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Chapter VI Land Value
Article 52
In order to put the land to reasonable use and to promote a balanced development of the economy, the competent authorities shall universally classify the lands into different categories for specific uses with reference to national economic policies, the situation of local need, the nature of use which may be offered by the land and the provisions of regional planning and urban planning.
Article 53
The government at various levels may undertake zone expropriation of any one of the following areas by reporting to the Executive Yuan for approval:
1.All or part of any newly established city for the implementation of its development and construction.
2.Any old city for the implementation of its renewal in response to its need for public safety, public health, public transport or the promotion of its rational use.
3.Any urban land development of a new community.
4.Any rural community for the implementation of its renewal or development of a new community in order to improve its public infrastructure, its need for public health, or to match agricultural development planning.
In the areas selected for zone expropriation the competent authorities in charge of the implementation of zone expropriation may enter the areas for survey or cadastral survey after notifying their owners or users of lands. In case there is a need to clear or to remove obstructions on the lands, their owners or users of lands shall be notified in advance. Their owners or users of lands shall be properly compensated in case they sustain damages as a result of the said survey or cadastral survey. The amount of compensation shall be reached through negotiation between the two parties. If they cannot reach an agreement the Special Municipal Government or the County / City Government in localities shall report to its superior authority for instructions.
In the areas selected for zone expropriation, the competent authorities in charge of the implementation of zone expropriation may, in view of actual need, report to the government of higher level for approval to, separately or simultaneously, publicly announce and prohibit the people from undertaking the following things:
1.The transfer and subdivision of land, the creation of encumbrance on land.
2.The construction of new improvements on land, the increase of improvements on land, remodeling or reconstruction of old buildings on land, and the collection of soil and stone or the change in land topography.
The period of prohibition referred to in the preceding Paragraph shall not exceed one and a half years.
Article 54
The government at various levels shall compensate with land value, according to the provisions of Article 10 of this Act, for the lands subject to zone expropriation. The compensation may be paid in kind, if so applied for by the landowner, with the construction land after zone expropriation of which the land value is equivalent to compensation in cash. In principle, the total area of lands in lieu of compensation shall be 50 per cent of total zone expropriation area, unless approved by the superior authorities due to special conditions. But it shall not be less than 40 per cent.
The areas of lands in lieu of compensation, distributed back to the original owners, shall be worked out by the competent authorities in charge of zone expropriation, according to the values of their rights based on the ratio of their individual entitled compensation land values to the grand total of all compensations for the zone expropriation. Then the values of their rights shall be divided by the unit price of the lands in lieu of compensation to get the areas.
In case the areas of lands distributed back to the original owners, according to the provisions of the preceding Paragraph, are less than minimum unit areas required for construction, the landowners shall apply for consolidation within the prescribed time limit. The competent authorities in charge of zone expropriation shall distribute payment in cash according to the compensation land values to the original owners if they fail to apply for consolidation within 30 days from the expiration of the prescribed time limit.
Article 55
If the original owners of the lands subject to zone expropriation according to this Act are not willing to be paid compensation in cash, they shall apply, in written form, for “land in lieu of compensation in cash” (“land for compensation” in short from now on) during the period of public announcement.
The competent authorities in charge of zone expropriation shall request the competent registry to undertake the registration of land ownership and notify the landowners who apply for land for compensation.
Article 55-1
(The same application of original lease and other rights) The related provisions of urban land consolidation concerning the treatment of original lease and other rights over land shall, mutatis mutandis, apply to zone expropriation when the payment of compensation is settled by land for compensation.
Article 55-2
After planning and arrangement, the lands within the area for zone expropriation shall be treated as follows:
1.Lands in lieu of compensation shall be given to the original owners.
2.Lands allocated for public infrastructures such as roads, ditches, parks, green fields, children’s playgrounds, public squares, car parks, public athletic grounds, primary schools, etc. free of charge and registered under the ownership of Special Municipality, County / City, village /town.
3.Lands allocated for public infrastructures, not referred to in the preceding Subparagraph, may be allocated by the authorities, according to the need of financial plans, to government authorities who need lands, or sold to publicly run bodies for use, with or without considerations as outlined in the written zone expropriation plan.
4.Lands needed for public housing, for the settlement of aboriginals or for the projects specifically approved by the Executive Yuan shall be sold to the competent government authorities.
5.Other construction lands may be sold or leased through bidding, or be created with superficies.
Lands not allocated for public infrastructures, as referred to in Subparagraph 2 of the preceding Paragraph, shall be dealt with according to the provision of Subparagraph 5 of the preceding Paragraph, if their uses are allowed to be privately run.
The prices, for allocation or for transaction and for the base value of bidding according to Subparagraphs 3 to 5 of the preceding Paragraph, shall take the total development cost as the base, and be assessed according to the conditions of location, topography, transportation, width of road, the state of public facilities and expected development.
The term of leasing through bidding according to Subparagraph 5 of the preceding Paragraph shall not be more than 99 years.
Rules governing the selling or leasing through bidding, or the creation of superficies, according to Subparagraph 5 of the preceding Paragraph 1, shall be formulated by the competent government at various levels.
Article 56
The government at various levels may select the following areas for land consolidation, after the approval of the superior governments:
1.All or part of any newly established city for the implementation of its development and construction.
2.Any old city for the implementation of its renewal in response to its need of public safety, public health, public transport or the promotion of its rational use.
3.Any urban land development of a new community.
4.Any area designated by the competent authorities of the central government to undertake within a time limit.
When undertaking land consolidation according to the preceding Paragraph the competent authorities shall prepare a project of land consolidation, and report to the competent superior authorities for approval and publicly announce it for 30 days before its implementation.
If, within the period of announcement prescribed in the preceding Paragraph, objections to the project are raised by more than half of the interested landowners who own among themselves more than half of the land to be consolidated, the competent authorities shall conciliate and revise the plan showing how the land is to be consolidated in consideration of the objections, and re-submit to the competent superior authorities for approval. The instruction of the plan shall be publicly announced and implemented.
The regulations governing matters such as the selection of areas for urban land consolidation, public announcement of prohibited matters, making of projects, instructions, public announcement and notification, cadastral survey, survey, assessment of land values, calculation of liability, distribution design, compensation for demolition and removal, construction of works, arrangement of cadastre, delivery, fulfillment solution, and financial liquidation, etc shall be formulated by the competent authorities of the Central Government.
Article 57
In the suitable areas more than half of the landowners who own among themselves over half of the total area of the lands to be consolidated may request the Special Municipal Government or the County / City Government to preferentially carry out the urban land consolidation project.
Article 58
In order to promote land use and accelerate land consolidation, the competent authorities may encourage landowners to organize a group by themselves for the purpose of implementing urban land consolidation. The encouragement measures as follows may be taken:
1.Providing low interest loan to carry out consolidation.
2.Reducing or exempting the fees for cadastral management and re-issuance of certificates of land rights.
3.Constructing the public facilities in the consolidated area and on the related places preferentially.
4.Reducing or exempting land value tax and farmland tax.
5.Conducting some other things beneficial to urban land consolidation.
The regulations governing matters such as the organization of the consolidation committee, competence, consolidations business, encouragement measures, etc shall be formulated by the competent authorities of the Central Government.
The implementation of urban land consolidation by the urban land consolidation committee shall be approved by more than half of the landowners who own among themselves over half of the total area of the lands, and approved by the competent authorities.
Article 59
After having selected the suitable area for consolidation, the Special Municipal Government or the County / City Government may, in light of local needs, make an announcement to prohibit or restrict, separately or simultaneously, the people from doing the following things after approval by the superior authorities:
1.Land ownership transfer, subdivision, or creation of encumbrance on land.
2.Construction of new building, increase of constructional improvements, remodeling or reconstruction of old buildings, and the collection of soil and stone or the change in land topography.
The period of the prohibition or restriction as referred in the preceding Paragraph shall not exceed one and a half years.
For the matters publicly announced for prohibition or restriction as referred to in the preceding Paragraph, the opinions of the owners of lands or constructional improvements need not to be sought.
Article 60
In areas subject to urban land consolidation prescribed in this Act, the land needed for 10 types of public uses such as roads, ditches, children’s playgrounds, neighborhood parks, public squares, green fields, primary schools, junior high schools, car parks, retailing markets, shall be covered as much as possible by the original public land used for roads, ditches, rivers and unregistered land. The part of land needed for public use having not been covered with public land, the expenses for engineering work and land consolidation, and the interest of loan shall be jointly contributed by the owners in proportion to the benefits that will accrue to them and met out of unused land, located in the consolidated area, to be given by the landowners, or with cash if there is not any unused land to be given in. If there is a time limit set for the payment, it may be transferred to the local court for special performance if the landowners fail to pay within the time limit.
In case the lands subject to consolidation are reserved for public uses other than those prescribed in the preceding Paragraph, public land shall be preferentially distributed to their owners when all the lands in the consolidation area are under exchange and distribution.
The area of lands to be given in by owners for public uses and to meet the expenses for engineering work and land consolidation and the interest of loan as prescribed in the first Paragraph of this Article shall not exceed 45 per cent of the total area of lands subject to consolidation, unless it is approved by more than half of the private landowners who own among themselves more than half of the land to be consolidated.
Article 60-1
After subtracting lands earmarked as an imputation of joint contribution prescribed by the preceding Paragraph, the rest of the lands in the consolidation area shall be allocated to the original landowners, according to the ratio of the value of each individual land to the total value of land. But if part or all of a land allocated is less than the minimum area required for allocation, those not being able to receive such an allocation may be compensated with cash.
In case the actual allocated area, resulting from the allocation implemented according to the preceding provisions, is more than the area a landowner is entitled to, he shall pay the difference of land value. If the actual allocated area is less than the area a landowner is entitled to, he shall be given the difference of land value.
If the difference of land value prescribed in Paragraph 2 is not paid in after the time limit set, the case may be transferred to the court for special performance.
If the difference of land value is not paid, the land cannot be transferred unless the transfer is due to inheritance.
Article 60-2
The competent authorities shall publicly announce the result of allocation for 30 days and notify the landowners, after the consolidation is completed.
The landowners may raise objections thereto by submitting a written statement to the competent authorities within the announcement period. The result of allocation shall be certain at the expiration of the period of public announcement if no objection has been raised.
The objections referred to in the preceding Paragraph shall be conciliated by the competent authorities. If the conciliation fails to reach any agreement, the case shall be reported to the superior authorities for decision.
Article 61
In the slowly developing urban areas, land subject to consolidation may be distributed to owners in advance by means of exchange, subdivision and combination of land, ascertainment of land boundary, and registration of land. The engineering work for public facilities may start in line with the situation of urban development.
Before the construction of public facilities in the area consolidated according to the provisions of the preceding Paragraph, the land reserved for public uses shall be taken care of by the Special Municipal Government or the County / City Government. When the engineering work is to be done, its expenses may be borne by the beneficiaries through the collection of construction benefit charge. In the meantime, the landowners may complete the engineering work from their own funds.
Article 62
The lands redistributed to the original owners after consolidation are deemed to be their original lands from the day of redistribution of the said lands. However, the effect of the administrative or judicial ruling which is only enforceable on the nature of original lands, is not subject to the application of this Article.
Article 62-1
If the improvements or tombs, located in the consolidation area, have to be demolished or removed, the Special Municipal Government or the County / City Government shall publicly announce, and notify the landowners or the holders of tombs, to demolish or remove the improvements within 30 days, or to demolish or remove the tombs within three months. The Special Municipal Government or the County / City Government may demolish or remove on their behalf if the landowners or the holders of tombs do not demolish or remove them by the set time limit.
The demolition or removal of the improvements or tombs referred to in the preceding Paragraph shall be subject to compensation. The amount of compensation shall be investigated and assessed by the Special Municipal Government or the County / City Government. But no compensation shall be given to those who act against the matters of prohibition or restriction publicly announced according to the provisions of Article 59. The expenses for demolition or removal on behalf of them shall be subtracted from the compensation the landowners or the holders of tombs are entitled to.
Article 63
Where a piece of leased land cannot be used for the purpose for which the lease is made due to consolidation, the Special Municipal Government or the County / City Government shall directly terminate the lease contract and notify the parties concerned.
When terminating the lease contract according to the preceding Paragraph, the lessee may ask for or receive compensation according to the provisions as follows:
1.If there is land distributed to the lessor after consolidation, the lessee may ask from him the amount equivalent to one third of the current land value as publicly announced by the consolidation project.
2.If there is no land distributed to the lessor after consolidation, the lessor shall receive two thirds of the compensation, whilst the lessee shall receive one third of the compensation.
For any leased public agricultural land imputed for public facilities land due to consolidation, the Special Municipal Government or the County / City Government shall directly terminate the lease contract and compensate the lessee the amount equivalent to one, , ,, , ,,, third of the publicly announced current land value as publicly announced by the consolidation project. The expenses required shall be listed as jo, int consolidation li,, , ability.
Article 63-1
In case the leased land, other than prescribed in the preceding Article, cannot be used for the purpose for which the lease is made due to consolidation, the Special Municipal Government or the County / City Government shall directly terminate the lease contract and notify the parties concerned. The lessor or lessee may request the other party for a change of the lease and for due increase or decrease of rent due to the increase or decrease of use value of the land.
Article 64
Such rights over land other than ownership as superficies, agricultural,yungtien and servitude of real property are deemed nullified if they can no longer meet their original objectives due to consolidation. The holders of the said rights may request the landowner to give due compensation.
Such rights over constructional improvements on land as mortgage and dien are deemed nullified if they can no longer meet their original objectives due to consolidation. The holders of the said rights may request the landowner for creation of mortgage and dien on the land distributed to h, im after consolidation.
Article 64-1
In case there i, s no land allocated to the landowner after the implementation of consolidation, the competent authorities shall invite him and the parties concerned to conciliation and to settle the value of the mortgage and dien originally created, within the amount of compensation the landowner is entitled to.
Article 65
The rights to request prescribed in Articles 63-1 and 64 shall be exercised within two months from the next day of the certain distribution of land after consolidation
Article 66
The competent authorities shall request the original landowners and land users by a notification in writing to surrender the lands which will be subject to redistribution after consolidation within a time limit. If the landowners and users refuse to do so, the case shall be brought to the court for special performance. The lands will be deemed to be taken over by the competent authorities even if the authorities fail to take over.
Article 67
The competent authorities shall, in accordance with the result of land consolidation, rearrange numbers of the consolidated lands, directly register the change in land rights and reissue the certificates of land rights. If the landowners or the holders of other rights over land fail to exchange their old certificates for new ones within the set time limits, the old certificates shall be declared null and void.
Article 68
Cancelled.
Article 69
Cancelled.
Article 70
Cancelled.
Article 71
With respect to private land to be used for construction on which no construction has yet been undertaken, the Special Municipal Government or the County / City Government shall set a limit to the area that any private person may be permitted to own.
The maximum area limit for vacant land as referred to in the preceding Paragraph shall be ten acres. But the maximum area limit for lands to be used for industrial purposes, schools, large-scale construction approved by government shall be separately prescribed in the light of the actual requirements.
In computing the maximum area limit of vacant land, deductions shall be made of lands which, owing to legal restrictions, may not be used for construction.
Article 72
In case the land belonging to any landowner exceeds the maximum area limit as prescribed in the preceding Article, the Special Municipal Government or the County / City Government shall notify him that he shall sell the excess portion or use it for construction within two years. If not, the excess portion may be purchased at their declared values by the Special Municipal Government or the County / City Government for resale after readjustment, to persons who need land for the purpose of construction. However, this shall not apply to any area where the construction and development are comparatively slow.
Article 73
On lands purchased at their declared values and resold according to Articles 26, 72 and 76, and lands sold according to Subparagraph 5 of Paragraph 1 of Articles 55-2, the purchaser shall begin construction within one year from the date of purchase. In case no construction has begun within the set time limit, nor has a request for postponement of construction been made and approved, the said land may be taken at its original purchase price by the Special Municipal Government or the County / City Government.
The period for the postponement of construction as referred to in the preceding Paragraph shall not exceed six months.
Article 74
The landowner to be used for construction within the time limit according to the provision of Article 26 of this Act shall, for any one of the following conditions after having received the notification of using his land within the time limit, negotiate with the land lessee, the land borrower or the holder of superficies right for using the land for construction, increasing constructional improvements on land or making changes to the old building. If they cannot arrive at a decision, the lease contract and the lending may be terminated, or the superficies right may be terminated:
1.If the owner has leased or lent his land to someone or there was created the right of superficies on it.
2.If the owner has leased or lent his constructional improvements on land to someone for use.
3.If the lessee, borrower or holder of superficies has leased or lent his constructional improvements on land to someone for use.
Article 75
The owner who takes back his land according to the provisions of Subparagraph 1 of the preceding Article shall give compensation for constructional improvements in addition to the expenses incurred for the improvement of the said land to the lessee, borrower or holder of superficies right.
The compensation for constructional improvements referred to in the preceding Paragraph may be appraised by the Special Municipal Government or the County / City Government.
Article 76
With respect to leased farmlands designated for the purpose of construction, the lessor may terminate the lease contract and take the lands back for himself to use for the purpose of construction or to sell them out for the purpose of construction.
In case any land taken back by the lessor according to the provisions of the preceding Paragraph is not yet used for the purpose of construction according to the use plan one year after the termination of the lease contract, the Special Municipal Government or the County / City Government concerned may purchase the said land at its declared value.
Article 77
In terminating the lease contract and taking the land back according to the provisions of the preceding Article, the lessor shall compensate the lessee for the expenses he has incurred in making land improvements as well as for any crops not yet harvested. In addition, the lessor shall also compensate the lessee with the amount equivalent to one third of the difference between the publicly announced current land value at the time of the termination of lease contract and the anticipated land value increment tax.
In terminating the lease contract of public farmland, the lessee shall be compensated according to the provisions of Paragraph 1.
Article 78
In terminating the lease contract of farmland according to the provisions of Article 76 of this Act, the landowner shall submit a written application to the Special Municipal Government or the County / City Government for approval. The government shall approve the termination of lease contract if the lessor and lessee are proved to have agreed to terminate it, or shall invite them to conciliation if they have not yet arrived at a decision. If the lessee refuses to accept conciliation or raises objections to the amount of compensation, the government shall compute the amount of compensation to be paid to the lessee according to the standard prescribed in the preceding Article of the Act. The termination of the lease contract shall be approved after the compensation has been paid or deposited in the local court.
The Special Municipal Government or the County / City Government may bring this matter to the court for special performance in case the lessee refuses to return the farmland after the termination of lease contract, and such case shall not be subject to the procedures of the conciliation concerning the disputes arising out of the lease of farmland between the lessor and the lessee prescribed in the 37.5% Arable Rent Reduction Act.
Article 79
The Special Municipal Government or the County / City Government shall deduct from the payable compensation the unpaid land tax and the fine for delinquency due for land tax relating to the relinquished or purchased land, and shall pay the remainder of the compensation to the landowner.
Article 79-1
Private legal person who purchases a house for residential use shall submit use plans and receive permission from the central competent authority, unless the private legal person is exempted from the permission requirement by the announcement of the central competent authority.
The validity date of the documents in the preceding paragraph is one year.
Private legal person may not transfer, assign, or give public advance caution of registration for five years after the registration of the housing acquired in Paragraph 1, unless the transfer or assignment is due to enforcement, expropriation, court judgment, or other provisions of law.
The central competent authority shall recruit (assign) experts and scholars, representatives of civil groups and relevant agencies to review and determine the permit cases in the Paragraph 1 in a collegial manner.
Regulations on the scope of application, conditions of permission, usage, contents of use plans, documents to be prepared, examination procedures, exemptions from permission, and other obeyed rules of Paragraph 1 shall be made by the central competent authority.