Usufruct in Serbia (pravo plodouživanja): the agreement, notarisation, registration and deletion

What pravo plodouživanja (usufruct) means

Usufruct is a personal servitude: the right of a specific person (the usufructuary) to use someone else's thing and take all its fruits and income without impairing its substance. The owner is left with so-called bare ownership, a right that "fills up" again only when the usufruct ends.

On an apartment or house, usufruct means that the usufructuary lives in the property or lets it and keeps the rent, decides who lives there and uses it without restriction within its purpose. During that time the owner can neither use nor let the property, but may sell or mortgage it, with the usufruct remaining as an encumbrance. Usufruct is broader than the right of habitation (which only allows living in the apartment) and the right of use (which is limited to the holder's personal needs), and narrower than ownership, because the thing cannot be disposed of or substantially altered.

The Serbian word comes from taking fruits (plodovi), and in law fruits include civil fruits such as rent. The right is therefore useful for property that is let, not only for the apartment one lives in.

Usufruct and the law: which rules apply

Caution is needed here, because non-existent statutory articles are often cited online. Usufruct in Serbia is regulated neither by the Law on Contracts and Torts nor by the Law on Basic Property Relations (Zakon o osnovama svojinskopravnih odnosa, Sl. list SFRJ No. 6/80 and 36/90, Sl. list SRJ No. 29/96 and Sl. glasnik RS No. 115/2005 - other law). That law regulates only real servitudes in Art. 49 to 59, and in Art. 60 says that the rights of usufruct, use and habitation and the real charge "are regulated by law". Such a law was never passed.

The gap is filled by the Act on the Invalidity of Legal Regulations Adopted before 6 April 1941 and during the Enemy Occupation (Zakon o nevažnosti pravnih propisa donetih pre 6. aprila 1941. godine, Sl. list FNRJ No. 86/46). Under its Art. 4, legal rules from pre-war regulations may be applied to relations not regulated by current regulations, if they do not conflict with them. That is why courts, notaries and the Republic Geodetic Authority (RGZ) apply the legal rules of the Serbian Civil Code of 1844 (Srpski građanski zakonik) on personal servitudes (§ 371 to 392). In an appeal decision published in its cadastral legal practice, for example, the RGZ expressly based the registration of a usufruct on § 371 of that Code and Art. 60 of the Law on Basic Property Relations.

What those rules say, in short:

• there are three personal servitudes: use, enjoyment (usufruct) and habitation (§ 371),
• the usufructuary may enjoy the thing without restriction, without impairing its substance, and is entitled to all income, ordinary and extraordinary (§ 374 and 376),
• he or she bears the ordinary and extraordinary costs without which the fruits cannot be had and the charges attached to the thing, unless they exceed the net fruits (§ 377), and must look after the thing as a prudent householder and return it in the condition received (§ 378 and 381),
• new construction or reconstruction of a dilapidated building depends on a separate agreement with the owner (§ 379),
• personal servitudes end with the death of the person to whom they are tied (§ 392).

No new "usufruct act" was passed in 2025 or 2026. The preliminary draft of the Civil Code of the Republic of Serbia provides for personal servitudes, but it has not been adopted, so the situation described applies until it is. When reading other people's contracts or articles, check whether they cite real regulations.

Gift contract with a retained usufruct

The most common case in practice: a parent wants to transfer an apartment to a child during his or her lifetime, but to stay in it until death without anyone being able to evict them. The solution is a gift contract for real estate with a clause that the donor retains a lifelong usufruct. The child becomes the owner immediately and is registered in the cadastre, and the usufruct is registered as an encumbrance in favour of the parent.

Advantages: the parent keeps the housing and the income from the apartment, the child acquires ownership without probate, and there is no gift tax between parent and child. Limitations: the child can hardly sell or mortgage the apartment while the usufruct lasts, because a buyer acquires it with the encumbrance, and after the parent's death the gift is counted when calculating the other heirs' reserved share (Art. 48 of the Inheritance Act), which the gift contract page explains.

A usufruct can also be created by a separate agreement, without a gift: the owner creates it in favour of a spouse, parent or other person, with or without consideration. It can also be created by will, and it arises in probate when the heirs agree on it.

What a usufruct agreement contains (sample contents)

This is an overview of the clauses usually found in a usufruct agreement for real estate, not a ready-made form:

1. The parties and their kinship.
2. The property as recorded in the property sheet: cadastral municipality, plot, unit number and area, share.
3. Legal basis: a gift with retained usufruct or a stand-alone creation, with or without consideration.
4. Scope of the right: habitation, letting and collecting rent, the right to keep family members or other people in the apartment, possibly the owner's right to use part of the premises.
5. Duration: for life or for a fixed period; a clause that the right is personal, non-transferable and not inheritable.
6. Costs and maintenance: property tax, bills, building maintenance, routine and major repairs, insurance.
7. Duties of the usufructuary: keeping the thing as a prudent householder, no change of purpose or substance, notifying the owner of major faults.
8. Consent to registration of the usufruct in the cadastre as an encumbrance (clausula intabulandi).
9. Termination: the usufructuary's death, renunciation in the form of a notarial document, expiry of the term; who files for deletion and bears the costs.
10. Contract costs, the notary's clause and signatures.

The more precisely the scope of the right is described, the lower the chance of a dispute between the owner and the usufructuary, especially when the apartment passes to several heirs after the parent's death or when the child divorces.

Form, notarisation and cadastre registration

A contract creating a personal servitude must be concluded in the form of a notarially confirmed (solemnised) document (Art. 93(2)(3) of the Law on Notaries, Zakon o javnom beležništvu, Sl. glasnik RS No. 31/2011 ... 80/2026). When the usufruct is retained in a gift contract, the same follows from Art. 4 of the Real Estate Transactions Act (Zakon o prometu nepokretnosti), which requires a solemnised document for every transfer of ownership of real estate. A plain written contract with certified signatures is not enough and cannot be registered in the cadastre. The competent notary is the one for the area where the property is located.

The notary reads the contract to the parties, checks that they understand its effects and warns them of the consequences, and then sends the document to the cadastre through the e-counter within 24 hours for registration (Art. 23(5)(1) of the Act on the Procedure for Registration in the Real Estate and Infrastructure Cadastre, Zakon o postupku upisa u katastar nepokretnosti i katastar infrastrukture, Sl. glasnik RS No. 41/2018 ... 92/2023). Besides ownership, the cadastre records servitudes, mortgages and other rights in rem over real estate (Art. 8), so the usufruct is entered in the property sheet as an encumbrance. On a notary's filing, the office issues its decision within five working days (Art. 36(1)).

Registration is not a formality. Only a registered usufruct is effective against every later buyer or mortgagee. An unregistered right is valid between the contracting parties, but a buyer in good faith who relied on the cadastre may contest it.

Rights and duties: costs, property tax, sale and letting

Property tax is paid by the holder of the ownership right (Art. 2 and 4 of the Property Taxes Act, Zakon o porezima na imovinu, Sl. glasnik RS No. 26/2001 ... 94/2024), because usufruct is not among the rights that Act taxes. The contract may provide that the usufructuary refunds the tax to the owner, which matches the legal rule that the usufructuary bears the charges on the thing (§ 377), but towards the tax authority the owner remains the taxpayer.

Maintenance. Running costs, bills and routine maintenance are borne by the usufructuary, who uses the thing. Major repairs and reconstruction of a dilapidated building depend on agreement (§ 379), so the contract states who pays for them. The owner may demand security if the thing is at risk of destruction (§ 383).

Sale. The owner may sell the bare ownership; the buyer acquires the property with the registered encumbrance and must tolerate the usufruct until it ends. The usufructuary's consent is not needed for the sale, but without his or her renunciation a sale is rarely feasible, because buyers and banks avoid such an apartment.

Letting. The right to rent belongs to the usufructuary (§ 376). He or she concludes the lease in his or her own name and is the taxpayer for the income from real estate. The owner cannot let the apartment without the usufructuary's consent.

Transfer. A usufruct cannot be sold or gifted, and it ends with the usufructuary's death unless it was expressly created to pass to the heirs (§ 392). The usufructuary may renounce it, which ends it, and the renunciation is given in the form of a notarial document so that it can be registered.

Tax and costs

For a gift of real estate with a retained usufruct, gift tax is paid by the donee unless exempt. An heir of the first order (a child) and the donor's spouse pay no tax (Art. 21 of the Property Taxes Act), the second order pays 1.5% and others 2.5% (Art. 19). The special feature of usufruct: when a usufruct has been created over the gifted property, the tax liability arises only on the day that right ends or the property is sold, whichever comes first (Art. 17(3)). A donee who is not exempt therefore pays later, on the market value at that time.

The notary fee is calculated from the value of the property under tariff item 1 of the Notary Tariff: solemnisation is 60% of that fee, and 50% for a gift between parent and child. For a deed or solemnisation of a separate agreement creating a personal servitude the tariff also provides 50% of the tariff item 1 fee, and 20 points for a statement renouncing a usufruct. One point is worth RSD 180 excluding VAT. Cadastre registration and deletion are charged as a republic administrative fee; the amount depends on the type of entry and is checked on the website of the Republic Geodetic Authority before filing.

How a usufruct ends and is deleted from the cadastre

A usufruct ends with the usufructuary's death, on expiry of the period for which it was created, by renunciation, by destruction of the thing, and when ownership and usufruct merge in the same person (§ 387 to 392). In none of these cases does the cadastre change by itself: the entry stays until it is deleted.

Procedure after death: the owner obtains a death certificate (izvod iz matične knjige umrlih) and files a request to delete the encumbrance with the cadastre office through the e-counter, alone, through a lawyer or through a surveying firm with e-counter access (Art. 25 to 27 of the Act on the Procedure for Registration in the Real Estate and Infrastructure Cadastre). Entries whose validity has expired are deleted at the party's request or ex officio (Art. 50), and the request is decided within 15 days (Art. 36(2)). For renunciation during life, the usufructuary's notarially confirmed statement is filed. Only after deletion can the apartment be sold free of the encumbrance.

Common mistakes

• The contract cites non-existent statutory articles, so the notary asks for corrections.
• Only a "right of habitation" is retained instead of a usufruct, so the parent later cannot let the apartment.
• It does not say who pays property tax, repairs and bills, so a dispute starts as soon as the roof leaks.
• The gift is made without thinking about the other heirs' reserved share.
• After the usufructuary's death nobody files for deletion, which is discovered only at a sale.
• The usufruct is agreed but not registered in the cadastre, so a new buyer claims not to have known about it.

Sources

• Law on Basic Property Relations (Zakon o osnovama svojinskopravnih odnosa, Sl. list SFRJ No. 6/80 and 36/90, Sl. list SRJ No. 29/96 and Sl. glasnik RS No. 115/2005 - other law), Art. 49 and 60
• Act on the Invalidity of Legal Regulations Adopted before 6 April 1941 and during the Enemy Occupation (Zakon o nevažnosti pravnih propisa donetih pre 6. aprila 1941. godine, Sl. list FNRJ No. 86/46), Art. 4 (text available on paragraf.rs)
• Serbian Civil Code of 1844 (Srpski građanski zakonik), legal rules § 371 to 392 on personal servitudes
• Republic Geodetic Authority, cadastral legal practice: Registration of usufruct in the real estate cadastre (anonymised appeal decision)
• Law on Notaries (Zakon o javnom beležništvu, Sl. glasnik RS Nos. 31/2011 ... 80/2026), Art. 93
• Real Estate Transactions Act (Zakon o prometu nepokretnosti, Sl. glasnik RS Nos. 93/2014, 121/2014 and 6/2015), Art. 4
• Act on the Procedure for Registration in the Real Estate and Infrastructure Cadastre (Zakon o postupku upisa u katastar nepokretnosti i katastar infrastrukture, Sl. glasnik RS Nos. 41/2018 ... 92/2023), Art. 8, 23, 25-27, 36 and 50
• Property Taxes Act (Zakon o porezima na imovinu, Sl. glasnik RS Nos. 26/2001 ... 94/2024), Art. 2, 4, 17, 19 and 21
• Notary Tariff (Javnobeležnička tarifa, Sl. glasnik RS Nos. 91/2014 ... 59/2025), Art. 10 and tariff items 1, 2 and 9
• Inheritance Act (Zakon o nasleđivanju, Sl. glasnik RS Nos. 46/95, 101/2003 and 6/2015), Art. 48