Are you buying a property for the first time and want to know where to report the purchase? Are you a foreigner in Poland and need consultation on legal steps after buying an apartment? Are you looking for an apartment to buy on credit? Are you the owner of a property without a land registry? You are at a right place!
In this article, we want to address the issue of the land registry and its role in the purchase and sale of real estate.
What is the land registry?
The land registry (referred to as LR in this article, Księga wieczysta in Polish) is a record kept by the court of the legal history of a property, regardless of its type (house, apartment, commercial premises, plot of land, etc.). Thanks to it, we are able to find out who is the owner, heir or tenant in perpetuity, what rights and restrictions they have on this account, and what the mortgage charges on the property are. This is especially important when buying an apartment or a plot of land from the secondary market. The status of the land registry is mentioned in the Law dated July 6th 1982 on Land Registers and Mortgages.
It is worth mentioning that the register of land registry is public and everyone has the right to inspect it for free. Currently, the Ministry of Justice maintains the Electronic Land Registry – a database through which you can view the records of a particular land registry at any time. To access the LR electronically, all you need is its number. So how to recognize it? It is a sequence of 15 digits and letters, which stand for 1) the code of the Land Registry Department of the relevant district court, 2) after the slash – the individual repertory number assigned at the time of creating the LR; 3) after the next slash – the so-called check digit.
If, for some reason, it is not possible to consult the land registry electronically, the LR kept in paper form comes in handy, however you will only get access to pre-2016 LR in this form – currently, the new registries are maintained only in an online form.
Beware of scammers on the Internet! Currently there are many advertising sites offering to provide you land registry data for a fee. Don’t let them fool you! As we have mentioned above, you can view the Land Registry for free.
How to read and understand the document itself?
The Land Registry, both in electronic and in traditional version, is divided into four sections.
In the first section you can find basic information identifying the property in question, i.e. its legal type, geodetic data, address data, description of the premises with its plan, or rights related to ownership. The documents that make it possible to gather such specifications are, among others, excerpts from the building register, the plot register or the registration map.
In the second section, you will find out who all the owners of a given property or persons entitled to a perpetual lease are, and the size of their shares. With this information, you will make sure that after buying a property in the future you will not be surprised by a mysterious former owner claiming a right to it.
In the third section you will learn about any restrictions unrelated to the mortgage, such as the pre-emption right, perpetual usufruct, unpaid land easement, etc.
The fourth section contains information on the mortgage incumbent on the property, as well as its administrator or creditor.
In addition to the land registry itself, there are also its records (Akta księgi wieczystej in Polish). This is a collection of all attachments pertaining to the property, such as official applications (e.g. application a land registry establishment), contracts, court decisions, excerpts from the National Court Register, authorizations.
In this case, however, not everyone can inspect these documents – in order to gain access to them, you must first prove a legal interest, such as a desire to purchase the property in question, or you must be a person listed in the register or a power of attorney of such.
When should a land register be established?
You should apply for a land registry establishment when the property you have purchased does not yet have one. What kind of properties can these be? First of all, those from the primary market, housing-association flat or those that are relatively older, as the custom of establishing a Land Registry became famous only in 1982. You also need to be vigilant, because the law does not mandate the establishment of a Land Registry, and therefore not all properties have one. So why is it worth establishing one? Because then you, as the owner, are legally protected, and can easily prove your ownership of a property.
Why is a land registry so important?
You need to pay special attention to it when you want to buy a property on credit – if it does not have a land registry, the loan for the property will not be granted. Why? Because without a LR it is not clear who has rights to the property, making it difficult for the bank to claim rights to it in case of non-payment of the loan. Also, he bank does not have the ability to include a reference to the mortgage security on the property in question.
What’s more, you can easily prove your right invoking an entry un LR – the Land Registry is a register whose veracity is certified by the State. In addition, it is worth knowing about the principle of the warranty of public credibility of land registry. Thanks to this principle, in the event of a discrepancy between the state recorded in the LR and the actual state, the dispute is resolved in favor of the new owner who was misled.
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This article was written with the help of experts from magfin.pl. MAGFIN is a service and consulting company that has been operating in Poland for 13 years. It supports companies in a variety of areas, including counseling, legalization of residence and work of foreigners, as well as intermediation in the purchase and rental of real estate, as well as helping to obtain credit. If you would like to use our expertise, we encourage you to visit the website and contact them directly at +48 531 510 005.
All the photos in the article are provided by the company(s) mentioned in the article and are used with permission.
