Status of the Land Registrar in each country

What is the status of the Land Registrar in your country:

a) Who is responsible for performing the act of registration of property rights?

Property rights are registered by the Territorial Registrar, which is the unit of the Keeper of the Real Property Register and is established by the Central Registrar (the Keeper of the Real Property Register consists of a central unit, i.e. the Central Registrar, and territorial units, i.e. Territorial Registrars).

b) In case of doubt/appeal, who decides? c) Must he/she have a legal educational background?

A decision made by the Territorial Registrar may be appealed against to the Central Registrar using the out-of-court procedure for the preliminary investigation of appeals. Appeals are investigated and decisions are made by the Commission established by the Central Registrar. A member of this Commission is not required to have a legal education, however, persons with legal education are also included in the activities of this Commission.

A decision made by the Central Registrar may be appealed against to the administrative court. Judges of the administrative court must have legal education.

d) Could you characterize the act of registration as a purely administrative duty or a quasi-judicial one?

This act is purely administrative duty (not a quasi-judicial or judicial one).

e) Is the Land Registrar independent in his/her decision making? If yes, how does your legal system assures such functional independence (i.e. the decisions are only challenged before a court).

Staff, authorised by the Territorial Registrar, make decisions independently or under supervision of the higher qualification specialist. This depends on the qualification category, which the specialist has (there are the following categories (ranging from the lowest to the highest one): registrar-assistant, registrar, senior registrar and registrar-expert). Legal acts establish that decisions on the registration of legal facts shall be made by the specialist with the qualification category not lower than the registrar; decisions on registration of real rights – by the specialist with the qualification category not lower than the senior registrar.

Legal acts do not provide for any special independence guarantee for the registrars. Decisions made by the Territorial Registrars may be appealed against to the Central Registrar. Final decision of the Keeper of the Real Property Register may be appealed against only to the court, i.e. decision made by the Central Registrar may be annulled only by the court, for example, it cannot be annulled by any ministry, government, parliament, etc.

Thus, when making a decision, the Keeper of the Real Property Register (as a unit) is functionally independent from the executive or legislative powers.