1. Legal Challenges of Interconnection of Land Registries
Alasdair Lewis
ELRA President
XIII General Assembly
Brussels, 10th December 2013 1

2. •. To facilitate the free movement of capital and people, we
• To facilitate the free movement of capital and people, we want to make information regarding the ownership of land in the Member States available to our citizens
• One of the best ways of doing this is by providing access to information held by the Land Registries (“Land Registers Interconnection”)
• However, in order to achieve this, we need to recognise and overcome some legal challenges
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Brussels, 10th December 2013 2

3. • Those legal challenges include:
Language and terminology
Identification of the plot
Not every Land Registry is open to public inspection
Differences in the technology used by each Land Registry
Self-financing of Land Registries
Title registration systems vs deeds registration systems
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Brussels, 10th December 2013 3

4. We should start with what information the citizen wants. This includes:
• Where is the land?
• Who owns it?
• Is there a mortgage?
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Brussels, 10th December 2013 4

5. Most people will want to search for the land using geographical information, such as:
• An address
• A map
• An aerial photograph
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Brussels, 10th December 2013 5

6. • The meaning of the terms used
So that people are not misled, we need to explain the information (i.e. “metadata”). For example :
• The meaning of the terms used
• The extent to which the information can be relied upon
• How further information and support can be obtained
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Brussels, 10th December 2013 6

7. •. Although there are many differences, Land
• Although there are many differences, Land Registries have enough in common (such as A,B C or A, B, C, D registers) to enable us to present basic information in a standard form.
• The objective of the IMOLA Project is to design that standard form or template.
• We are not starting with a blank piece of paper as we can draw on the experience of both the European Land Registry Network (ELRN) and EULIS.
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Brussels, 10th December 2013 7

8. THANK YOU!!!! secretariat@elra.eu 8 XIII General Assembly
Brussels, 10th December 2013 8