Anyone who buys a building site but does not build a house there despite being obligated to do so may have to reckon with a claim back from the municipality for a very long time. This became apparent in a hearing of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) on a case from Lower Bavaria.
There, the market town of Frontenhausen near Landshut wants back a property that was sold in 1994. At the time, the buyer had undertaken to build a ready-to-move-in house on it within eight years. But that never happened. In this case, the municipality had secured a repurchase right. In 2014 she informed the owner that she was now making use of it. That would mean that the community would get back the almost 950 square meter property – and the man the original purchase price of almost 60,000 Deutschmarks plus reimbursement of his expenses.
The question is whether this is still possible after such a long time. According to the law, a repurchase right for land can be exercised for 30 years, unless a shorter period is specified in the contract.
However, the Higher Regional Court of Munich considered this to be inappropriate in the specific case. Because the buyer did not benefit from a price reduction at the time, and there were no other circumstances that could justify such a long commitment.
The Federal Court of Justice takes a different view
The highest civil judges of the BGH have a different opinion after the first deliberations. The community is concerned with ensuring rapid development and avoiding vacant lots, said Chairwoman Bettina Brückner. In addition, it should be prevented that someone buys a piece of land only to resell it years later at a profit. Those are legitimate goals.
And for the buyer there was only this single edition. If he had built the house, he would have been free of all obligations and could have done whatever he wanted with the property, Brückner said.
The man’s lawyer, Barbara Genius, still sees a very heavy burden in the long term. After 20 years, the buyer assumed that the undeveloped property would be accepted as it was. Then the letter suddenly fluttered into his house. The man also has no plans to resell the property.
However, the BGH judges believe that the long period can also have advantages for the property buyer – for example, if construction comes to a standstill due to financial difficulties and the house is not finished on time. A period of eight or ten years would be much more awkward here, said Brückner. With three decades, the municipality is more flexible in its decision and can also take a while to see how things develop.
The Senate plans to discuss the case further. The verdict was announced for December 16th. (Ref. V ZR 144/21)
