While In Home Isolation, Check Who Is the Owner of Your Apartment
The state of emergency and home isolation is an opportunity to check whether you are registered as the owner on the Republic Geodetic Authority website from the comfort of your home. The property you have purchased, gifted or inherited becomes property only upon registering it in the cadastre. That is why NALED advises you to use this time to check and prepare to register as soon as possible when the crisis in order to protect yourself from possible misuse.
If the previous owner is still registered in the cadastre, they may sell or mortgage the property, without the new owner's knowledge. One of the unintended consequences may be that the public bailiff seizes and sells the real estate if the registered owner has unpaid debts or, that if the registered owner dies, it now belongs to their heirs.
- These are situations that can happen primarily to citizens who thought that a sales contract was a sufficient proof of ownership. It is those who acquired the property before June 2018, when the e-counter was introduced. Thanks to the new procedure, the ownership registration for about 120,000 sales and inheritances, which is how many there are on average per year, is done automatically, within a few working days. It is not necessary to visit counters because all necessary information is sent to the cadastre by notaries - says Jelena Bojovic, NALED ’s Policy Director.
Bojovic reminds that checking registration is simplified, it can be done online or via a mobile phone, which is an opportunity to be taken to prevent negative consequences. Public access to eCadaster is available on the Republic Geodetic Authority website, where it is necessary to enter the address in the list of municipalities or select the cadastral municipality and enter the parcel number, which can be found on the GeoSrbija website.
The Real Estate Cadastre Registration Reform is supported by the UK Government's Good Governance Fund and implemented by NALED in cooperation with PwC Serbia.The obligation to visit the cadastre for registration of all new purchases, inheritance or gift of real estate has been abolished in the first phase of reform, since the notary sends the information to that institution through the eSalter system. The obligation to file tax returns on property taxes, transfer of absolute rights and gifts was abolished in the second phase from January 2020. As of this year, public notaries pass on the information needed to draft a tax decision to taxpayers, reducing the number of counters in the overall reform from six to just one.
More information on how to protect your property rights or check if you’re registered in the cadaster is available on the upisnepokretnosti.rs website.