Land registration is a procedure of public administration aiming at entering the rights and recording the facts relating to landed or other real estates, or the changes that happened in the land/property and the data of the entitled persons. The most important information of the land registration procedure is given below; the steps of the procedure are the following:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Steps of case management in the land registration procedure:
1. Submission of documents (notification or application or letter of request)
2. Registration of the application (arrival stamp, serial number)
3. Recording of the marginal note onto the property sheet
4. Checking the content and form of the application and its enclosures
5. In case of need: Call for the submission of missing necessary documents,
certificates (within 30 days)
6. Making the decision
7. Delivering the decision (1. to the interested parties and 2. to the Duty Office.)Application
Obligatory legal representation
Document serving as a basis of entry
Reporting the changes in dataMarginal note
Case management deadline
Prompt case management (on request)
Managing the applicationsSubmission of missing documents
Suspending the procedure
Appeal
Application for legal remedy at the court
Administrative servicing fee for the procedure
The procedure starts on the request by the client or with a letter of request by the authority. A general rule: only those rights or facts can be entered into the registration, which were indicated in the application or letter of request. Creation, change or cancellation of any right or fact can only be registered if it was previously applied for.
Application should be submitted within 30 days from the date of creation of the contract (legal statement) serving as a basis of registration to the territorially competent district land office, using the regular form designed for that purpose.
Before the district land office made its decision in the case, the application can be withdrawn by a joint statement of the contractual parties and submitted as a private or official document countersigned by an attorney. If so, the land office terminates the proceedings.
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Obligatory legal representation
In all those procedures started on application, in which a document prepared by public notary or a private document countersigned by an attorney will serve as a basis of registering the change in rights, the legal representation is obligatory. Legal representative can be an attorney, an attorney’s office or a public notary representing his/her client.
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Document serving as a basis of entry
To the application, two originals and one copy of the document serving as a basis of registration are to be attached, together with other documents necessary for recording and deciding about the stamp duty. If the application arrives without the necessary documents, the land office must refuse the application without call for missing documents. Registration of rights and recording of facts can only happen on the basis of official documents described in the Act CXLI/1997 on land registration.
In the above mentioned act there is an itemized list of registrable rights and recordable facts. Beyond those ones, exclusively those rights can be registered and those facts can be recorded in the land registration system, which are provided by the law. Besides those documents, it is also determined by law, what kind of other documents are to be submitted (permit of an authority, certificate, approval, ground plan etc.) in the interest of making the request grantable.
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The owner of the property, the organisation exercising the ownership rights, the trustee or the user is obliged to report within 30 days to the territorially competent district land office any change that happened in the borderline of the plot, the cultivation line of the land parcel, or the quality of the soil. It is also an obligation in the case of establishing or demolishing of any building or other construction indicated in the land registration system.
If the change influences the content of the cadastral map, then a sketch map of changes is also necessary, prepared according to a separate rule of law and having the valid clause of the district land office. If this sketch map of changes is connected with an official document serving as a basis of the change, then all those who signed the document should sign the sketch map of changes too.
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Marginal note
In the case of an application influencing the content of the property sheet, the registration number will be written on the property sheet on the day of submission; this means that the property sheets has a marginal note. This marginal note shows that the procedure was started; it marks the sequence of case management and the rank of the case too. This is a kind of information about that the land office in this phase has not decided yet, if they would approve or refuse the application.
About the start of the procedure, the land office will notify within 5 days the client if the cancellation of his/her registered ownership right was applied for, and the client against whom the registration of purchase right was applied for. Land office sends the notification to the address/residence figuring in the land registration system.
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Land office has to issue a substantive decision – if nothing is missing and management is not hindered by anything – within 30 days after the arrival of the application to the land office. In the case, if the application refers to more than 30 independent properties or more than 30 interested parties; the substantive decision should be issued within 90 days.
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Prompt case management in special cases (on request)
In accordance with the Act CXLI/1997 on land registration, an application should be settled especially prompt if so provided by the law (e.g. registration of right of enforcement or right of mortgage based on the request of credit institution etc.) or, in a justified case, on the request of the client, the head of the district land office gives out a written permit to do so.
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Land office has to settle the applications in the sequence of the registration numbers and following the rules of law that are valid at the time of the submission. In that case if several applications arrive at the same time (same day), the sequence of settling the applications is determined by the date of issue of the attached official documents serving as basis of registration.
If the application is complete, the land office approves the request, in other words, issues a simplified or formal decision about the registration. While approving the request, the land office updates the property sheet – and if necessary, the cadastral map too – with the change and after that they put the decision on the mail. If the land office establishes that the insufficiency of the application is not reparable, then, depending on the sort of insufficiency, they issue an order or a decision about the refusal.
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If the application, the attachment or the official document serving as basis of registration has got a reparable insufficiency, a call for missing document should be sent within 15 days after the arrival of the application, indicating the submission deadline for missing documents.
If the application can only partly be approved, the land office issues a call for missing documents, asking the applicant for a declaration if he/she keeps up the application for the approvable part. If no declaration arrives, the land office will arrange the approvable part and refuses the rest.
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The procedure can be suspended in line with the Para. 32 of the Act on public administration procedures and Para. 47 of the Act on land registration. As provided by the Act on land registration, the procedure can be suspended if one of the parties disputes the originality of the official document, or a dispute emerges among the parties concerning the person authorized to a right or a fact. In such cases, the procedure can be suspended on condition the parties can prove that they had started a civil case to establish the invalidity of the official document. A statement of claim registered at the court or its authenticated copy can be accepted as certificate. The land office will issue an order about the suspension of the procedure.
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An appeal can be submitted against the decision of the district land office within 30 days, against an order within 15 days after the receipt of the decision/order respectively.
Based on the appeal, the district land office supervises its decision. Depending on the result of this second check, land office can correct, complete, modify or withdraw the injurious decision within its competence in 8 days after the receipt of the appeal. In the case of refusal, if the client – parallel with the submission of the appeal – could recover the insufficiency indicated in the original decision, the appeal should be considered as an application for new procedure.
If the district land office has no way to settle the case within its own competence, the appeal together with the relevant documents should be forwarded to the county land office for judgement. The county land office is obliged to judge the appeal within 30 days from the receipt. The county land office can approve or modify the decision attacked with appeal; the county land office can also cancel the decision and instruct the district land office to start a new procedure.
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Application for legal remedy at the court
An application for legal remedy by the court can be submitted against the decision of the county land office at the competent district land office within 30 days after the receipt of the decision.
Based on the application for legal remedy by the court, the county land office can also settle the case in its own competence. If they see no opportunity for that, the county land office forwards the application and the documents within 8 days to the competent court. During judicial proceedings, the insufficiencies of the documents serving as basis of the registration cannot be completed anymore.
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