WHEREAS:
The European Union normative environment and the free circulation of judicial and non-judicial documents requires a comprehensive knowledge of national systems information.
As regards Land Registry Information, there has been an increasing demand of its interconnection not only for conveyancing, cross-border succession and financial market purposes, but also for judicial cooperation since it is accepted as evidence and also for the fight against money laundering.
Registries, endowed with public faith, provide accurate information with legal effects, generated by the labour of experts that perform a previous legality check of the documents – the Registrars.
In the field of private procurement, Registries enhance trust and contribute to economic growth and social peace.
Registries are national authorities who play a role similar to the one of a supervision or regulatory body, or to the one of a court of law.
The Land Registrar’s decisions are the expression of the State’s power.
THEREFORE:
ELRA, accordingly, to the Declaration on Land Registry Principles and for the purpose of providing accurate legal information on immovables, with full respect for the national Land Registry systems, considers as fundamental attributes of the Registrar’s profession, as follows:
1. Land registrars are the professionals who, according to the national legislation, decides the registration of real rights or other rights over immovables. The Land Registrar should be an expert in land registry law.
2. No matter to which State power the Land Registry national authority is subordinate, the Registrar’s decision must be an independent decision, only subject to the legal premises – to law.
3. Land Registrar’s function should be, preferably, exercised on an exclusive basis.
4. While representing the State Authority, the State shall protect the content of the Land Register and be responsible of it, directly or through its civil servants.
5. In order to accomplish their mission, Land Registrars should benefit of stability in their appointment, professional integrity, legal protection and adequate level of profesional training and motivation. Qualified professionals have to be designated through a transparent procedure and properly remunerated.
6. In a world under permanent technological changes, Land Registrar should adapt to new IT solutions without subordination to them, keeping their sovereignity on decision making.
7. Land Registrars should contribute to a more harmonized, transparent and secure interoperability of LR information between Member States, making it more accessible to all law professionals and promoting legal certainty.
Brussels, May 2023