The article analyzes the constitutional and legal regulation of property relations in the Ukraine and European legislation. The author concludes that the absence of direct instruction on a social function of property in the former postsoviet countries can be explained by the conditions in which their constitutions were adopted and by the aims which they pursued. On the contrary, in the special legislation a social function of property is traced better. Roman jurisprudence viewed property as unlimited and exceptional domination of a person over a thing, as a right free from restrictions and absolute in its defense. "The owner has the right to do with his thing all that he is not directly prohibited," - so claimed Roman lawyers about the right to private property. This opinion prevailed throughout the entire period of the development of law, and it sounded most clearly in the era of the great bourgeois revolutions. However, the popularity of social studies gradually growing in society led to the fact that the concept of the social function of property was reflected in the constitutional legislation of European states. This direction of development of legislation was part of the overall process of socialization of property. The general requirement to act honestly and reasonably while implementing the property right follows from provisions of the same principle established among the main beginnings of the civil legislation which can be considered as the general restriction of the property right. The article concludes etymologically, means to set some borders, limits in implementation of the right there-fore it is necessary to understand the bounds established in implementation of competences of the owner on possession, use and the order of property and also the measure of his due behavior established by the law in civil circulation as restriction of the property right. To encumber means to impose a burden of execution of any hardships. So, by the general rule the owner bears a burden of maintenance of the property belonging to it, i.e. he is obliged to contain property in proper condition, to make concerning property of action, ordered by sanitary, veterinary, fire protection and other standards and to fulfill other requirements.