The Cadastre of Real Estate is a public register that contains various information about the real estate registered in it. The creation, modification or extinction of rights to these immovable properties is then effective only after it has been entered in the cadastral register by the competent cadastral authority.
For example, when buying an apartment, we must first conclude a written contract of sale with the other party and then take it to the Land Registry together with a proposal for the registration of the ownership right for the buyer. The cadastre then registers the ownership right for the buyer after the payment of the administrative fee, and only then is the change in the person of the owner successfully completed. However, various mistakes can occur in the whole process, which then mean unnecessary delays. If you want to save yourself complications, you can leave everything to the experts who will prepare everything for you from the contract itself, through the proposal for the entry of the related right to the property into the land register to the eventual escrow of the purchase price.
Tip: how to read the extract from the Land Registry? We will advise you!
Errors can occur in the deed of registration itself, i.e. in the document on the basis of which a specific right to real estate is registered in the cadastre. Most often, this will be a contract of sale or donation, a contract for the establishment of an easement or a lien, which must be attached in one copy to the application for registration. You must have heard or read countless times that it is not a good idea to rely on freely available model contracts on the internet.
Although it sounds like a cliché and one would think that there can’t be anything too difficult to do on such a contract, the land registry will not forgive you for some deficiencies in such a contract. The deed of deposit is subject to review by the Land Registry to ensure that it meets all legal requirements. One of them is, for example, the correct designation of the property concerned in accordance with the Land Registry Act, e.g. the land parcel number and the cadastral area where it is located (so you cannot designate the property at your own discretion).
Another common error is the lack of information about the real estate in respect of which the registration of the right is proposed, whereby the addition of such information would constitute an impermissible extension of the application for registration (for example, there is a difference in how to define a housing unit that was created under the old Act on Ownership of Flats and how to define a unit that has already been created under the new Civil Code). And if you would like to donate the property to your spouse, do not forget to clearly define in the donation contract whether you are donating it to them as community property or as co-owners, otherwise you will also have a problem at the land registry.
Hint: What doesn’t a preview of the cadastre tell you?
Measure twice, cut once. That goes for official filings as well. Enrolment in the Land Registry is a formality, but a very important formality that is not to be underestimated. Do you need to register an easement in the Land Registry? Or a lien so you don’t lose the money you borrowed?
It may also happen that there is a discrepancy between the information in the deposit document and the deposit application itself. In such a case, the cadastral office is bound by the deposit application and if the data in the application and the deposit document do not correspond, it cannot authorise the deposit application. For example, in the case of residential units defined according to the formerly valid Act on Ownership of Flats, the share in the land belonging to the unit is transferred together with the unit. If this share is mentioned in the application for registration but not in the registration document, the cadastral office will not register the right. Or, on the contrary, the deed of registration lists the dwelling unit including the co-ownership shares in all related land (the land on which the house is located and other related land, e.g. the garden), but the co-ownership share is no longer present in the application for registration. This can happen quite easily if the related land is registered on a different title deed than the unit itself. In the interactive application form, the co-ownership share of the related land must then be filled in manually, which is easy to forget.
The defects described above are so-called irremediable defects and the Land Registry will not allow the proposed entry as a result. The Land Registry will advise you that you can withdraw your proposal for registration, which all parties must agree to. This is a quicker way than waiting for the decision of the land registry to reject the application for registration, as the 30-day period for filing a special action under Part V of the Code of Civil Procedure, which cannot be shortened in any way, will then run, and only after this period has expired can the reapplication be heard (any new proceedings will be suspended until then). Therefore, if you withdraw the application for registration, you must subsequently correct the defects in the registration document or application and resubmit everything to the land registry office. Unfortunately, you will not be able to avoid paying the administrative fee again, which is already CZK 2,000 for the application for registration of a right as of 1 January 2020.
There are also defects that can be removed at the request of the cadastral office. For example, if the signature on the deposit document is not officially certified, it is possible to appear at the cadastral office in person and have the signature recognised as your own. However, if a party does not sign the deed at all, this is a defect that cannot be removed in the context of the deposit procedure. If you do not pay the administrative fee together with the application for registration, you can do so subsequently upon the request of the cadastral office.
Therefore, if you want to save yourself unnecessary nerves when dealing with your property, you can either choose one of our service packages or we will prepare a service tailored to your needs.
Measure twice, cut once. That goes for official filings as well. Enrolment in the Land Registry is a formality, but a very important formality that is not to be underestimated. Do you need to register an easement in the Land Registry? Or a lien so you don’t lose the money you borrowed?
Ondřej is the attorney who came up with the idea of providing legal services online. He's been earning his living through legal services for more than 10 years. He especially likes to help clients who may have given up hope in solving their legal issues at work, for example with real estate transfers or copyright licenses.
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