1. Description of the procedure

1.1. Generalities:

The lease contract is regulated by Law no. 287/2009 regarding the Civil Code, republished, with subsequent amendments and completions and is a contract by which one of the parties, called the lessor, transfers to the other party, called the lessee, agricultural goods for a determined/undetermined period, in exchange for a rent that can be paid in money or in products/fruits.

1.2. Documents used:

1.2.1. List and origin of the documents:

- Lease contracts;

- Identity documents of the lessor and lessee;

- Civil status documents;

- Property titles;

- Special registry for the recording of lease contracts.

1.2.2. Content and roleof the documents:

- The documents used in preparing this procedure have the role of regulating the way of implementing the procedural activity;

- Access, for each Department, to applicable legislation, is provided through the software program to which institution’s employees have access.

1.2.3. Document flow:

a) Receiving correspondence approved by management;

b) Registering the Lease Contracts in the Special Registry;

c) Mentioning the lease contract in the agricultural register;

d) Releasing the lease contract to the lessee and lessor.

1.3. Required resources:

1.3.1. Material resources:

- Computer;

- Printer;

- Copier;

- Consumables (ink/toner);

- Xerox paper;

- Folders.

1.3.2. Human resources:

- The manager of the institution;

- The compartments provided in the organizational chart of the institution.

1.3.3. Financial resources:

- According to the Approved Budget of the Institution.

1.4. Mode of operation:

1.4.1. Planning operations and actions of the activity:

1. The deadlines provided by law regarding responses to petitioners or to other institutions shall be observed;

2. The deadlines established by law for preparing documents shall be observed;

3. The documents serving as the basis for drawing up the lease contract shall be thoroughly checked;

4. The lease contract will be registered in the special register of lease contracts kept by the General Secretary of the Local Council;

5. The lease contract will be entered in the agricultural registry;

6. 1 copy of the lease contract, endorsed according to the legislation in force, will be sent to the lessee and to the lessor.

1.4.2. Carrying out operations and actions of the activity:

Any agricultural goods can be leased, such as:

a) land with agricultural designation, namely productive agricultural land – arable, vineyards, orchards, viticultural nurseries, fruit-growing nurseries, fruit bushes, hop and mulberry plantations, wooded pastures, land occupied by agro-zootechnical constructions and installations, fish and land improvement facilities, technological roads, platforms and storage spaces serving the needs of agricultural production and unproductive lands that can be arranged and used for agricultural production;

b) animals, constructions of any kind, machinery, equipment and other similar goods intended for agricultural exploitation.

By lease is meant the contract concluded between the owner, usufructuary (person who holds the right of usufruct over a good) or other legal holder of agricultural goods, called lessor, and lessee, regarding the exploitation of agricultural goods for a determined/undetermined period and at a price agreed upon by the parties, called rent.

If the duration is not determined, the lease is considered to have been made for the entire period necessary for harvesting the fruits that the agricultural good will produce in the agricultural year in which the contract is concluded.

The lease contract must be concluded in written form, under penalty of absolute nullity. Under penalty of a civil fine established by the court for each day of delay, the lessee must submit a copy of the contract to the Local Council in whose territorial area the leased agricultural goods are found for it to be registered in a special register kept by the Secretary of the Local Council.

When the leased goods are located in the territorial area of several Local Councils, a copy of the contract shall be lodged with each Local Council in whose territorial area the leased goods are situated.

All expenses related to the conclusion, registration and publication of the lease contract shall be borne by the lessee.

Lease contracts concluded in authentic form, as well as those registered at the Local Council, constitute, according to law, enforceable titles for payment of rent at the deadlines and in the manner established in the contract.

Lease agreements will be received for registration in the special register, by the person with delegated responsibilities, concluded in written form, in three copies, submitted by the lessee.

For registration at the Local Council, the three copies of the lease contract shall be accompanied by the following documents:

a) For contracts concluded by a lessor who is either the holder of the property right for which a valid title of ownership exists, or as sole heir registered as such in a title of ownership issued from a deceased person, it is sufficient to present the title of ownership, the identity document of the lessor, as well as for the lessee, and the death certificate of the deceased mentioned in the title of ownership.

b) For contracts concluded by a lessor who is either a co-owner, together with other co-owners, of a property right for which a valid title of ownership has been issued, or as an heir together with other heirs registered in a title of ownership issued upon the death of a predecessor, the following shall be attached:

b.1. the title of ownership, with the recorded area that is the object of the lease;

b.2. the identity document for the lessor, and respectively for the lessee;

b.3. the death certificate of the deceased entered in the title of ownership.

c) For contracts concluded by lessors who represent either all the co-owners registered in a valid title of ownership issued, or all the heirs registered in a title of ownership issued after the death of a predecessor, it is sufficient to present the title of ownership and civil status documents for the lessors, respectively identity documents for the lessor and lessee.

Proof of legal or testamentary heirship, as well as proof of the heirs' ownership rights over the goods in the inheritance assets in the share due to each, is established by the certificate of inheritance issued by the public notary, according to Art. 1.132 of the Civil Code, according to which

"The certificate of inheritance is issued by the public notary and includes findings regarding the inheritance assets, the number and quality of heirs and the shares to which they are entitled from these assets, as well as other mentions provided by law.”

d) For contracts concluded by lessors who are persons other than those registered in a title of ownership, (in the event that succession proceedings have not been finalized by issuing an inheritance certificate), the prospective lessor must submit the following documents:

d.1. the title of ownership, with the recorded area that is the object of the lease;

d.2. civil status documents attesting that the individual meets the legal requirements for succession;

d.3. the death certificate of the deceased entered in the title of ownership;

d.4. the identity document for the lessor, and respectively for the lessee.

The lease contract is concluded with a single successor, who, with the presented civil status documents, proves that he/she meets the legal conditions for succession, and the title of ownership of the deceased from which the leased area results.

The conclusion of a lease contract has, for the prospective lessor, the value of tacit acceptance of the inheritance, so the obligations are his/hers regarding payment of the agricultural tax for the leased land, as well as payment of the tax for the rent paid by the lessee.

The other successors of the deceased entered in the title of ownership have no obligation since they have not yet exercised the right of succession option.

For implementing the provisions of Law no. 9/2023 for amending and supplementing Emergency Government Ordinance no. 41/2016 regarding the establishment of certain simplification measures at the level of the central public administration and for amending and supplementing certain normative acts, in cases where applicants do not provide paper copies of required documents, the City Hall is obliged to provide, free of charge, photocopying services for them.

The lease contract will include at least the following:

a. the contracting parties;

b. the object of the contract;

c. the purpose of the lease;

d. the duration of the contract;

e. the level of rent, methods and deadlines for payment;

f. the rights and duties of the parties;

g. the responsibilities of each party;

h. provisions on termination of the contract;

i. other clauses agreed upon by the parties and permitted by law.

Lease contracts will follow the course of some checks, as follows:

a) The Secretary of the UAT shall verify if the forwarding address/request submitted by the Lessee was registered in the general register of incoming-outgoing, if the lease contracts in three original copies is attached and is accompanied by the necessary documents. If the documentation is complete and correctly drawn up, it will request the agricultural agent to check if, according to the information entered in the agricultural registers, the lessor is the owner or user of the land subject to lease. If the lessor is a user of the land, it will request the tax agent to check if the lessor is registered as an agricultural income earner.

b) The agricultural agent as the person responsible for entering and keeping the agricultural registers up to date verifies whether the land to be leased is recorded in the agricultural register and whether the lessor is the owner or user of the land to be leased. As a result of the checks carried out, he will draw up a Memorandum under signature, with the findings made, which he will present to the Secretary of the UAT.

c) The tax agent checks whether the lessor is registered as the owner or user of the land, in which case he will also check whether he is registered as earning agricultural income. As a result of the checks, he will draw up a Memorandum under signature, with the findings made, in which he will also specify whether there are outstanding payments on the tax/land fee, which he will present to the Secretary of the UAT.

If irregularities are found during the checks, the Secretary of the UAT will make a report to the Mayor, accompanied by all the documentation submitted by the Lessee, as well as the reports received from the Agricultural Register and the Financial-Accounting department, in which he proposes the return of the documentation to the Lessee for completion, indicating what is missing.

If no irregularities are found, the Secretary of the UAT will proceed to the registration of the three original copies of the lease contracts in the special register for the registration of lease contracts, signing and stamping them with the Local Council stamp. One copy of the lease contract will remain at the Town Hall, and one copy each of the other two will be sent to the lessor and the lessee.

Rights and obligations of the parties:

The rights and obligations of the lessor are:

a) to hand over the agricultural land to the lessee on time and under the conditions stipulated in the contract;

b) to guarantee the lessee against total or partial eviction, as well as against hidden defects of the leased item;

c) not to take any measures regarding the exploitation of the leased land likely to disturb the lessee;

d) to check at any time how the lessee exploits the leased land. During the inspection, the lessor will be accompanied by the lessee or his representative;

e) in the event of disturbance by third parties of the normal exploitation of the land, to act together with the lessee, according to law, to stop the acts of disturbance;

f) to pay taxes and charges owed for the leased land;

g) to notify the lessee in writing of his intention to renew or not the contract at least one year before the lease contract expires;

h) to receive, at the end of the contract, the land that was the object of this contract.

The rights and obligations of the lessee are:

a) to receive the leased land on time and under the conditions stipulated in the contract;

b) to use the land he has leased for agricultural exploitation purposes, under the conditions established in the contract;

c) to maintain the production potential and not to degrade the leased land;

d) not to change the category of use of the leased land without the written consent of the lessor;

e) to pay the rent at the time and under the conditions established in the contract;

f) to request the lessor's consent for carrying out any possible investments on the land;

g) to bear the costs of concluding, registering and publicizing the lease contract;

h) for the purpose of recovering damages caused by natural calamities, to conclude insurance contracts for the crops established on the leased land;

i) to notify the lessor and request that he intervene in cases where he is disturbed by third parties in the exploitation of the leased land;

j) to notify the lessor in writing of his intention to renew or not the contract at least one year before the lease contract expires;

k) at the end of the contract, he is obliged to return the leased land in the condition in which he received it from the lessor;

l) to pay the taxes owed on the income obtained from exploiting the leased land;

m) has the right of preemption in case of alienation by sale by the lessor of the land provided for in this contract, which is exercised according to art. 1.730-1.739 of the Civil Code.

All documents, transmitted and/or issued by the parties, containing personal data are confidential, being processed in compliance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation).

Change of category of use

The lessee may change the use category of the leased land only with the prior written consent of the owner and in compliance with the legal provisions in force.

Insurance of leased goods

The lessee is obliged, even in the absence of an express provision, to insure the agricultural goods against the risk of crop loss or the perishing of animals due to natural calamities.

Reduction of rent established in money in case of crop loss

When, during the lease, the entire crop of one year or at least half of it has perished by fortuitous cause, the lessee may request a proportional reduction of the rent if it was set in a determined quantity of agricultural products, in a fixed sum of money or in a determinable sum of money depending on the value of a certain quantity of agricultural products.

If the lease is for several years, the reduction will only be established at the end of the lease, when an offsetting of the crops of all years of use will be made.

Exceptions

The lessee cannot obtain a reduction of the rent if the loss of the crop occurred after it was harvested.

The reduction of the rent may also not be requested if the cause of the damage was known at the time of the conclusion of the contract.

Risk of loss of fruits in case the rent is paid in fruits

When the rent is set in a share of fruits or in a sum of money determinable according to the value of such a share, the fortuitous loss, in whole or in part, of the fruits to be divided is borne proportionally and does not give either party the right of action for compensation against the other.

If, however, the loss occurred after the fruits were picked and one of the parties is culpably delaying their handover or receipt, the share owed to that party is reduced by the lost fruits, and the share of the other party is considered as if no loss had occurred, except if the fruits would have perished even if the handover and receipt had been performed on time.

Payment of rent in fruits

When rent is paid in fruits, in the absence of another deadline provided in the contract, the lessee is in default by law for the delivery from the harvest date, and the lessor is in default by law for receipt from the date he was notified in writing by the lessee.

Assignment of lease

With the written consent of the lessor, the lessee may assign the lease contract to the spouse who participates in the exploitation of the leased goods or to his adult descendants.

Prohibition of sublease

Lessee agencies are not allowed. Total or partial subleasing is prohibited under penalty of absolute nullity.

Renewal of lease

The lease contract is renewed by right, for the same duration, if neither of the parties has notified the other party in writing of its refusal at least 6 months before the expiration date, and in the case of agricultural land, at least one year. If the duration of the lease contract is one year or shorter, the above refusal deadlines are reduced by half.

Right of pre-emption

The lessee has the right of preemption regarding the leased agricultural goods, which is exercised according to art. 1.730-1.739 of the Civil Code.

Special cases of termination of the contract

The lease contract ends with the death, incapacity or bankruptcy of the lessee.

1.4.3. Utilization of the results of the activity:

The results of the activity will be capitalized by all departments involved in the Institution