Explained: Similarities and Differences Between Land Registry Digitisation and Restoration of Damaged Records

The Directorate of Cadastral Affairs is working on expanding the digitisation of the Land Registry, while also restoring real estate documents that are partially or completely lost or damaged. Despite the significant differences between these two processes, they are carried out side by side and, in some cases, complement one another.

Digitising the Land Registry involves transferring real estate registries from their paper form to a digital format, and establishing electronic connections for real estate services across all provinces. The goal is to protect information, facilitate its handling, speed up real estate transactions, and make it easier for citizens to access real estate services. The digitisation of Land Registries is based on the provisions of Legislative Decree No. 12 of 2016, which mandates the preparation of a digital version of the Land Record by the public body responsible for keeping legally certified real estate registers.

On the other hand, the restoration of real estate documents is governed by the provisions of Law No. 33 of 2017. The law defines restoration as a series of administrative and judicial procedures that result in the issuance of a reliable replacement for the damaged document or the completion of one of its missing elements. There are two types of restoration: administrative restoration, when there are sufficient documents available at the relevant Directorate of Cadastral Affairs office; and judicial restoration, which is used in cases of total destruction of documents.

Despite the differences in their objectives, both processes focus on the content of the real estate document. Digitisation is concerned with converting paper data into electronic files, while restoration aims to recover data based on the available documents held by the Directorate of Cadastral Affairs and those provided by the rightful owners. The connection between the two is that the digitisation aims to achieve the electronic archiving of the Land Registry, which in turn will help resolve the issues related to the damage or deterioration of real estate paper-documents.

Decree No. 12 of 2016 requires that the digitisation of Land Registry takes place in areas selected by the Directorate of Cadastral Affairs, with the approval of the Minister of Local Administration and Environment. For this process to proceed, the original paper-based real estate documents and records must be present in the areas where the digitisation is to be carried out. However, if these documents are partially or fully damaged, the digitisation process cannot occur until the restoration of the real estate paper documents, as stipulated in Decree No. 33 of 2017, has been completed. In other words, digitisation cannot be carried out in areas with damaged records until they have undergone reconstitution.

Decree No. 12 of 2016 gives the digital version legal authority, making it the basis for creating a paper version of the land registries. However, the digital copy must be derived from the original paper registries. If the paper copy from which the digital version was made becomes damaged, the digital version will serve as the reference for creating a new paper copy. Additionally, the digital version is considered the official source for all updates and changes made to the real estate record.

The decree does not address the situation where the electronic data is damaged. Instead, it specifies that three copies of the electronic storage medium must be created, with one deposited at the Central Bank and the other two stored in different locations, known to and supervised by the relevant public authority.

Procedurally, once the Directorate of Cadastral Affairs completes the digitisation of a specific area, an identical paper copy of the digital version, including the land registries and documents that have been digitised, must be published. Under Decree No. 12 of 2016, an announcement must be made in the hall of the Directorate of Cadastral Affairs, the governorate, and the administrative unit, detailing the property numbers, real estate areas, owners’ names, and registered notations. Following this, the Directorate sets a four-month period for objections to be submitted to the Civil Court of First Instance, whose decisions can be appealed to the Court of Appeal in the governorate. In such cases, the decision of the Court of Appeal is final. Anyone who did not have the opportunity to object to the real estate digitisation can file a lawsuit with the civil court, supported by evidence, within five years of the objection period’s end.

According to Decree No. 12, one of the cases where an objection to the digitisation process is permitted is the omission of registering a real estate right in the day-to-day register, which is a component of the land register and complements the ownership ledger. The day-to-day register records events in chronological order by their date and type, and each entry is assigned a sequential number within the journal’s 200 pages. Each page is certified by a judge from the Court of First Instance, and corrections are made exclusively in red ink, with proper signatures for any corrections. Objections may also be raised if an event recorded in the day-to-day register was not transferred to the Land Record or its digital version.

In the process of reconstituting a real estate document, the real estate judge issues a decision specifying the damaged document, the property number, the real estate area, and the parts of the document that need to be reconstituted. A six-month period is given for interested parties to submit any documents they have that support their rights to the property mentioned in the damaged document. All this information is published in the Official Gazette and two local newspapers. If no objections are raised during this period, the real estate judge confirms the real estate documents submitted by the rights holders and orders the creation of new land records to replace the damaged ones. Based on this, the judge issues a final decision confirming ownership, which cannot be appealed. In the case of an objection, the rightful owner or their legal representative may submit the objection, supported by documents proving their rights. The real estate court considers the objections within a two-month period.