Cadastre: A rescue plan for unrecognized property owners - TheNewspaper.gr

The Ministry of Digital Governance's new plan gives owners the opportunity to keep their properties in the cadastre from falling into public ownership. The ministry's anticipated new legislative initiative, as Deputy Minister of Digital Governance Konstantinos Kouranakis told the News, will include the following measures:

Extension of the correction period

First, extending the deadline to Nov. 30, 2024, for all court corrections of incorrect records that expire at the end of 2023.

Non-judicial dispute resolution

Second, starting in early 2024, a new procedure will be introduced for out-of-court dispute resolution between owners whose property has been determined to be an "unknown owner" and the state in which they may or have fallen in recent years.

Individual cadastral registration

Thirdly, as Konstantinos Kouranakis points out, renewals will be discontinued and there will be a transition to so-called "individual cadastral registration". How is this going to play out? "An interactive map will be created that will contain all the necessary information about every property in the entire country, where every interested person will be able to see what actions are required to register their property with the click of a mouse," he adds.

Breathlessness for thousands of owners

The new deadline/extension gives breathing space and leeway to many thousands of property owners in 111 areas of the country where Cadastral Offices are already operating, including 23 areas in Attica, to correct incorrect first entries and save their properties. It is noted that in these areas, according to sources well versed in the problem, out of 7,090,110 rights (properties), 389,836 (percentage 5.50%) belong to "unknown owner". If the incorrect first records are not corrected today, then owners permanently lose all illegally acquired property rights and thereafter they can only go to the courts for financial compensation, not to recover the property, unless the court favors restoration over compensation.

New opportunity

The State already has 14,484 properties that have been identified as "unknown owner". These properties are located in 36 districts across the country, where cadastral records were fixed in 2018 and no deadline for rectification was given (despite continuous protests by POMIDA and local administrations). The total number of rights recorded in these areas is 199,013, of which 14,484 (7.28%) relate to "unknown owner". There is no complete information on who owns the properties. However, the estimate says eight out of ten are already owned by the state.

Where does the new opportunity arise? "

"Through the above-mentioned legislative initiative, an attempt will be made to find a solution for those who lost their properties in 36 districts, and here through out-of-court settlement," emphasizes Konstantinos Kouranakis.

One of the preliminary stages before the change of the current situation regarding the "unknown owner" of the properties was the request document and the recent meeting of the Deputy Minister of Digital Governance with POMIDA before the upcoming end of the December 31, 2023 deadline for the judicial correction of incorrect first cadastral records in the Cadastral Offices, and the possible loss of a huge number of property rights. POMIDA requested to extend (in the first phase) the current effective period of correction of first records for one year, and in general to establish a twenty-year period from the start of the Cadastral Office to be able to exercise the rights of citizens to correct incorrect first records in areas that have been cadastrically registered, in order to harmonize with the Civil Code, which provides for the loss of property due to twenty years of "non-standard use".

Numbers, neighborhoods, percentages

The estimate is that the number of "unknown owner" properties is 170,000, most of which are land parcels.

Property: how to lose and keep it

Besides the aforementioned 36 districts where cadastral records were fixed in 2018 without renewal, nationwide properties are considered "unknown owner", for districts of old programs if they were not registered before December 31, 2023, and for new ones (from 2008 and later) if they were not registered within eight years of the opening of the Cadastral Office. Here, based on today's terms, an owner who was not included in the original records can only judicially claim financial compensation due to unjust enrichment. However, if financial compensation from the state is not possible, the person concerned may request the return of the real estate (as compensation). From 1998 to the present, it has been noted that "unknown owner" records are corrected - mostly by judicial means - although provision is made for correction by the simple "obvious error" procedure. This was happening for two reasons: First, because the state did not agree to the relevant changes even though it had no rights to the property. Secondly, because the heads of the Cadastral Offices systematically rejected the relevant applications and sent the cases to the courts. Henceforth, under the new law, property owners may apply to correct an apparent error in an "unknown owner" record, which must be notified to the state. Thus, if the State does not respond in writing within 60 days, then the head of the Cadastral Office (if the legal requirements are met) is obliged to correct the relevant record. However, if the state asserts its rights within the specified period, then the application for correction will be denied and the individual must go to court to correct the record.

Reactions

Owners react because the determination of incorrect first cadastral records has implications for the property. For example, failure to register an existing mortgage (or note) in the Cadastral List of a property means that this right is lost. In addition, incorrectly recording the percentage of co-ownership (e.g., 50% instead of 100%) results in a partial loss of ownership rights.