were obligatory and which are obligatory in Poland in relation to delineation of boundaries of cadastral parcels. The author proved that boundaries of land parcels in the Polish cadastre, their legal conditions and forms of marking are not uniform. This resulted from historical conditions concerning the creation of cadastral parcels, basing on the ex-austrian and ex-prussian cadastres, as well as on rules concerning the creation of a uniform cadastre within the new borders of Poland, after the year The author pointed to the dynamic nature of changes of legal status of land parcels, which results from the current legal regulations; this has been expressed as the intentions to commonly determine cadastral boundaries, according to their legal status. 1. INTRODUCTION The following definition of the cadastre is included in the basic legal act, which is the Geodetic and Cartographic Law 21 : The real estate cadastre a uniform for the entire country, systematically updated set of information concerning lands, buildings and premises, their owners and other individuals or legal entities, possessing the lands, buildings and premises. In the above definition, in the set of information concerning lands, the cadastral parcel is considered as the basic object; it is defined in the following way. The cadastral parcel 22 a continuous area, located within the boundaries of one district, uniform with respect to legal issues, delineated from surrounding areas by means of boundary lines. Boundary lines, which are used to delineate the cadastral parcel in the space, are the spatial objects, defined as broken lines, consisting of the finite number of sections (sides), the ends of which are the boundary points. Boundary points are defined as breaking points of the boundary line of the cadastral parcel, which are the mathematically defined positions of boundary marks. The boundary mark is defined as the mark made of stable material, placed at the boundary point. The boundary mark may be a permanent land management element, located at the boundary point. Fig. 1 presents sets of cadastral parcels, separated from the space by means of boundary lines. Those parcels are separate properties (for example the parcel 27) or they are the elements of a property (for example parcels 222, 224, 226, 227, 228). 21 The Act: The Geodetic and Cartographic Law (Off. J, 2010, No. 193 item 1287 unified text) 22 Decree of the Ministry of Regional Development and Building Industry on the register of lands and buildings (Off.J. No. 38, 2001, item 454) 58

2 Legenda legend, granica nieruchomości property boundaries, działki ewidencyjne... cadastral parcels included in a property Fig. 1. Sets of cadastral parcels separated from the space by means of boundary lines. Those parcels are separate properties (for example parcel 217) or they are the elements of a property (for example parcels 222, 224, 226, 227, 228). In the reality, owners of the parcels (the properties) are often expecting that their boundaries are marked, in order to uniformly identify the property rights in the space. Such expectations accompany people since the moment when Homo Sapiens decided for the settled way of life. Then, the issue related to areas primarily occupied by particular tribes and then by individual members of those societies, was immediately experienced. The process of division of lands was started and Geodesy was born 23. John F. Brock from Australia the author of the paper titled Who Were the First Surveyors?, classified by the FIG as the best paper of March 2005, quotes the fragment of the instruction issued by the Egyptian Department of Surveys 1400 years before Christ, i.e years ago: Do not remove boundary stones from fields and do not change the position of measuring tapes Amenhotpe, the son of Kanakht, Teaching, Section VI (about 1400 B.C.) * * * When a suppliant arrives and states: our boundary marks have been removed, he/she must be allowed to have a look at information recorded and sealed by the responsible official, and, as the consequence, to recover what was taken away by the assembly, which removed the boundary marks (18 th Dynasty, about B.C.) Another discovery, pointing to the high importance of boundary marks in the Pharaohs state, was the Palermo stone. This boundary mark was made of the black basalt and its age is specified as 2350 B.C. (Fig.2). 23 Geodesy the work with the Greek origin: Ge- the Earth; daiomai-divide; Geodaisia Geodesy 59

3 Fig. 2. The Palermo Stone is stored at the Archaeological Museum in Palermo, Sicily. The list of Egyptian sovereigns, since the pre-dynasty period to the 5 th Dynasty is engraved on the stone, using hieroglyphs. Similar rules of marking boundary lines using boundary marks made of stone were obligatory in the ancient Chaladia; in the then existing Chaladian cadastre, which was the basis for the property right and the fiscal system. Boundary lines were marked by boundary marks, which were made of stone (Fig. 3). Fig. 3 The Assyrian boundary stone (~2300 B.C.) on which property rights are the parcel size are engraved using cuneifom writing, together with incantations, which were to protect the property, boundaries and the owner. 60

4 2. CADASTRE AND BOUNDARIES OF LAND PARCELS ON POLISH LANDS BEFORE THE REBIRTH OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND The cadastre has been established by two countries, on the part of the Polish lands: Austria (the southeastern part of Poland, the so-called, Galicia, was annexed by Austria as the result of partitioning of Poland) and Prussia, which annexed the northern and western parts of Poland. The area of Poland, in the borders after the year 1945, covered by the Austrian and Prussian cadastres, are presented in Fig.4. Fig. 4. Coverage of the area of Poland with cadastral documentation of ex-prussian and Austrian cadastres. Granica państwa- state frontiers, granica województwa voivodship boundaries, zasięg katastru pruskiego extension of the Prussian annexation (approx. 40% of Poland), zasięg katastru austriackiego extension of the Austrian cadastre (approx. 14% of Poland) Those cadastres considerably differed one from the other. The precursor of Austrian cadastre was the record of lands used by villeins, created in 1654, the so-called, first fiscal record (catastrum rollare) 24. The example of a fragment of the cadastral map of the ex-galicia, of the 2 nd half of the 19 th century, at the scale of 1:2880, is presented in Fig Fedorowski W.Ewidencja gruntów, The register of lands; PPWK

5 Fig. 5 A fragment of the cadastral map, the Austrian cadastre, scale of the map 1: 2880 Boundaries of parcels, or the ground plots, i.e. the areas of the same land use forms by specified owners, were delineated by means of boundary points, which were not fixed by means of permanent boundary marks. The mathematical positions of boundary points was determined by means of x,y coordinates, calculated by means of the modern table survey method, with the use of a side rule with a telescope and a stadia range finder. The precursors of the Prussian cadastre, which was created on the Polish lands, were cadastres created in particular German States (Lands); the Napoleon s cadastre, created in the first years of the 19 th century (1807) also had the strong influence on the rules of creation and operation of the cadastre. The example of the cadastral map is presented in Fig

6 Fig. 6. A fragment of the cadastral map with traverse points and boundary marks, the map scale 1:5000. The characteristic features of the Prussian cadastre were marking of boundaries of parcels (ground plots) by means of permanent boundary marks and surveys of those boundaries performed by means of relations of survey lines based on the control network. Within the area of the territories annexed by Russia the cadastre was not established. The first geodetic operations aiming at separation of the peasant property, given by the ukase (in 1864) from adjoining properties were commenced in 1891, by creation of then existing maps at the scales of 1 : 4200 and 1 : Those boundaries were fixed by means of boundary mounds with timber piles; in some cases the boundaries were fixed by timber piles or stone marks only. A fragment of the map is presented in Fig.7. Boundaries between parcels of peasants were not marked by fixed boundary marks. Fig. 7. A fragment of the map at the scale of 1 : created in 1901 in the areas annexed by Russia. 63

7 3. CADASTRE AND BOUNDARIES OF LAND PARCELS IN THE REBORN REPUBLIC OF POLAND In the period works aiming at creation of a uniform cadastre for the entire area of the republic of Poland were continued. Changes of the Polish frontiers after the World War 2 (see Fig.4), the loss of timeliness of the Prussian and Austrian cadastres and missing cadastre for the remaining 46% of the territory caused the urgent demands for establishing the uniform cadastre for the entire country. Works concerning the uniform cadastre were commenced in 1956 but the related technical-andlegal regulations did not follow in some cases the current expectations concerning the property cadastre. Then, the main attention of works was paid to technical issues with much less attention paid to legal requirements. Determination of legal conditions of properties and cadastral parcels (with respect to subjects owners, and objects boundaries of spatial expansions of particular legal conditions) were performed on a limited scale. Boundaries of cadastral parcels were determined in various ways. In the process of delimitation of lands, according to regulations of the decree of September 13, 1946 on delimitation of properties, the following boundaries were established: Boundaries of particular parcels, regardless the possessor, being, at the same time, boundaries of register districts, Boundaries of state agricultural properties (state farms, PGR) and boundaries of the State Foprest Property the State Forests, as well as boundaries of other properties of the State Treasury, with the exception of the then existing State Land Funds. Simplified delimitation was allowed for properties of the State Treasury, basing on regulations of the decree of September 21, 1950 on delimitation of properties of the State Treasury or properties purchased for the needs of implementation of national economic plans. What refers to boundaries of parcels, which did not meet the above criteria, their boundaries were determined depending on location of those parcels (in rural or urban areas). Boundaries of parcels located in rural areas were determined basing on rules specified in the Decree of the Council of Ministers of June 4, 1956 on classification of lands. According to these regulations, the boundaries of parcels were determined at the presence of representatives of owners, or possessors of lands - three individuals elected at the meeting of owners or possessors, which was chaired by the representative of the local authority, without the obligation of presence on the land. Boundaries of parcels located in cities and settlements were determined with the participation of parties called to be present on the land, by the special notification, together with representatives nominated by the appropriate body if the local authority. Documentation related to determination of boundaries was the official record of the field determination of property rights. Determination of property rights was performed on the basis of documents presented by the parties and documentation possessed by appropriate official bodies. In the case when the mentioned documents were missing, the statement of a party, confirmed by representatives of a village, a settlement or a city, who participated in preparation of the official record on property rights and who were familiar with local conditions, was the basis for determination of the property rights. The described legal status of parcels in the cadastre established in Poland is not uniform; it is schematically presented in Fig.8 64

8 Opis: Legenda legend; granice stanu prawnego legal status boundaries, granice stanu władania boundaries of property rights, granica obrębu boundaries of a register district, granica PGR boundaries of a State Farm, granica nadleśnictwa boundaries of a Forest District, granica działki boundaries of a cadastral parccel Fig.8. Boundaries of cadastral parcels, created on the basis of various decrees (1946, 1950), having various legal status. The legal status of parcels in the Polish cadastre has been dynamically developed. The number of boundaries with settled legal regulations is increasing as the result of activities undertaken by the owners or the local administration bodies. In both cases the interested parties apply for: 1) Delimitation of properties, 2) Division of a parcel, 3) Land consolidation and exchange, 4) Land consolidation and division of properties, 5) Determination of a coast line in the case of cadastral parcels, which boundary line is the boundary with natural water streams. The lack of the obligation to mark the positions of boundary points with permanent marks made of stone or concrete is the disadvantage in the process of determination of boundaries of the legal status of cadastral parcels. The current regulations have assigned the decision in this field to owners of parcels, under the condition that the costs of introduction of permanent boundary marks instead of boundary points will be covered by the applicants. 65

9 4. FINAL REMARKS 1. Boundaries of cadastral parcels are the key element of each system, which concerns the material rights. Those boundaries specify the physical extension of those rights in the field. Due to that reason, the high importance was assigned to boundaries, their location and markings, by ancient civilisations, strengthening the then existing systems of law by metaphysical factors, i.e. the religion. 2. In the Polish cadastre boundaries of parcels, their legal status and forms of marking are not uniform. This results from historical conditions, related to creation of the Polish cadastre on the basis of two cadastres, established in Poland, i.e. the Austrian and the Prussian cadastres. Those cadastres were different, mainly with respect to conditions of their creation. The roots of the Prussian cadastre origin from the cadastre which was determined by Napoleon (the, so-called, Napoleonic cadastre). Non-uniformity of boundaries in the Polish cadastre results from their diversification with respect to the legal status. In the Polish cadastre some boundaries have the status of boundaries of legal status, but other boundaries do not have such status. 3. The current needs related to property management, the increased sales of properties, require that the legal status is assigned to boundaries of cadastral parcels, which are created as the result of: a) Division of properties, b) Land consolidation and exchange of lands in rural and forested areas, c) Land consolidation and division of properties in urban areas, d) Delimitation of properties. 4. The dynamic nature of changes of legal status of cadastral parcels results from initiatives of individuals, legal entities and bodies of the governmental and local administration. The announced novelty of the Geodetic and Cartographic Law may promote the process of ordering the legal status of boundaries of cadastral parcels, similarly to activities which are performed in Austria, where the existing land cadastre is gradually transformed into the, so-called, boundary cadastre, which is only based on legal status of boundaries of parcels, with the obligation to mark boundary points with permanent (stone) boundary marks. 5. REFERENCES 1. Brock J.F.; Who Were the First Surveyors? Four Surveyors of the Gods: In the XVIII Dynasty of Egypt-New Kingdom c B.C. 2. This paper has been prepared to the Workshop on History of Surveying to the held during the FIG Working Week/GSDI-8 Conference in Cairo, Egypt, April 16, 2005r. 3. Fedorowski W.; Ewidencja gruntów; Register of lands; PPWK, Warszawa Rozporządzenie Ministra Rozwoju Regionalnego i Budownictwa w sprawie ewidencji gruntów i budynków; The decree of the Ministry of Regional Development and Building Industry; (Dz. U. Nr 38 z 2001 r. poz.454). 5. Ustawa Prawo geodezyjne i kartograficzne ; The Law of Geodesy and Cartography; (DZ. U. z 2010 r. Nr 193, poz tekst jednolity). 66