An ancient law concerning waterfront properties, which threatened to transfer their ownership to the Portuguese State unless it could be proven in court that the land had been in private hands for at least 150 years, has been postponed until July 1 2014, allowing more time for the complex legislation to be reviewed and hopefully simplified.
Law nº54/2005 of November 15, which was due to be implemented on January 1 2014, was causing panic among property owners as they struggled to collect the necessary documentation that proved their waterfront properties had been in private hands since before 1864, or they faced seeing the land fall into public domain.
However, the complex piece of legislation will now be reviewed and the deadline for owners to present documentation in court extended by six months. Properties affected are those located on land within 50 metres from the sea or clifftop edge and within 30 metres in the case of a riverbank.
The latest move, which was much-awaited by property owners, was passed in Parliament last Friday with all parliamentary groups, except the PCP, BE and PEV which abstained from the discussion, voting for an alteration of Law nº54/2005. Parliamentary groups have agreed to present a “consensual” revision of the law before July 1 2014.
Affected property owners have thus received a glimmer of hope as alterations to the law could mean a much simpler process of obtaining recognition of their property as private land.
However, MP Carlos Abreu Amorim, a member of the Commission for the Environment, Land Planning and Local Government and vice-president of the PSD parliamentary group, believes the approved revision of the law is, to an extent, “delaying the problem”, even if the objective is to find a legal solution that ensures “convergence” of public and private interests.
As reported by the Algarve Resident in the September 6 2013 edition, a group of property owners from Ericeira, north of Lisbon, have been contesting the controversial ruling since 2006. With the support of a lawyer and historians, the property owners have been attempting to collect the necessary paperwork to serve as evidence in court; however they have found the task impossible to accomplish as they have already spent more than €10,000 “in photocopies alone”.
Manuela Netto Rocha, who has a property in Ericeira dating back to 1890 and owned by her family since 1904, told the Algarve Resident that “this ridiculous piece of legislation” must be scrapped or at least simplified to avoid the court procedures.
Property owners across Portugal can only hope that the law will be significantly simplified to ensure the private ownership title can be secured once and for all.
|| About the law
Law nº54/2005 of November 15, concerning areas designated as ‘Domínio Público Hídrico’, dates back to 1864, when a royal decree was published regarding public domain areas considered indispensible for the State, namely the coastline and river banks. The aim of the legislation was to ensure the unobstructed use of, and access to, these areas by the State for strategic and national security reasons. The need to prove private ownership of property in these public domain areas dates back many years, but has since been clarified, first in 1971 with the Decree-Law nº468/71, and more recently with the Decree-Law 54/2005. As the law currently stands, if a property was designated as being on public domain land, its occupation by private individuals would be subject to a State-granted licence, the use of the land would be limited and rates for occupying state property would be charged.
