1. Description of the procedure

1.1. General aspects:

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 documents:

- Lease contracts;

- Identity documents of the lessor and the lessee;

- Civil status documents;

- Ownership titles;

- Special register for the registration of lease contracts.

1.2.2. Content and roleof documents:

- The documents used in the elaboration of this procedure serve the purpose of regulating the manner of implementation of the processed activity;

- Access, for each compartment, to the applicable legislation is made through the software to which the institution's employees have access.

1.2.3. Document flow:

a) Receiving correspondence visaed by management;

b) Registration of Lease Contracts in the special Register;

c) Mentioning the Lease Contract in the agricultural register;

d) Issuing the Lease Contract to the lessee and the lessor.

1.3. Necessary resources:

1.3.1. Material resources:

- Computer;

- Printer;

- Copier;

- Consumables (ink/toner);

- Xerox paper;

- Folders.

1.3.2. Human resources:

- Head of the institution;

- The compartments listed in the institution's organizational chart.

1.3.3. Financial resources:

- According to the approved Budget of the Institution.

1.4. Workflow:

1.4.1. Planning the operations and actions of the activity:

1. The deadlines provided by law regarding answers to petitioners or other institutions will be respected;

2. The deadlines set by law for the elaboration of documents will be respected;

3. The documents underlying the drawing up of the Lease Contract will be thoroughly checked;

4. Registration of the Lease Contract shall be made in the special register of lease contracts kept by the General Secretary of the Local Council;

5. The Lease Contract will be operated in the agricultural register;

6. One copy of the Lease Contract, visaed according to the legislation in force, will be sent to both lessee and lessor.

1.4.2. Unfolding operations and actions of the activity:

Any agricultural assets may be leased, such as:

a) land with agricultural destination, namely productive agricultural land - arable, vineyards, orchards, viticultural and fruit nurseries, fruit shrubs, hop and mulberry plantations, wooded pastures, land occupied by agrozootechnical constructions and installations, fish farms and land improvement arrangements, technological roads, platforms and storage spaces serving agricultural production needs, and unproductive land that can be arranged and used for agricultural production;

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

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

If the period is not determined, the lease is considered to be made for the entire period necessary for harvesting the fruits that the agricultural good is to 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 within whose territorial jurisdiction the leased agricultural goods are located, to be registered in a special register kept by the secretary of the Local Council.

When the leased goods are located in the territorial jurisdiction of several Local Councils, a copy of the contract is submitted to each Local Council within whose territorial jurisdiction the leased goods are located.

All expenses related to concluding, registering, and publishing the lease contract are borne by the lessee.

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

Lease contracts will be received for their registration in the Special Register, by the person with delegated duties, concluded in written form, in three copies, submitted by the Lessee.

For registration at the Local Council, the 3 copies of the lease contract will be accompanied by the following documents:

a) For contracts concluded by a lessor who has the status either as holder of the right of ownership for which a valid ownership title exists, or as the sole heir listed in this capacity in a title of ownership issued after a deceased person, it is sufficient to present the title of ownership, the identity document for the lessor, respectively for the lessee, and the death certificate of the deceased listed in the ownership title.

b) For contracts concluded by a lessor who has the status either as co-owner, along with other co-owners, of an ownership right for which a valid ownership title has been issued, or as heir together with other heirs listed in an ownership title issued after a deceased person, it will be attached:

b.1. the ownership title, with the area listed that is the subject of the lease;

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

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

c) For contracts concluded by lessors representing all co-owners listed in a valid issued ownership title, or all heirs listed in an ownership title issued after a deceased person, it is sufficient to present the ownership title and civil status documents for the lessors, respectively, identity documents for lessor and lessee.

The proof of legal or testamentary heir status, as well as the proof of the right of ownership of the heirs over the goods in the succession mass according to each one's share, is established by the inheritance certificate issued by the public notary, according to Art. 1.132 of the Civil Code, according to which

“The inheritance certificate is issued by the public notary and includes findings regarding the succession patrimony, the number and quality of the heirs and the shares they are entitled to from this patrimony, as well as other mentions stipulated by law.”

d) For contracts concluded by lessors who are people other than those listed in an ownership title, (in the situation where the inheritance procedure has not been completed by issuing a certificate of inheritance), the potential lessor must submit the following documents:

d.1. the ownership title, with the area listed that is the subject of the lease;

d.2. civil status documents that prove that the conditions provided by law for inheritance are met;

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

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

The Lease contract is concluded with a single successor, who, with the civil status documents presented, proves that he meets the legal conditions to inherit, and the ownership title of the deceased from which appears the area to be leased.

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

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

For the application of the provisions of Law no. 9/2023 for the amendment and completion of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 41/2016 regarding the establishment of some simplification measures at the level of the central public administration and for the modification and completion of some normative acts, in case the applicants do not present paper copies of the necessary documents, the City Hall is obliged to provide free photocopying of these documents.

The lease contract will include at least the following:

a. contracting parties;

b. object of the contract;

c. purpose of the lease;

d. duration of the contract;

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

f. rights and obligations of the parties;

g. responsibilities of each party;

h. provisions regarding termination of the contract;

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

Lease contracts will be subject to verification, as follows:

a) The Secretary of the UAT will check whether the forwarding address/application submitted by the Lessee has been registered in the General Register of entry-exit, the lease contracts are attached in three original copies each and are accompanied by the necessary documents. If the documentation is complete and correctly drawn up, the agricultural agent will be asked to check whether, in accordance with the data entered in the agricultural registers, the lessor is the owner or user of the land subject to the lease. If the lessor is a user of the land, the tax agent will be asked to check whether the lessor is registered as a generator of agricultural income.

b) The agricultural agent, as the person responsible for completing and keeping the agricultural registers up to date, checks whether the land subject to the lease is registered in the agricultural register and whether the lessor is the owner or user of the land subject to the lease. After the checks, a Report will be drawn up under signature, with the findings, which will be presented to the Secretary of the UAT.

c) The tax agent checks whether the lessor is registered as owner or user of the land, in which case he will also check if he is registered as a generator of agricultural income. After the checks, a Report will be drawn up under signature, with the findings, which will also specify if there are any arrears in the payment of the land tax/fee, to be presented 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 and the reports received from the Agricultural Register department and the Financial-accounting department, in which he will propose the return of the documentation to the Lessee for completion, indicating what is missing from the documentation.

If no irregularities are found, the Secretary of the UAT will proceed to register the three original copies of the lease contracts in the special register 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 of each of the other two will be sent to the lessor and the lessee respectively.

Rights and obligations of the parties:

The rights and obligations of the lessor are as follows:

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

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

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

d) to check at any time the way the lessee exploits the leased land. During the inspection, the lessor will be accompanied by the lessee or an agent thereof;

e) in case of disturbances by third parties in the normal exploitation of the land, to act together with the lessee, according to the law, for the cessation of the disturbances;

f) to pay the taxes and duties owed for the leased lands;

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

h) to receive, upon termination of the contract, the land which was the subject of this contract.

The rights and obligations of the lessee are as follows:

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

b) to use the leased land for the purpose of agricultural exploitation, under the conditions established by the contract;

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

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

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

f) to ask for the lessor's consent for making any investments on the land;

g) to bear the closing, registration, and publicity fees for the lease contract;

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

i) to inform the lessor and ask him to intervene in cases where he is disturbed by third parties in the exploitation of the leased land;

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

k) upon termination of the contract, has the obligation to return the leased land in the state in which he received it from the lessor;

l) to pay the taxes due on the income obtained from the exploitation of the leased land;

m) has the right of preemption in the event of the sale by the lessor of the land provided for in this contract, which is exercised in accordance with 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 the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons 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).

Changing the use category

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 required, even in the absence of an express provision, to insure the agricultural goods against the risk of crop loss or animal death due to natural disasters.

Reduction of the rent set in money in case of loss of crop

When, during the lease, the entire crop of a year or at least half of it has been fortuitously lost, the lessee may request a proportional reduction of the rent if it was set in a certain quantity of agricultural products, a determined sum of money, or a determinable sum of money based on the value of a certain quantity of agricultural products.

If the lease is for several years, the reduction shall only be established at the end of the lease, when a compensation is made for the crops of all the years of use.

Exceptions

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

The reduction of the rent cannot be requested either when the cause of the loss was known at the date of signing the contract.

Risk of spoiled fruits where the rent is paid in fruits

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

However, if the loss has occurred after picking the fruits and one party culpably delays their delivery or receipt, the share due to that party is reduced by the lost fruits, and the share of the other party is considered as if there was no loss, unless the fruits would have perished even if delivery and receipt of the fruits were made on time.

Payment of the rent in fruits

When the rent is paid in fruits, in the absence of another deadline provided in the contract, the lessee is de jure in delay for their delivery from the date of harvest, and the lessor is de jure in delay for receipt from the date on which he was notified in writing by the lessee.

Cession of the lease

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

Prohibition of sublease

Farming offices are not permitted. Total or partial subleasing is prohibited, under penalty of absolute nullity.

Renewal of the lease

The lease contract is renewed by law, for the same duration, if neither party notifies the counterparty, in writing, of its refusal at least 6 months before the expiry of the term, and in the case of land with an agricultural destination, at least one year before. If the duration of the lease contract is one year or less, the previous deadlines for refusing renewal are reduced by half.

Right of preemption

The lessee has preemption right over 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 terminates by death, incapacity, or bankruptcy of the lessee.

1.4.3. Valuation of the results of the activity:

The results of the activity will be valued by all compartments involved in the Institution