Responsible Agency

1. Which agency/government body/authority is responsible for land registration?

According to 23rd article of Act of 6 July 1982 on land and mortgage registers and on mortgage: The keeping of land and mortgage registers shall belong to the competence of district courts. Relevant court acts regarding the keeping of land and mortgage registers may be performed by court registrars.

2. If the responsibility for property registration is dealt with by an agency/authority, to which government department is it responsible to?

The Ministry of Justice.

According to 36 (1) article of Act of 6 July 1982 on land and mortgage registers and on mortgage: For the purpose of keeping land and mortgage registers in the information technology system, the Minister of Justice shall create and maintain a central land and mortgage registers’ database which shall constitute the national collection of land and mortgage registers kept in the system.

3. How is the organization managed?

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4. Describe the organisational framework

In Poland there are 242 district courts and 228 departments of land and mortgage register in some of them.

According to 36(3) article of Act of 6 July 1982 on land and mortgage registers and on mortgage:The performance of relevant acts connected with the keeping of the land and mortgage registers in the central land and mortgage registers’ data base shall belong to district courts whose task is to set up and keep land and mortgage registers in the information technology system.

5. How is the agency/government body/authority funded?

District courts are mainly directly financed by the state annual budget.

6. Are the staff of the agency/government, department/authority civil servants?

No they aren’t. The staff are: judges and registrars and the staff are permanent.

The responsibility for hiring of staff has a President of the district court.

They are not any of the land registration services contracted out.

7. Who is responsible for cadastral/mapping information? Is it the same organisation or a separate agency/department?

Cadastral and mapping information is responsible for register of land and buildings. Register of land and buildings are kept by local authority offices.

8. What are the principal functions of the registering department/agency/authority?

According to 1 article of Act of 6 July 1982 on land and mortgage registers and on mortgage: Land and mortgage registers shall be kept in order to establish the legal state of immovable property.

9. What are the key values/principles underpinning registration of title in your system?

The Land Register in Poland is based on the 7 following rules (so called «seven golden rules”) :

1.    The rule of judiciary, what means that land register being governed by the judiciary.
2.    The rule of generality, what means that land register entries should be established for all real estates.
3.    The rule of registration, what means that the court makes an entry to the land register in opposition to simple acknowledgement of documents.
4.    The rule of declarative nature of entry, what means that Polish law did not adopt a system, according to which the very fact of entry being made, results in creation of subjective right (lack of constitutive effect), with some exceptions
5.    The rule of publicity and openness (formal), according to which everyone has a right to browse the land register in the presence of court employee.
6.    The presumption of land register credibility (rule of material openness), according to the legal act we need to presume that the legal entry to the land register is made according to the actual legal status.
7.    The guarantee of public trust (legal certainty) in land register what means that in case of discrepancy between the legal status disclosed in the land register and actual legal status, the entry in the land register speaks in favour of the person, who, through the legal action is the person disclosed in the land register.

10. What registration system of property do you have in your country (title/deed)?

A title system which guarantees registration of real rights