Land Registry – Published Friday, September 08th of 2017

The problem of boundaries affects both rural estates and urban areas – in the first case by the courts and for the second, the precedent it can set – and has been a problem forever, – remember the tragedy of Puerto Hurraco in Badajoz, created by issues relating to boundaries over several decades.

Today, there are still discrepancies between the data of the Land Registry and the land-owners in relation to farms and land-holdings, discrepancies that the new Law on Mortgages and the Land Registry has tried to correct.

This reform has been undertaken in order to find out the exact delimitation of registered properties, overcoming the current situation of uncertainty in its description. Also the new regulations cover a number of mortgage procedures, incorporating sufficient legal guarantees to permit the registration of geo-referenced farm with the Land Registry.

So if those who own the land state that the style of mapping permitted by the Law is not suited to the physical reality of the farms or that the person who registers the land feels that the description of the property in writing does not match the description in the register, one may create a different style of mapping to rectify the description of the land in the registry and create an alternative boundary.

Nevertheless the Spanish Association of Expert Surveyors (Aegex) claims that this reform is not enough and warn of the danger that consumers will continue to lose out as a result of the lack of coordination; this might mean the Law does not resolve the uncertainty that often accompanies any real estate transaction, if there is a discrepancy in the boundaries.

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