Land Code (No.185 of 2001).

Land Code defines the basic directions of State regulatory system improvement concerning land relations, development of various organizational and legal forms of land economy, fertility of land, improvement of land use efficiency, protection and improvement of the environment – favourable for human life and health, and the legal framework concerning the protection of the land rights. Ownership, use and disposition of land must not damage the environment, security and defensibility of the State; must not violate rights and legally defined interests of citizens and other entities. The Law consists of 24 Sections that contain 119 articles. Section 1 (arts. 1-5) lays down general provisions. Section 2 (arts. 6-8) classifies land by categories. Section 3 (art. 9) deals with agricultural land. Section 4 (arts. 10-12) deals with residential land. Section 5 (art. 13) deals with subsoil. Section 6 (arts. 14-18) deals with lands of energy, communication, transport and public infrastructure facilities. Section 7 (arts. 19-23) deals with land of protected areas. Section 8 (art. 24) deals with special purpose land. Section 9 (arts. 25-27) deals with forested, water and reserved land. Section 10 (arts. 28-35) deals with management of land resources. Section 11 (arts. 36-38) deals with protection of land. Section 12 (arts. 39-43) establishes control over the implementation of the land code, deals with land use and protection. Section 13 (arts. 44-54) establishes the rights of citizens and legal entities to land. Section 14 (arts. 55-60) regards land property of citizens and legal entities. Section 15 (arts. 61-74) deals with alienation of state and community land. Section 16 (arts. 75-83) concerns allocation of land areas in tenancy from the stock of public and community land. Section 17 (arts. 84-90) concerns land turnover. Section 18 (arts. 91-97) concerns the particulars of turnover of agricultural land. Section 19 (arts. 98-99) establishes the modalities of reimbursement of agricultural and forest economy losses in the process of expropriation of land. Section 20 (arts. 100-108) deals with termination and restriction of land rights. Section 21 (arts. 109-112) establishes rights and liability of landowners and tenants. Section 22 (arts. 113-114) regards dispute settlement. Section 23 (arts. 115-116) establishes liability for the violation of land legislation. Section 24 (arts. 117-119) lays down conclusive and transitional provisions. Article 2 establishes that state management of land resources of the Republic of Armenia is carried out by the Government of the Republic of Armenia (hereinafter referred to as the Government) directly or through authorized management bodies. Article 7 establishes that the list of farms processing agricultural commodities is determined by the authorized body of the government. Article 35 related to land valuation establishes as follows: (a) land valuation is the determination of its cadastral value in accordance with soil fertility, other physical and qualitative characteristics, natural and economic conditions, land parcel rounding, zoning, purpose; (b) when evaluating the land, the data of land monitoring, state unified real estate cadastre, other researches and observations on the condition of the land are used; (c) land valuation is carried out with cadastral and (or) market values in order to perform various functions in relation to land; (d) the data of cadastral values of land plots are used when determining real estate tax and rents and performing other functions in relation to land; and (e) land valuation is carried out on the basis of laws and normative legal acts. Article 66 establishes that in the sense of this Code, the cadastral value of a plot of land (except for agricultural land) is considered to be the cadastral value approximated to the market value of the plot of land for the purpose of real estate taxation, calculated by the Law of the Republic of Armenia "On establishing the cadastral valuation procedure approximated to the market value of real estate for the purpose of real estate tax taxation". The cadastral values of agricultural land are approved by the government.