Limitations

There are two important types of rights that are not included in the Register.

First, The Right of Public Access gives everybody the freedom to roam the Swedish countryside. It means you can walk much anywhere in the countryside. The exceptions are to ensure that you do not disturb and do not destroy. For example, you must not intrude on the grounds of a house or cross cultivated ground.

Second, grants of lease or tenancy are valid against a new owner if the grant was made by written agreement and possession was taken prior to the transfer. They are therefore seldom registered.

Legally a registration in the Register creates a legal presumption. A question to whether an acquisition is invalid or for some other reason cannot be asserted may be adjudicated even if the acquisition has been registered. There are some special prescriptions that give the title registration the force of law. In practice it means that when someone acts in good faith and relying on register information, he is or she protected. It will either secure a bona fide acquisition or entitle the person to compensation for losses from the state.

1. Is it possible to create property rights different from the ones regulated by the law? – numerus clausus or numerus apertus-  (EU Adapt project)

The numerus clausus principle, regarding rights in rem and immovable property, is applicable to a large extent in Swedish law. One cannot find an exhaustive list of property rights in the Swedish law, regarding specified purposes.

However, the rights concerning immovable property, (ownership, security and right of use) that can be registered in the land register and that provides right in rem, are regulated in Swedish law and regulation. Regarding easements and usufructs, the regulation stipulates general conditions and formal requirements about how to create and register these as real property rights and when and how rights in rem is created. But there is no extensive list of the possible or available purposes of these rights. Rights in rem connected to ownership and registration of ownership is regulated in the Swedish land code, specifically in chapter 17 and 18.

2. In case the private parties are not allowed to create property rights different from the ones allowed by law, how broad is their freedom to determine the content of those rights? (EU Adapt project)

There is generally a rather broad freedom to create useful easements and usufructs. The Swedish law contains general regulations about how these rights are created but there are no details about specific purposes for these rights.

According to Chapter 7 section 10 of the Swedish Land code, a usufruct (right of use) granted through a written document and an easement may be registered in the land register. A proviso to the contrary is of no effect except with regard to a lease or tenancy.

General provisions about easements is stipulated in Chapter 14. According to chapter 14 Section 1, an easement can be created:

If it is calculated to promote appropriate land use, a right in one property unit (the servient property unit) may be granted to the owner of another property unit (the dominant property unit) to enjoy or otherwise use in certain respects the servient property or building or another facility belonging to the same or to dispose of the servient property, regarding its use in a particular respect (easement).

An easement may only refer to a purpose of enduring importance to the dominant property unit and may
not be combined with a duty for the owner of the servient property unit to perform anything but the maintenance of a road, building or other facility to which the easement refers.

The provisions of these voluntary contracts about easements, do not apply to easements which have resulted from cadastral procedure under the Real Property Formation Act (1970:988) or from expropriation or similar compulsory purchase.