Presentation of applications

1. LR territorial organisation. In your LR system, applications of registrations or documents for registration must be presented, lodged or taken to:

Spanish LR system is territorially organised. Documents for registration must be presented, lodged or taken to Units or Land Offices in which LR organisation is divided into.

In Spain there are a thousand Land Registries organised by territorial principles. Each one has got an exclusive territorial district or jurisdiction (the so called “Distrito Hipotecario”)

Only in urgent cases, under formal and strict conditions, documents might to be presented in not territorially competent Land Registry. In practice, this happens hardly ever.

You could find territorially competent Land Registries in www.registradores.org

2. Please, indicate those means whereby one can present applications or documents in your LR Offices and point the main features.

In these Land Registries you can present your document in person or by means of a representative.

Of course, document can be presented by mail. In this case its arrival time (we mean hour and minute) couldn’t be so clear. So it is advisable for documents with no concerns about LR priority.

Electronic proceedings-wise, the Colegio de Registradores has implemented a Portal for electronic presentation of deeds or documents based on advanced electronic signature. Only Public Notaries are carrying it out actually, in spite of Legislation provisions about that Judges and Courts, Public Administrations, other practitioners different from Notaries or citizens are entitled to present documents by electronic means in the Land Registries.

Once deeds have been drawn up, Public Notaries usually upload to Colegio de Registradores Portal an authorised electronic copy. If these copies comply all the formalities, it would be necessary nothing else to proceed to LR legal assessment and registration but usually we’ll have to look for taxation payment, which is a prerequisite in Spanish LR system.

It’s important to warn that Spanish LR system doesn’t accept documents presented by e-mail.

Finally, fax is still now a usual mean to present documents through Public Notaries Offices. What Public Notaries present by telefax is not the document itself but an extract of it that is legally enough to cause a presentation and consequently an entry in the LR Journal.

Judges and Courts and Public Administrations are entitled to rely on presentation by means of fax.

This presentation by means of fax depends on a condition: an authorized copy (electronic or paper) of the document must be taken to Land Registry during the following ten working days for reaffirming the presentation.

Otherwise, the presentation will perish and its entry (entry of presentation or presentation entry) will be cancelled.

3. Does the fact of the presentation of the document (or application for registration) lead any type or entry or annotation in the LR Office books?

It’s important to remark that the fact of the presentation of documents does lead a particular entry in the LR Office books (the so called “asiento de presentación”) that is written down or annotated in he LR Journal.

Anyway, entry of presentation is the gate of registration. After taking place, LR procedure will be continued. The new stage will be the legal scrutiny by the Land Registrar in charge and his/her decision of making registration in LR Books or not.

Presentation entries are complemented by marginal notes indicating the successive stages of the LR procedure. Using mostly an official model of presentation entry, one of them in English would be more or less like this:

4. In case of presentation based on temporary or provisional entries, please point specifically deadlines of them and also main features.

These entries are temporary. They are in force for a time-limit of 60 working days.

This period may be extended in certain cases but is kept firmly. For instance, one of these cases is to challenge or appeal a Land Registrar decision not favourable to the registration requested, namely abeyance or rejection.

5. Is the payment of taxes a necessary condition or prerequisite for making the registration?

The payment of taxes is legally a prerequisite for making the registration.

More exactly: sometimes acts or contracts contained in deeds are exempt from taxes. Then, as for this prerequisite, tax statement of payment will be replaced for another statement of exemption. In cases of succesions and lifetime gifts, it’s enough to make a presentation of your statement for taxes.

6. Is it possible to digitally submit documents to the land registry? Are there any restrictions with regard to the type of document that can be digitally submitted or is digital submission possible for all types of documents?

Yes. Notarial documents are digitally submitted in most cases. Notaries are obliged to offer this possibility to clients and will not make such digital submission if expressly requested no to do so. Administrative documents are already submitted mostly by digital means. Submission of judicial documents by digital means is becoming more difficult: although foreseen, uses in this area, the intervention of the prosecutor, and the means available to the courts are delaying its generalization. In the few cases in which it’s possible to submit private documents to the Land Registry, digital submission is not acceptable, due to the difficulty of identifying the electronic signature through an official platform, by means of the corresponding csv (secure validation code). But it’s possible to request for legal information on properties through our internet portal.

• Which form of submission is used more frequently – digital or non-digital? If possible, could you please provide an indication in percentages?
  Most of notarial and administrative documents are digitally submitted, but it’s quite difficult to state a percentage, as far as some documents digitally submitted can’t complete their processing in this way, insofar as new documents need to be added, and are presented in paper – I mean, crediting the payment of taxes, or adjoining technical certificates – or the main document itself is afterwards presented in paper.
  

7. Are there any restrictions to the digital submission of documents? For example, is it necessary that the person offering the document for registration has a validated digital signature?

 Of course, a validated digital signature is necessary. And digital submission does not mean to envy documents by means of an e-mail, but through corresponding secure portals that can guarantee the integrity and the identity of the author of the document.

8. Is it still possible to submit paper documents to the land registry?

Of course.

9. Is it cheaper/more expensive to offer paper documents to the land registry? Could you provide a price indication for the registration of a deed of transfer (both digital and on paper)?

It affects mainly the drafting of the presentation record. Presentation of paper documents will cost 6€ in any case. Digital presentation may cause more costs, as the Land Registry first confirms the reception of the document and then certificates the drafting of the presentation record. Moreover, when registration is completed in case of paper documents, they’re given back to the one presenting them with the explanation of the operations carried out in the Land Registry. In the event of digital documents, we must notify both the designated presenting person, and the notary, if not the same, or the court.