Damaging or destroying a state geodetic point (Art. 177⁹)

We damaged a geodetic mark during works. How much can the company be fined?

Under Article 177⁹ the fine for a legal entity is 500 to 1,000 lari, and for a natural person 200 to 500 lari. The exact figure within the range depends on the assessment of the authority, and whether that assessment is properly grounded can be checked.

The damage was accidental — is it still punishable?

The article addresses a breach of the protection rules followed by damage or destruction; it does not set out the forms of fault in detail, and that is a question for the proceedings. Do not treat the case as lost in advance — establishing the circumstances is done together with a lawyer.

The point was already damaged before we started. Am I liable?

The article contemplates a breach followed by damage or destruction, so the causal link is decisive. If the damage existed before your action, that is the central disputed fact of the case. It is established through documents and evidence, which is why preserving them matters.

How was I supposed to know a geodetic point was there?

The article does not regulate this question; the rules on recording points and on access to information about them are set by other normative acts. If this is central to your case, a lawyer will help you obtain and assess the relevant information.

4 min·22 Aug 2026

What Article 177⁹ is and when it is applied

Article 177⁹ of the Georgian Administrative Offences Code protects state geodetic points — the external marks and underground centres that form part of the state geodetic network. The norm is built in two steps: first there is a breach of the rules for the protection of state geodetic points, and that breach must be followed by damage to or destruction of the external marks or the underground centres. If you have received a penalty decision under this article, the authority's position is presumably that your action damaged or destroyed a point, and that it did so in breach of those protection rules.

In practice such cases most often arise against the background of construction, land improvement or field work, when the ground surface is disturbed, marks are pulled down or someone attempts to move them. This page explains what the article says exactly, what fines it provides for natural persons and for legal entities, and where the boundary runs at which the text of the article stops and the concrete circumstances of your case begin.

What the offence consists of

Under the text of Article 177⁹, the offence exists when two conditions are met together. The first is a breach of the rules protecting state geodetic points. The second is a consequence visited on a specific object: the external marks or the underground centres are damaged or destroyed. Both conditions matter. If the protection rules were breached but the point remained intact, or if the point is damaged but no breach of the protection rules is proved, the case is more complicated than it looks at first sight — and that is precisely where a lawyer raises legitimate questions.

The protection rules themselves — what is forbidden within the zone of a point, at what distance and as to which actions — are not set out in detail in this article; they are established by other normative acts. Article 177⁹ contains only the sanction for the case in which a breach of those rules is followed by damage to or destruction of the point.

Updated: 14 Oct 2026

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Unauthorised occupation of state-owned land (Art. 55⁵)Unauthorised occupation of municipal land outside Tbilisi (Art. 55⁶)Breach of the rules on topographic, geodetic and cartographic activity (Art. 177⁸)Unauthorised occupation of forest or protected area land (Art. 49)Failure to formalise the documents for use of state non-agricultural land (Art. 51³)Failure to return temporarily occupied land or restore it to usable condition (Art. 53)Unauthorised deviation from the land use and protection project (Art. 54)Unauthorised use of a water body (Art. 55)Unauthorised occupation of a land plot (Art. 55²)Removing and moving the fertile soil layer without a permit (Art. 51²)Using a land plot for a purpose other than its designated one (Art. 53²)Transferring a state land plot to another land user in breach of the rules (Art. 53³)Building a facility that harms the condition of the land (Art. 55¹)