Last updated: 4 October 2018
The lack of cadastre, along with the overlaying of land plots and the identification of landowners are the main obstacles to the development of real estate investments.
Through successive legal changes, the legislator has tried to simplify the systematic registration of real-estate. Thus Law no. 185/2018, amending Law no. 7/1996 on cadastre and real-estate registration, published on 23 July 2018 in Official Journal no. 638, tries to provide a solution to the most recent issues raised by real-estate developers. However, the success of these steps will largely depend on how the authorities implement the new changes and whether they will do it in a timely manner.
Before we present to you these changes, please note that the systematic registration of real-estate is aimed at registering immovable assets in the unique cadastral system, in order to create an electronic database of all data regarding the legal and technical status of lands and buildings.
ANCPI FUNDS CADASTRAL REGISTRATIONS FOR STATE-OWNED ASSETS
The managers of assets publicly or privately owned by the State are required to register in the integrated system of cadastre and land register all agricultural lands publicly and/or privately owned by the State and located outside of built-up areas, land and water surfaces, including the lands permanently covered by water and the beaches from the “Danube Delta” Reservation. These actions are deemed to be urgent according to the Law.
The cadastre works will be funded through the National Program for Cadastre and Land Registration, created for the free registration of real-estate property in the integrated system of cadastre and land registration, the elaboration of the cadastral map of real-estate property and the creation of land registers for all administrative and territorial units.
Administrators of the public and/or private domain of the State may begin submitting funding applications le 24 September 2018 (namely 60 days from the entry into force of the amending law).
We remind you that, under the National Program for Cadastre and Land Registration, the National Agency for Cadastre and Real-Estate Registration bears the costs for the issuance by the notaries public of certificates of inheritance, certificates regarding real-estate properties subject to systematic registrations.
REGISTRATION OF POSSESSION
The new law allows the registration of possession in the technical documents if documents proving legal ownership are missing. This will be done based on a procedure for the identification of possessors, implemented by persons authorized for this purpose and by the representatives of the city halls.
This is a procedure prior to the registration of real-estate in the land register. Therefore, possession registered as such in the technical documentation will be recorded later in the land registers open after the completion of the systematic registration process.
From now on, this procedure also applies to real-estate property located in the built-up areas which was has been the subject of property restitution laws, and to real-estate property located in the areas that used to belong to cooperatives and for which the restitution process has been finalized by the issuing of ownership documents.
In addition, Law no. 185/2018 eliminates the final stage of the systematic registration of cadastre works, namely the issuance by the notary public of the certificate recording possessors as owners in the land register.
REGISTRATION OF DIFFERENT OWNERS OF THE SAME REAL ESTATE
The new amendments present the procedure to be followed when the systematic registration reveals several owners of the same real-estate property, who acquired ownership rights based on different legal documents. In such case, the authorities will establish a single land register, where they will mention the existence of this issue. The ownership right will not be recorded and such recording will be made at a later date, pursuant to a final court ruling, with the simultaneous and automatic deletion of the mention.
REGISTRATION IN THE LAND REGISTER BASED ON THE REORGANIZATION CERTIFICATE
The law regulates the status of ownership rights and other real rights over real-estate property when a company undergoes reorganization. Thus, in such a case, real-estate property will be recorded in the land register on the basis of a certificate acknowledging the transfer through reorganization following merger or acquisition, concluded by a notary public in Romania. This certificate acknowledges the transfer of real-estate property pursuant to a decision of the general meeting of shareholders/decision of the sole shareholder approving the merger/spin-off, the court ruling regarding the lawfulness of the operation and the proof of registration of the merger/spin-off in the Trade Register.