“On the Price of Time in Property Law” — Tatiana Tereshchenko’s Blog
Decree of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation No. 22-P of April 9, 2026, on the complaint of A. D. Krasnoshchekov, addresses the possibility of expropriation of a land plot for state or municipal needs before the final determination of the amount of compensation. But behind this procedural issue lies a more interesting problem: what does equivalent compensation actually mean?
The Constitutional Court recalls that the preliminary nature and equivalence of compensation are necessary so that the owner can, within a short period of time, make up for the loss and acquire similar property.
And here an important shift arises. Equivalence is not just an amount determined by an appraiser. What matters is something else — whether the compensation received actually allows the owner's property position to be restored.
Hence the problem of time. Between the valuation of the property, its expropriation, and the final settlement, prices change, inflation operates, and an initially sufficient amount may cease to allow the acquisition of a similar asset. Therefore, the question of who should bear the economic consequences of such a delay also becomes important.