A condition which determines the location of technical infrastructure is an entrepreneur holding the right to use the property for construction purposes. Currently, there are parallel separate legal forms allowing the use of a real property for the purpose of locating transmission lines, i.e. transmission easement (right-of-way) established under the civil law and expropriation by limiting the rights to a property under the administrative law. The aim of the study is to compare these forms conferring the right to use real properties and to analyze the related surveying and legal problems occurring in practice. The research thesis of the article is ascertainment that the current legal provisions for establishing legal titles to a property in order to locate transmission lines need to be amended. The conducted study regarded legal conditions, extent of expropriation and granting right- of-way in the city of Krakow, as well as the problems associated with the ambiguous wording of the legal regulations. Part of the research was devoted to the form of rights to land in order to carry out similar projects in some European countries (France, Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden). The justification for the analysis of these issues is dictated by the scale of practical use of the aforementioned forms of rights to land in order to locate technical infrastructure. Over the period of 2011-2014, 651 agreements were concluded on granting transmission right-of-way for 967 cadastral parcels owned by the city of Krakow, and 105 expropriation decisions were issued, limiting the use of real properties in Krakow.

Amendment to the Act on special rules of preparation and implementation of investment in public roads resulted in an accelerated mode of acquisition of land for the development of roads. The decision to authorize the execution of road investment issued on its basis has several effects, i.e. determines the location of a road, approves surveying division, approves construction design and also results in acquisition of a real property by virtue of law by the State Treasury or local government unit, among others. The conducted study revealed that over 3 years, in this mode, the city of Krakow has acquired 31 hectares of land intended for the implementation of road investments. Compensation is determined in separate proceedings based on an appraisal study estimating property value, often at a distant time after the loss of land by the owner. One reason for the lengthy compensation proceedings is challenging the proposed amount of compensation, unregulated legal status of the property as well as imprecise legislation. It is important to properly develop geodetic and legal documentation which accompanies the application for issuance of the decision and is also used in compensation proceedings.