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On 24 May 2023, an extended panel of judges of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania (SACL) issued a ruling in an administrative case concerning the refusal to register ownership rights of immovable property based on a European Certificate of Succession, which does not contain the necessary data for the identification of the immovable property. The Court found that, irrespective of the law of the Member State of the European Union (EU) applicable to the succession of the deceased's estate, the conditions and procedure for the registration of rights of immovable property in Lithuania are determined by national law of the Republic of Lithuania.

The Court had doubts as to whether the provisions of Article 1(2)(l) and Article 69(5) of Regulation (EU) No. 650/2012 of the European Parliament and the Council are to be interpreted in such a way as not to preclude the provisions of the law of the Member State of the location of the real property, under which, on the basis of a European Certificate of Succession, it is only possible to register the property rights in the Register of Real Property, if all the data necessary for the registration are indicated in the European Certificate of Succession. The extended panel of Judges of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania has therefore referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union for a preliminary ruling on the interpretation of the abovementioned provisions of Regulation (EU) No. 650/2012.

The extended panel of judges of the Court, in accordance with the interpretation given by the Court of Justice of the European Union in its judgment of 9 March 2023 in Case C-354/21, R.J.R. v. State Enterprise Centre of Registers, stated that the legislator of the European Union did not intend to harmonise the legal requirements for the registration of immovable property in Regulation (EU) No 650/2012, and accordingly left the regulation of those requirements to the competence of Member States. In that context, it was held that, the law of the Member State applicable to the succession to the estate of the deceased was legally irrelevant, since the conditions and procedure for the registration of rights of immovable property were determined by the national law of the Member State of the place where the property was situated. Consequently, in order to assess the legality and reasonableness of the actions of the keeper of the Real Estate Register, the rules of the law of the Member State (The Republic of Lithuania) in which the property is situated, must be applied in respect of the person applying for registration of inherited real property.

The fact that the addressee of the European Certificate of Succession is the sole universal heir under the law of another EU Member State applicable to succession relations is irrelevant for the purposes of deciding on the legal requirements for the registration of inherited immovable property located in Lithuania. This legal circumstance does not negate the obligation of the authority issuing the European Certificate of Succession in another EU Member State to apply the provisions of Article 68 of Regulation (EU) No. 650/2012 and to comply with the requirements laid down in Regulation (EU) No 1329/2014 as regards the form of the European Certificate of Succession, inter alia, the requirement to provide the information which, under the legislation of the Member State (the Republic of Lithuania), is necessary to identify the inherited immovable property.

Administrative Case No. eA-1195-662/2023.