This law considers null the registration of property rights in areas outside regime control.

Legislative Decree No. 11 of 2016
Halting registration of personal real-estate rights within property departments closed due to emergency security conditions

The President of the Republic
In accordance with the provisions of the Constitution,
Promulgates the following:

Article 1

1. Procedures of recording personal real-estate rights in legally authorised parties holding property records are to halt in the real-estate departments that have been closed due to emergency security conditions. The date when this begins and ends is to be specified with a decision from the authorised minister, based on the suggestion of the governor, after taking the opinion of the relevant directorate.
2. The decision to halt and terminate recording is to be published in the official gazette, a daily newspaper, and one of the newspapers of the capital.
3. No recording or record will be recorded in the property records during the period in which recording procedures are halted.

Article 2
A temporary daily register, according to the rulings of Articles 63 and 64 of Decision No. 188 of 1926, is to hold property records and remain complete for the daily register held by the president of the office of property documentation whose recording procedures have halted, starting from the date on which the decree to halt recording procedures by the legally authorized parties is distributed. It is to be called the “complete daily register.”

Article 3
The origins, procedures, and conditions of holding the complete daily register are to be specified with a decision from the General Director of Real-Estate Interests, in accordance with the rulings and amendments of Decisions No. 188 of 1916 and Decision No. 189 of 1916.

Article 4

1. The transactions of the establishment, transfer, and amendment of private real-estate rights are to be recorded in the complete daily register, when based upon the records of the property registry and enclosed with supporting evidence.
2. Writing in the complete daily register is to take place according to the rulings of the aforementioned third article, when the person who requested that the private property rights be recorded consent to have them written in the real estate journal and the basic daily register, under the responsibility of the register.
3. Writing the notification of lawsuit in the complete daily register remains a sufficient condition for looking into a lawsuit raised before the relevant courts.
4. The statements recorded in the complete daily register constitute a basis for claiming ownership before the ordinary court. The establishment of private real-estate rights, or their transfer or amendment, are not to be accepted if the record is not based on a decisive court ruling.

Article 5

1. The decision to halt recording procedures is to be announced after its publication according to the rulings of Paragraph 2 of Article 1 of this Legislative Decree. The contents of the basic and complete daily registries are to be announced in the hall of the General Directorate of Real-Estate Interests, the relevant administrative party, and the relevant administrative unit for two months, after which the contents of the real estate contracts recorded in the basic and complete daily registries are to be transferred to the place designated for them in the real estate journal following confirmation of the accordance of its contents and documents with the relevant principles and laws.
2. In the circumstance that the record of a case conflicts with a previous entry in the complete registry, then preference is given to the older of the two.
3. Cases that were written down in a legal way in the basic daily register, and which were not transferred to the real estate journal before the date of the halting of recording procedures, have precedence in recording upon the contents of the complete daily register.
4. Everyone who files a lawsuit based on statements written down in the basic and complete daily registers, announced according to the rulings of Paragraph 1 of this Article, has the right to resort to normal court and to record a notice of their lawsuit, based on the request of the court.

Article 6
Executive instructions will be published with a decision from the Minister of Local Administration, based on the suggestion of the General Secretary of Real Estate Interests.

Article 7
This legislative decree is to be published in the official gazette.

Damascus, 28/7/1437 Hijri, 5/5/2016 Gregorian

President of the Republic
Bashar Al-Assad