What is de facto appropriation, and when may an action be brought?

The remedies available to the owner when the administration interferes with land without expropriating, and the distinction between factual and legal taking.

De facto appropriation is a public body’s interference with private property without operating the procedure in Law No. 2942. Two forms predominate in practice: physical occupation (factual taking) and the de facto extinction of the power of disposition by zoning or conservation decisions (legal taking).

Before an action is issued, the date and character of the taking and the nature of the property must be established. Claims for compensation, mesne profits and registration may be advanced together or separately according to the facts. The pre- and post-9 October 1983 regimes must be read separately as to time.

This note is general information; the strategy of each file is built on its own evidence and legislative layers.