HJEMFALDSPLIGT

Hjemfaldspligt is a long Danish word that essentially means the right to repurchase. In this case, the right to repurchase a piece of land that the local authority had originally sold to someone wanting to build a house. This is now causing problems.

English common law is very flexible when it comes to ownership of property, and it has long been possible for someone to own a freehold, while others at the same time own a leasehold on the same property. Civilian systems struggle with this, since they tend to have a strong concept of ownership (dominium, inherited from Roman law) in which there is only one owner at any one time. Hjemfaldspligt is the Danish legal way of creating a sort of freehold, but it can only be done by including in the original sale a right to repurchase the land, perhaps 100 years in the future, at the original price.

With long leases, the freehold reversion right tends to have little value, with one exception, namely when the lease is about to end. Then it is worth a lot. So too with Hjemfaldspligt. Not that the local authority in fact wants to buy the land back, what they want is for the house owner to buy out that right. Which of course is expensive.

The problems are occurring because Danes have not been reading the small print of their house deeds, particularly if they are not the original owner. The hjemfaldspligt is tucked away as a "servitude", and most people don't even know that it exists. They have now woken up to the fact that in places like Copenhagen, if they don't want to lose their house in 2040, they will have to buy out the local authority's right, at a cost of up to a million kroner and rising.

This is a battle that is pitching house owners against cash-strapped local authorities. So far, the local authorities are winning, since they have the law on their side. But as that 2040 date approaches, expect more squealing from affected homeowners. This is an issue that is not going to go away.

Walter Blotscher