By Oleksandr Vrublevskyi, DESPRO expert consultant of the project on starostas’ activity and cooperation of hromadas

It is hard to imagine that starosta can promptly and efficiently exercise his powers without using a service car. This is especially difficult when a starosta district consists of several settlements. We have already discussed how a local self-government body can purchase a car for starosta in one of the previous articles. In this publication, I suggest talking about rent and loan as other ways of providing starostas with service vehicles, and also related legal nuances.

A car loan agreement concluded between a local self-government body that is a legal entity and a natural person (a citizen) does not require a mandatory notarial certification. This means that the notarial certification of a car loan agreement concluded between, for example, the executive committee of the village council and a natural person – the owner of the car, can be carried out exclusively by their agreement.

Signing of a car rental agreement on a free-of-charge basis is a violation of civil law, and such a contract may be declared null and void. If the owner of the car intends to transfer it for use free of charge, then it is necessary to conclude a loan agreement.

A rental agreement may envisage recurrent review, change (indexation) of the amount of payment for the car use.

The conclusion of a car rental agreement for an indefinite period has the risk that each party to the rental agreement, concluded for an indefinite period, may refuse from the document at any time by notifying the other party in writing one month in advance (paragraph 2 of part 2 of article 763 CCU).

P.S. Additional questions that follow from this article can be put to the author at the forum of starostas http://forum.decentralization.gov.ua

The full version is available in Ukrainian – please click HERE