Ownership relations and real estate in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Author: Azur Prnjavorac, attorney at law | Last updated:
Ownership relations are the relations that arise from the right of ownership and other rights in rem over real estate and movable property: who the owner is, how ownership is acquired and lost, what a co-owner may do, how an owner defends himself against someone who holds his property or disturbs him, and what an entry in the land register is worth. In Bosnia and Herzegovina these questions are governed by three separate property laws, one each for the Federation of BiH, Republika Srpska and the Brčko District, together with the regulations on land registers, the cadastre, expropriation and building. Law Office Prnjavorac in Tuzla has conducted ownership and property law cases before the courts and administrative authorities throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1993, a large part of them for owners and heirs who live abroad.
In brief: ownership of real estate in Bosnia and Herzegovina is as a rule acquired only by registration in the land register, not by signing the contract; the land register enjoys public reliance, so a buyer who acted in good faith on the registered state remains protected; the owner's action for recovery does not become time-barred, whereas an action for disturbance of possession must be filed within 30 days of learning of it and at the latest within one year; co-ownership is dissolved by agreement or in non-contentious court proceedings; compensation for expropriated real estate must match its market value.
- Legislation: Law on Rights in Rem of the Federation of BiH (Official Gazette of the FBiH 66/13, 100/13 and 32/19), Law on Rights in Rem of Republika Srpska (Official Gazette of RS 124/08 with later amendments, the latest in 2026), Law on Ownership and Other Rights in Rem of the Brčko District (consolidated text 8/24).
- Acquisition: registration on the basis of a legal transaction (Article 53 of the FBiH Law), provisional registration (Article 54), adverse possession after 10 years of lawful possession in good faith or 20 years of possession in good faith (Article 58), inheritance, and a decision of a court or administrative authority.
- Protection: the action for recovery of the property and the action to stop interference (Articles 126 to 132 of the FBiH Law) are not subject to limitation; possession is protected in urgent proceedings for disturbance of possession (Article 331 of the FBiH Law, Article 317 of the RS Law).
- Land register: a registered right is presumed correct and a deleted right non-existent (Article 9 of the FBiH Law on Land Registers); whoever acquires real estate in good faith from the registered owner is protected even where the entry did not match the true state (Articles 55 and 56 of the FBiH Law on Rights in Rem).
- Co-ownership: every co-owner may demand partition, the right to partition is not subject to limitation (Article 37 of the FBiH Law), and where there is no agreement the court decides in non-contentious proceedings (Article 38).
- Foreign nationals: acquire ownership of real estate subject to reciprocity, which is presumed (Article 15 of the FBiH Law); for acquisition by inheritance no reciprocity is required.
What ownership relations cover in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Ownership is the widest right in rem: it entitles the owner to possess, use and dispose of the property and to exclude everyone else from it within the limits of the law (Article 17 of the Law on Rights in Rem of the FBiH, Article 17 of the Law on Rights in Rem of RS). All other relations that an attorney for ownership matters deals with every day are built around that right: co-ownership, where two or more persons own the same property in undivided shares (Article 25 of the FBiH Law), joint ownership, such as marital property or an undivided estate, and condominium ownership of flats and business premises, which arises by registration in the land register on the basis of a declaration or a partition agreement (Article 82 of the FBiH Law).
Alongside ownership stand the limited rights in rem over another person's property: the lien and the mortgage, real and personal servitudes (Article 198 et seq. of the FBiH Law), real burdens and the building right (Article 298 of the FBiH Law). In practice the most frequent disputes lie exactly on the border between these rights: whether a road across the neighbouring plot exists as a servitude or is merely tolerated passage, whether a house built on someone else's land has fallen to the landowner or the builder, and who the true owner is of a property still registered in the name of an ancestor who died decades ago.
How ownership of real estate is acquired in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The most important rule, and the one clients most often do not know, is this: the contract by itself does not transfer ownership. Ownership of real estate on the basis of a legal transaction is acquired by registration in the land register, on the strength of a validly expressed will of the registered owner that his ownership pass to the acquirer, the so-called clausula intabulandi (Article 53 of the FBiH Law). A buyer who has paid the price and taken possession but has not registered is not yet the owner in relation to third parties. Where all the prerequisites for registration are not yet met, the acquisition can be secured by provisional registration, which takes effect on subsequent justification (Article 54).
The second mode of acquisition is adverse possession: an independent possessor whose possession is lawful and in good faith acquires ownership after ten years of uninterrupted possession, and one whose possession is merely in good faith after twenty years, with the possession of predecessors counted in (Article 58 of the FBiH Law; the same rules apply in Republika Srpska). Actions to establish ownership by adverse possession form a considerable part of our practice, because a great deal of real estate in BiH is still held and farmed without any registration, on the basis of oral sales and family arrangements many decades old. In 2025 the Supreme Court of the FBiH specifically clarified how the period of adverse possession is computed on urban construction land, which we quote in the case-law section below.
Ownership is also acquired by inheritance at the moment of the deceased's death, by a decision of a court or administrative authority, and by building, subject to an important limitation: a building erected on another person's land as a rule belongs to the landowner and the builder may claim compensation; if the builder acted in good faith and the landowner knew of the building and did not object at once, the building together with the land belongs to the builder against payment of the market value of the land (Article 59 of the FBiH Law). Foreign nationals acquire ownership of real estate subject to reciprocity, which is presumed (Article 15 of the FBiH Law), so our clients from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the United States and the Scandinavian countries buy real estate in BiH without special approval, except in areas excluded by law; the office maintains a list of countries with reciprocity.
Land register, cadastre and the principle of reliance
Ownership and other rights over real estate in the Federation of BiH come into existence only on registration in the land register (Article 5 of the FBiH Law on Land Registers), and a registered right is presumed correct while a deleted right is presumed not to exist (Article 9). The Law on Rights in Rem turns this into concrete protection: whoever acts in good faith in reliance on the land register and acquires real estate from the registered owner acquires it as if from the true owner, even where the registered owner was not the true owner (Articles 55 and 56 of the FBiH Law). This is why checking the land-register extract before every purchase is not a formality but the only reliable protection against double sale, a hidden mortgage and a note of litigation or enforcement.
A particular problem in BiH is the mismatch between the land register and the cadastre: the cadastre records possession and actual areas, the land register records rights, so the same plot is often recorded in the names of different persons, under different parcel numbers and with different areas. In such cases our office conducts proceedings for the establishment and replacement of the land-register folio (Article 63 of the FBiH Law on Land Registers), correction of entries, deletion of old encumbrances and harmonisation of data, and where the parties cannot agree, an action to establish ownership with an order for registration. For real estate in Republika Srpska the proceedings are conducted before the Republic Administration for Geodetic and Property Affairs, where the cadastre and the land register have been merged into a single real estate cadastre.
The owner's action and protection of the right of ownership
The owner may demand the return of the property from whoever holds it and the cessation of interference from whoever unlawfully disturbs him, and neither claim is subject to limitation (Article 126 of the FBiH Law). In the action for recovery the owner must prove two things: that the real estate is his and that it is in the defendant's possession (Article 127). The defendant may raise the objection that he has a right to possession, for example under a lease or a contract of lifetime support (Article 128). When the property is returned, the accounting for fruits and expenses depends on whether the possessor was in good or bad faith (Articles 129 and 130), and the Supreme Court of the FBiH draws the conclusion of bad faith also from evidence adduced by the claimant himself, as stated in the decision quoted below.
Where the interference does not go as far as taking the property but consists of passage, storing material, building on the boundary or connecting to another person's installations, the owner brings the action to stop interference and claims damages under the general rules (Article 132 of the FBiH Law). Beside the owner's action stands the action of the presumed owner, used by a person who has a stronger legal basis of possession than the defendant but no registration yet, which is common with buyers who never completed their registration.
Disturbance of possession: the 30-day time limit and urgent proceedings
Possession is protected regardless of who the owner is. A possessor whose possession has been arbitrarily disturbed may ask the court to establish the act of disturbance, order the restoration of the previous state and prohibit future disturbance, and the court decides in special, urgent proceedings according to the last state of possession, without examining the right to possession (Article 331 of the FBiH Law, Article 317 of the RS Law). The time limits are decisive: the action for disturbance of possession must be filed within 30 days of learning of the disturbance and of the perpetrator, and at the latest within one year of the day the disturbance occurred (Article 327(3) of the FBiH Law, Article 313(3) of the RS Law). Whoever misses these time limits loses possessory protection and is left only with the slower ownership action. We therefore advise clients to contact us immediately after a neighbour closes a road, digs up the boundary or changes the lock, not after months of exchanged messages and threats.
Co-ownership, partition and the right of pre-emption
A co-owner may demand full or partial partition of the co-ownership whenever it is possible and permitted, and that right is not subject to limitation; any contract by which a co-owner waives partition permanently in advance is void (Article 37 of the FBiH Law). If the co-owners reach no agreement, the court decides on the mode of partition in non-contentious proceedings on the application of any of them; where physical partition is impossible or would considerably reduce the value, the court orders civil partition, the sale of the property and division of the proceeds according to the shares, and if even the sale fails it may award the property to one co-owner against payment of the market value to the others (Article 38). A co-owner selling his share must first offer it to the other co-owners with exact land-register data and the price, and they have 30 days to accept. In our practice most partitions concern inherited houses and plots between siblings, some of whom live abroad, where besides representation in the proceedings we draft partition agreements that can be entered in the land register immediately. Special rules apply to the division of marital property, where the shares are established first and the joint ownership is dissolved afterwards.
Real estate transactions: form of the contract, encumbrances and tax
Sale, exchange, gift and contracts of lifetime support by which real estate is transferred require the prescribed form, and lack of form leads to nullity. In Republika Srpska, legal transactions transferring or acquiring ownership of real estate must be drawn up as a notarially processed deed, failing which they are void (Article 57 of the Law on the Notarial Service of RS); the same rule applies in the Brčko District. In the Federation of BiH mandatory notarial processing ceased to apply on 16 November 2019, following judgment U-22/16 of the Constitutional Court of the FBiH, so the contract for the sale of real property may today be drawn up by an attorney, with the signatures certified before a notary, which considerably reduces the client's costs and gives him a contract that protects his interests rather than merely satisfying the form.
Before signing we check the ownership sheet and the encumbrance sheet (mortgages, notes of litigation, enforcement, prohibitions of disposal), consistency with the cadastre, the building and occupancy permits, and the existence of co-owners with a right of pre-emption. We include in the contract the clausula intabulandi, payment of the price through a notarial or attorney escrow, the transfer of possession and risk, and the seller's liability for legal and material defects. After certification we file the real estate transfer tax return, the tax being prescribed by the cantons in the Federation of BiH, and then the application for registration, which we follow through to the final decision of the land-registry office. For clients abroad we conduct the whole procedure under a power of attorney certified at a consulate or before a foreign notary, without their travelling to BiH.
Expropriation and fair compensation
Real estate may be taken or restricted only in the public interest established by law or by a decision of the competent authority, against compensation that may not be lower than the market value (Law on Expropriation of the FBiH, Official Gazette of the FBiH 70/07, 36/10, 25/12 and 34/16; Law on Expropriation of RS, Official Gazette of RS 112/06 to 79/15). The procedure has two stages. The administrative authority decides on the expropriation itself, and at that stage the owner may contest the existence of the public interest and the scope of the expropriation and may demand that the remaining part of the property be expropriated too if the construction has made it unusable. If no agreement on compensation is reached, the amount is determined by the court in non-contentious proceedings, on the basis of reports by construction, geodetic and agricultural experts.
In practice the disputes concern above all the market value, compensation for plantations, buildings and lost profit, and so-called de facto expropriation, where a public facility has been built without any decision and the owner obtains compensation in civil proceedings. We represent owners whose real estate is expropriated for motorways, power lines, gas pipelines and municipal infrastructure, and we have published a review of court positions in this field on the page expropriation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Building, construction land and legalisation
Ownership relations over land are inseparable from the right to build on it. The building right is a limited right in rem that entitles its holder to have his own building on another person's land (Article 298 of the FBiH Law), whereas building without such a right leads to the rules on building on another person's land in Article 59. We represent clients in proceedings to establish ownership of urban construction land, where the consequences of the former regime of social ownership and the right of use are still being resolved, in disputes over extensions, additional storeys and investments in another person's or a co-owned building (Article 61 of the FBiH Law), and in administrative proceedings for planning consent, building permits and the legalisation of unlawfully built structures, including the administrative dispute before the cantonal court.
How we handle an ownership case
- Analysis of the state: we obtain the land-register extract, the possession sheet, a copy of the cadastral plan and the history of entries, and establish who the registered owner is, which encumbrances exist and where the land register and the cadastre diverge.
- Legal opinion: we explain to the client in writing which legal basis he has, which actions or applications are available, which time limits are running and what the realistic chances are, before anything is undertaken.
- Attempt at agreement: wherever possible we send the other side a proposal for an agreement on partition, acknowledgment of ownership or establishment of a servitude, because an agreement entered in the land register is worth as much as a judgment and arrives years earlier.
- Proceedings: we draft the action, the application in non-contentious proceedings or the request to the land-registry office, propose expert evidence and represent the client at all hearings, including the appeal and the revision before the Supreme Court.
- Implementation: after the decision becomes final we carry out the registration in the land register and the cadastre, so that the result is visible to every future buyer, bank and heir.
The duration depends on the court, the number of parties and the expert evidence; possessory actions are concluded fastest, non-contentious partitions take from a few months to two years, and complex ownership actions with appeal and revision several years. The attorney's fee is calculated under the Attorney Tariff of the FBiH and the value of the dispute, and we state it to the client in writing before taking on the case. Clients abroad can conduct the whole case under a power of attorney, without travelling; personal presence is required only exceptionally, for instance when the court orders the examination of the parties.
Legislation and sources we rely on
The full texts of the laws are published on our site in Bosnian; the article numbers on this page refer to those texts and were checked on 17 September 2026.
What clients say: ownership relations and real estate
A selection of reviews by our clients from 1,056 Google reviews, balanced by legal field (ownership, co-ownership, the transfer of real estate, marital property, the land register) and by city (Sarajevo, Tuzla, Banja Luka, Bijeljina). The content is anonymised for the sake of attorney-client privilege: full names are not given, only initials.
„After 27 years of marriage and a final divorce, I learned that my former husband, together with our adult son, had secretly signed a gift contract by which all the marital real estate in Bijeljina and its surroundings, as well as a 51% share in our company, was transferred exclusively to the son. The shock was indescribable. I started three parallel actions for the nullity of that contract before courts in both entities, and in response the son immediately tried to sell part of the real estate quickly to third parties, in order to prevent me from recovering it before the courts reached their first decisions. Law Office Prnjavorac obtained a note of the dispute in the land registers the same day, blocked the sales and patiently conducted all the proceedings to the end. It ended with a notarial settlement under which I was paid BAM 850,000, with full recognition of my right to the marital property and an obligation to withdraw all the court proceedings that had been started. Without their persistence and tactical calm, today I would probably have nothing of what we built together.”
„In 1996 my husband founded a company in Tuzla with our joint money and registered the founding contribution exclusively in his own name. For 26 years of marriage I worked in that company and invested time and nerves: when it came to the divorce, his lawyers claimed that the company was not marital property at all, because he alone was registered as the founder. Attorney Prnjavorac took over the case and proved before the Municipal Court that the founding contribution undoubtedly belongs to the marital property, one half for each spouse: that judgment finally recognised half of the share in that company as my property. For the first time in a long while I felt that someone really understood what 26 years of my work had meant. Without any doubt: the best attorney for ownership relations in Tuzla and in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
„I bought a flat in the municipality of Centar in Sarajevo back in 1993, that is in the middle of the war, when the land-register state simply could not be properly recorded. Thirty years later, when I decided to sell the flat, the land-register extract still showed the previous owner, who had died in the meantime, and the cadastral designation did not match because of the digitisation of the 2010s. Three times I tried to resolve it myself at the land-registry office, but they sent me back every time: no explanation, no document, only “you are missing this”. Law Office Prnjavorac took over everything: collected the documentation, conducted the harmonisation proceedings before the Municipal Court and drew up the final contract of sale: the whole story done in slightly less than four months. Without exaggeration, the best attorney in Sarajevo for ownership relations and real estate.”
„The five of us, brothers and sisters, inherited a large family house in Banja Luka. Seven years later we still could not agree on what to do with it. Some would sell, others keep it as a memory of childhood, others planned demolition and a new building: everything lost in endless family quarrels. Law Office Prnjavorac prepared an application for partition of the co-ownership in non-contentious proceedings before the Basic Court in Banja Luka, but did not push for litigation at any price: first it negotiated with each of us, individually. Within a couple of months we reached an agreement: three of us paid out the two who wanted money, and the house stayed in the family. An approach that preserves both the property and the relationships, and which is rarely met today.”
„It took me thirty years to realise that our family house in Tuzla has a difference of 70 m² between the cadastre and the land register: and not in my favour, of course. When I seriously set about selling, one interested buyer offered a price well below the market, precisely because of that lack of clarity in the papers, and I was already ready to accept just to close the deal. Law Office Prnjavorac engaged a court surveying expert, conducted the harmonisation proceedings before the Municipal Court in Tuzla, and after nine months the documentation was clean. I then sold the house at a realistic price: about BAM 60,000 more than that first offer. Their effort really paid off for me.”
„Our neighbour suddenly forbade us to pass over a plot that has been used in our family since my grandfather’s time: for generations, that is. “No registration, no servitude, you may not pass”, he kept repeating. Our house in the municipality of Novi Grad in Sarajevo was left practically without an entrance, because on the other side there are other people’s plots with no connection to the road. Law Office Prnjavorac went through the historical land-register extracts, proved 40 years of undisturbed use and obtained a judgment establishing a right of way servitude by adverse possession before the Municipal Court in Sarajevo. The neighbour appealed, but the Cantonal Court upheld the first-instance judgment. Everything registered, I sleep peacefully. Thank you for investing patience in what another lawyer had rejected as a “hopeless case”.”
„I have been living in Germany for 20 years. I decided to buy a house with a garden near Bijeljina: for my parents who stayed there, but also as a base for when I come to BiH. The problem was obvious: I could not take leave every time a good offer appeared, and I could not blindly trust agents on the ground. Law Office Prnjavorac took over the whole matter through a notarially processed power of attorney with an apostille: legal review of the land-register extract and the possession certificates, checking of mortgages and notes, negotiations with the seller, drafting of the contract, notarial processing and the notification of the change of owner to the Tax Administration of RS for the real estate tax, all on my behalf. Everything was done transparently, with written reports after every stage. When I came to Bijeljina for the first time after the purchase, I was already the registered owner with the keys in my hand. Without a single trip for paperwork.”
„Our company was buying a business building in Bijeljina for the needs of its distribution network. The seller seemed trustworthy, the papers in order, everything clean: but out of pure caution, before closing, we asked for an additional legal check. In only four days Law Office Prnjavorac discovered what our company’s in-house lawyers had not noticed: a note of a dispute that the seller had kept quiet about and a mortgage from 2005 that had never been deleted, in favour of a bank that had meanwhile been liquidated, so that a deletion consent had to be obtained from the liquidator. Without that check we would have bought a building with legal encumbrances that would have cost us hundreds of thousands of marks. The definition of money well spent.”
„In 2021 we bought a flat in a new building in the municipality of Stari Grad in Sarajevo from a well-known developer. Paid at once, moved in: but the registration in the land register would not go through, because the developer did not have a complete condominium survey. For almost three years we were in limbo, listened to one excuse after another and began to think that we might never get the title deed. Law Office Prnjavorac brought an action against the developer before the Municipal Court in Sarajevo and after a little over a year obtained a judgment ordering the developer to complete the condominium plan and issue us the deed required for registration, and to pay the contractual penalty for the delay. Finally registered, and on top of that we received compensation.”
„At the end of the 1980s my father bought a family house in Tuzla from the previous owner, who then moved to Germany. The contract was signed before the court, the price paid: but the registration in the land register was never carried out, which was not unusual at the time. In 2018, after my father’s death, “heirs” of the original owner suddenly appeared and demanded the house back. We conducted a three-year litigation before the Municipal Court in Tuzla. Attorney Prnjavorac retrieved the 1988 contract of sale from the archive, proposed the examination of the two remaining witnesses from that time and obtained a judgment establishing our ownership. Without his work we would have lost the house I grew up in.”
„With a seller near Banja Luka we signed a notarially processed preliminary contract for the purchase of a weekend house, paid a deposit and agreed the main contract for a month later. In the meantime a “better buyer” contacted him, so he began to avoid our calls and to look for reasons to withdraw. Within ten days Law Office Prnjavorac filed an action for a declaration of will before the Basic Court in Banja Luka. Already after the first hearing the seller gave up the evasion and agreed to conclude the main contract: his lawyer probably explained to him that he had nowhere to go. Now we have the weekend house, and from experience I can say that in Banja Luka it is hard to find a lawyer who gets into a case so quickly.”
„In a residential building in the centre of Sarajevo we had a problem for years with the owner of the business premises on the ground floor, who had illegally occupied the common rooms of the building to store his own goods. The owners’ association was helpless, the city inspection ineffective, the neighbours divided. A neighbour recommended Law Office Prnjavorac because they had already helped her with another property. On behalf of the flat owners they brought an ownership action for the surrender of the common rooms into joint possession and the removal of the goods. The Municipal Court in Sarajevo gave judgment ordering the owner of the premises to vacate the common rooms, remove his things and pay the costs of the proceedings. Finally peace in the building after years of quarrels.”
All reviews of our clients are publicly available on both Google business profiles, without filtering, intermediation or moderation by the office: profile no. 1 and profile no. 2.
Clients abroad. We conduct this procedure also for clients living in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the United States and other countries, under a power of attorney certified at a BiH consulate or before a notary, without travelling to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Supreme Court case law
What the Supreme Court says about property rights
A finding that the possessor acted in bad faith may be based not only on the evidence adduced by the defendant but also on the evidence adduced by the plaintiff, the possessor himself.
Supreme Court of the Federation of BiH, Bulletin 1-2/2024, No. 42 0 P 058568 24 Rev of 28.05.2024 (translation from Bosnian; original decision: advokat-prnjavorac.com)
- Acquisition of ownership of urban building land by adverse possession, time limit (Extraordinary revisions, June 2026, 11.11.2025)
- Expert evidence and burden of proof (Extraordinary revisions, June 2026, 15.10.2024)
- Claim for surrender of a flat: the indirect possessor may also be sued (Bulletin 1-2/2024, 18.04.2024)
Every decision in the collection is listed with the holding, the legal basis, the case number and the date; the collection is in Bosnian. Our office reads the relevant case law for you and explains it in English. Case law by practice area
Questions and answers about ownership relations and real estate in BiH
The questions clients ask us most often about ownership, the land register, possession, co-ownership, contracts and expropriation.
What are ownership relations and which law governs them in BiH?
Ownership relations are the relations arising from the right of ownership and other rights in rem over real estate and movable property: acquisition, use, disposal, co-ownership, possession, servitudes, mortgage and the protection of those rights before the courts. In Bosnia and Herzegovina they are governed by the Law on Rights in Rem of the FBiH (Official Gazette of the FBiH 66/13, 100/13 and 32/19), the Law on Rights in Rem of Republika Srpska (Official Gazette of RS 124/08 with amendments) and the Law on Ownership and Other Rights in Rem of the BrÄko District, together with the laws on land registers, the cadastre, expropriation and construction land.
Am I the owner if I have signed and paid for the contract but am not registered in the land register?
In relation to third parties, not yet. Ownership of real estate on the basis of a contract is acquired by registration in the land register (Article 53 of the Law on Rights in Rem of the FBiH); until then you have a contractual claim against the seller and the position of a presumed owner. If the seller meanwhile sells the same property to a second buyer who registers in good faith, that second buyer remains the owner because of the principle of reliance on the land register. Registration should therefore be carried out immediately after the contract is certified, and where that is not possible, the acquisition should be secured by a provisional registration or a note.
How many years are needed to acquire ownership by adverse possession in BiH?
Ten years of uninterrupted, lawful independent possession in good faith, or twenty years if the possession is merely in good faith, provided the possession was not obtained by force, threat or abuse of trust (Article 58 of the Law on Rights in Rem of the FBiH; the same rules apply in Republika Srpska). The time during which predecessors possessed the property, for example the parents from whom it was inherited, is counted in. Ownership by adverse possession is established by court action, and the judgment is the basis for registration.
What is the time limit for an action for disturbance of possession?
Thirty days from the day you learned of the disturbance and of the perpetrator, and at the latest one year from the day the disturbance occurred (Article 327(3) of the Law on Rights in Rem of the FBiH, Article 313(3) of the Law on Rights in Rem of RS). The time limits are preclusive: once they expire, possessory protection is lost and only the ownership action remains. In possessory proceedings the court does not examine who the owner is, only who was the last peaceful possessor and whether the disturbance was arbitrary.
Is the owner's action subject to a limitation period?
No. The owner's right to demand the return of the property from the possessor and the cessation of interference is not subject to limitation (Article 126(2) of the Law on Rights in Rem of the FBiH). In the proceedings the owner must prove that the real estate is his and that the defendant holds it, and the defendant can defend himself only with a right to possession, for example a lease or adverse possession, or with the objection that he has meanwhile become the owner himself.
How is co-owned real estate divided when the co-owners cannot agree?
Any co-owner may apply to the court for partition of the co-ownership in non-contentious proceedings (Article 38 of the Law on Rights in Rem of the FBiH). The court first examines whether physical partition is possible, for instance dividing the plot or the building into separate units; if it is not, or would considerably reduce the value, it orders civil partition, the sale of the property and division of the money according to the co-ownership shares, and it may also award the whole property to one co-owner against payment to the others. The right to partition is not subject to limitation and cannot be excluded in advance by contract.
Must a contract for the sale of real estate be notarially processed?
In Republika Srpska and the BrÄko District, yes: a contract transferring ownership of real estate must be drawn up as a notarially processed deed, otherwise it is void (Article 57 of the Law on the Notarial Service of RS). In the Federation of BiH mandatory notarial processing ceased to apply on 16 November 2019 after judgment U-22/16 of the Constitutional Court of the FBiH, so the contract may be drawn up by an attorney and the signatures are certified before a notary. Throughout BiH the contract must contain the seller's consent to the buyer's registration, the so-called clausula intabulandi, because without it the land-registry office will not allow the entry.
What should be checked before buying real estate in Bosnia and Herzegovina?
A land-register extract not older than a few days, with the ownership and encumbrance sheets, to see who the registered owner is and whether there are mortgages, notes of litigation, enforcement or prohibitions of disposal; the possession sheet and a copy of the cadastral plan for consistency with the cadastre; the building and occupancy permits for structures; the existence of co-owners with a right of pre-emption; and for a flat the condominium declaration and the state of common charges. For real estate registered in the name of deceased persons the probate proceedings must be conducted first, because a contract with heirs who are not registered cannot be entered in the land register.
How is compensation for expropriated real estate determined?
The compensation must correspond to the market value of the real estate at the time of the first-instance decision, increased by the value of buildings and plantations and by the damage the owner suffers on the remaining part of his property. An agreement on compensation is first attempted before the administrative authority; if it fails, the amount is determined by the municipal or basic court in non-contentious proceedings on the basis of expert evidence. The owner may also demand expropriation of the remaining part of the property if the construction has made it unusable, and where a public facility has been built without an expropriation decision, compensation is obtained by action in civil proceedings.
Can foreign nationals buy real estate in BiH?
Yes, subject to reciprocity with the state of their nationality, which the law presumes (Article 15 of the Law on Rights in Rem of the FBiH), except in areas excluded by special law for reasons of security. No reciprocity is required for acquisition by inheritance. Nationals of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the United States, Sweden, Norway and most European states buy real estate in BiH without special approval; the office maintains a list of countries with reciprocity and can conduct the whole procedure under a power of attorney, without the client travelling.
What if the land register and the cadastre do not match?
This is very common in BiH, because the cadastre records possession and actual areas while the land register records rights. Legally decisive is the entry in the land register, but the mismatch prevents sale, mortgage and probate. It is resolved by proceedings for the establishment or replacement of the land-register folio on the basis of the new survey and cadastral data (Article 63 of the Law on Land Registers of the FBiH), by correction of the entry, and where the parties dispute the right itself, by an action to establish ownership. In Republika Srpska the cadastre and the land register have been merged into the real estate cadastre kept by the Republic Administration for Geodetic and Property Affairs.
How long does an ownership dispute take and what does representation cost?
An action for disturbance of possession is urgent and is usually concluded within a few months; a non-contentious partition of co-ownership takes from a few months to two years, depending on expert evidence; an ownership action with appeal takes two to four years, and a revision before the Supreme Court adds further time. The attorney's fee is calculated under the Attorney Tariff of the FBiH and the value of the dispute, and the party who succeeds is entitled to recover costs from the opposing party. Before taking on a case we give the client a written estimate of costs and prospects.
Can I conduct a property dispute in BiH from abroad without travelling?
Yes. The office conducts ownership and land-register proceedings for clients living in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the United States and other countries under a power of attorney certified at a BiH consulate or before a foreign notary with an apostille where required. Documents are exchanged by e-mail, hearings are attended by the attorney, and the client receives the decisions and the land-register entry without travelling. Personal presence is required only exceptionally, for example when the court orders the examination of the parties, and we inform the client of that in good time.
Clients have trusted us since 1993.
The law office Prnjavorac has been active since 1993. Today, in its fourth decade of work, it has 1,056 Google reviews with a rating of 5.0 / 5 across two independent Google business profiles.
All client reviews are publicly available on both Google business profiles, without filtering, mediation or moderation by the law office.
Other areas of the firm's work
We provide legal assistance and representation across a wide range of areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina:
