The most important information about the land and mortgage register

It is the basic document used to establish the legal status of a property. The content of the register is extremely important from the point of view of the flat owner and the estate agency that intend to sell it. That is why it is so important to make sure that the entries in the register reflect the actual state of the property.

Land and mortgage registers (księgi wieczyste) are kept for all properties, whether buildings, individual units or land. In accordance with the Act on Land and Mortgage Registers, each of them consists of four sections containing strictly defined information.

In the first section we will find, among other things, the description of the property and entries of rights connected with the property. This is where to look for such basic data as the location of the property, its designated use, area and description. This information is taken from the land and buildings register (kataster nieruchomości).

The second section contains data on ownership and perpetual usufruct (użytkowanie wieczyste), as well as on the holder of the cooperative ownership right (spółdzielcze własnościowe prawo do lokalu).

The third section covers information on rights, claims and restrictions (excluding mortgages and the claims connected with them). This is exactly where you can check whether the property is encumbered by a right of pre-emption, whether any easements that could encumber it have been established, and whether bailiff enforcement proceedings have been initiated against it.

The last, fourth section contains information on the mortgage and the claims connected with it. If there are any entries in the fourth section, it means that if the property owner fails to meet the obligations of the agreement on the basis of which the mortgage was created, the entity in whose favour the entry was made will be able to pursue its claims against the property. The fourth section is therefore an extremely important part of the register for anyone interested in buying a property. Before completing the transaction, the client will want to check whether section IV is free of entries. No special requirements need to be met for this – access to land and mortgage registers is open, and anyone who provides the number of a particular register can read its content.

Who can set up a land and mortgage register for a property, and how? An application may be submitted by a person who holds a limited right in rem over the property, by a creditor (where they are entitled to do so and the right is to be entered in the register being set up), and, in the case of state-owned properties, by the appropriate state organisational unit that holds the property in perpetual usufruct.