In a welcomed collaboration between the main political parties which form Portugal’s ruling coalition the requirement for owners of property near the seashore and rivers to prove occupancy before 1864 is likely to be amended in such a way as to make the law useable.
The current time limit for owners to prove their properties existed prior to D. Luís’ 1864 Royal Decree is by the end of June, but the parliamentary majority of the PSD and CDS are to table amendments to the law to remove these impractical, costly and often impossible obligations.
In 1864, Portugal’s seashores and inland waterways became public property. In 2005 it was decided that when the decree reached its 150th year in January 2014 all owners of private land in these areas had to present evidence that they owned the property before 1864 so as a to maintain their rights over the property. The same archaic silliness applied to owners of land on cliffs which is covered by another Royal Decree, this time from 1868.
Late last year the deadline for registration was postponed to June 2014 and now the government is working to ensure the necessity for proving the property existed pre-1864 is sensibly amended.
The burden of proof was on the property owner to prove something, often with great difficulty - more often than not this was an impossibility – but now such proof will only be required if there is a legal case that hinges on proof of ownership.
The proof of ownership requirement was creating major problems for these owners, and there are plenty of them as, according to the latest data from the Portuguese Environment Agency, one-third of the country’s coastline is privately owned.
The changes to the legislation will be proposed by the Ministry of Environment and will be debated in Parliament on Thursday under the topic "Reform of the Land Use and Ownership of Water Resources."