katastar news

[gmh]

This could be of interest to people buying and selling.

CROATIA MAKES PROGRESS IN UPGRADING ITS LAND REGISTRY

ZAGREB, Feb 16 (Hina) - Croatia has made great progress in upgrading its land registry, officials of the World Bank and the Croatian government said on Thursday at the opening of a conference focusing on the results of a project aimed at bringing land books and cadastres in order by September 2008.#L#

We are pleased to see tangible results in the reduction of time which citizens need to complete legal business involving real estate at different courts, and now also via the Internet, the World Bank director for Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania, Anand K. Seth, said while speaking about the results of the government project which started in January 2003.

You can read the rest here www.hina.hr/nws-bin/genews.cgi?TOP=hot&NID=ehot/politika/H2168164.4yc

and the katastar is online here www.katastar.hr

[z00ey]

well, the katastar is more or less in order for a long time... (engineer stuff - deals only with the measurment of land)

it's the land registry (in judicial hands) which is completely out of time... they lack the competence and will to decide upon ownership of the land

i deal with them on a daily basis, and some courts have done nearly all of it (istria, rijeka, nw croatia are nearly done)...

zagreb is good in some opcina's, while others are zilch...

split and most of dalmatia hasn't moved a bit... no info whatsoever... for split it's something like 3% done, so if your land is in the registry, you're one of lucky few

this is a major problem for investment, foreign or croatian

[michaelfrankly]

I would just like to elaborate on what zooey has said.
Yes: only 3% of the lands have been logged into the new database of the land registry. e-izvadak.pravosudje.hr/mpweb/main.jsp

However; every single parcel is registered with the land registry except for a few extreme cases (some land registries were destroyed during WW2 etc.). The fact the it is not logged into the database does not mean that there is no clean title. It simply means that they are getting around to it.

[z00ey]

@ michaelfrankly

every single parcel is registered in the land registry, true, but not up to date!

ie a land registry parcel No. xxyyzzz is registered, but the owner registered is dead for 20 years in chile and his sister's grandson (the closest direct relative) is waiting to get registered as an owner for the last 18 years....

now, the data the land regisry is inputing in the digital database is the OBSOLETE data... meaning they are punching in the old data, and they'll change it through time, when thing get sorted out through courts... even with that part, they're only on 3% in various regions of croatia (namely dalmatia)

[Ribaric]

As the resident forum dimwit I'll ask what may appear to be an obvious question. Are you saying that only about 3% of Dalmatia has reliable info re: ownership of property? If so, how can anyone buy or sell anything?

[lojalnost]

c'mon, there are so many properties in Croatia where even the owner themselves doesn't know who owns it!
Hee hee!

[z00ey]

Ribaric - correct...

although by land ownership we're talking also agricultural land (which makes more than 90% of the land)... this land is extremely poorly registered...

the land where you could build is better ragistered (meaning true nowdays owners are registered). this figure is higher, but i wouldn't bet that it's over 40%... in dalmatia down to even 10%

the point is (concernig your buy/sell question) that the state is not registering land by itself, one must ask for his ownership of land to be registered.

usually the sellers start asking when they want to sell. then the problems start, cause it takes years and a whol bunch of paperwork to be completed (especially if distant relatives deaths come into equation)

so, the land that is being sold is usually at the end of the paperwork or has already obtained good papers (the sellers have finished their part)

the problem arises in big projects, ie a large investment company sees opportunity in developping a particular huge plot divided into many owners, who never even thought of selling and thus never filed for ownership (as they'd be taxed upon the land).
these types of projects are more or less bound to die, cause by the time the paperwork would be done the investors find something in turkey or the seychelles... it's not even a question of price, you can't buy croatian judiciary administration time....