Registering rights derived from acts between a married person and a third party
1. When a married person becomes the owner of a registered property, which special requirements derived from his/her civil status must be taken into consideration in order to get the new title registered in the Land Registry?
In case the married person becomes the sole owner of a registered property, the consent of the other spouse is needed.
2. How the registration in favor of a married person would be done? Would any interested party be able to know by checking the land registry information any restriction in the powers of the owner derived from the matrimonial property regime?
The matrimonial regime is a mandatory information to be entered in the Land Registry
It is a restriction in the powers of the proprietors, in case both spouses appear as proprietors in jointly ownership.
Practical case 1
Janos, who is married to Elena under a matrimonial economic regime of community of joint assets, buys an immovable property. He signs the deed of transfer before a local notary, acting solely and on his own, without any intervention of his wife Maria. The deed of transfer is sent to the Registry for registration.
The Land Registry relies on the deed authenticated by the notary.
Although the notary shall mention the marital status of the buyer in order to establish the way the property right has been acquired.
There are two situations: either Janos acquires the property right under the community of goods, without the intervention of his spouse, or, by the consent of his spouse, expressed by her statement, he becomes the exclusive owner of the property.
In both cases, the marital status and the means of acquisition of the property right shall be highlighted in the Land Registry.
If there is no mention about the marital status of Janos (this is very rare in practice) the notary will be requested to do so. If the marital status is mentioned in the deed, it will be reflected in the land registry record.
Also, the land registrar will play an active role in case there are doubts regarding the matrimonial regime.
In most cases, the matrimonial regime is mentioned in the deed. No other proof is required.
If Janos and Maria have a REM under a foreign law, the only condition to be fulfilled is that the REM is recognized by Romanian law.
Practical case 2
Pierre is married to Michelle and although the matrimonial property regime established by the applicable law is a joint community one, the same law allows the spouses to modify that legal regime adopting a different one which is the property separation of assets regime, for which purpose they both sign a matrimonial property agreement modifying their matrimonial community property regime into a separation of assets one.
When Michelle buys the right of usufruct on an immovable asset, she appears on her own in the contract of sale and the transfer deed and she wants that the registration to be made in such a manner that no restriction or limitation derived from her marriage appear in the registry.
The registration of the right in Michelle’s name is conditioned by the proof of REM. According to Romanian law, there is a legal presumption that spouses have a co-ownership without shares, when no matrimonial regime is registered.
