“TAVOLARE” SYSTEM

At the end of the First World War Trentino Alto Adige, Trieste and Venezia Giulia were annexed to the Kingdom of Italy.

Nevertheless the Austrian legislation remained in force.

* Trento

With the Royal Decree no. 499 of 28th March 1929, the Italian legislation established that land registers would be regulated by the Austrian law of 1871, but within a new act linked to the provisions of Italian law.

As a result, in Italy we have two different Land Registry systems:

a system of deeds registration, moulded on the French and Belgian system, known as “trascrizione”

a title registration system, moulded on the Austrian “Grundbuch”, known as “tavolare”, which is applied to limited areas (Provinces of Trento, Bolzano, Trieste, Gorizia and some municipalities in the Provinces of Udine, Belluno, Vicenza and Brescia).

In our system each land parcel is identified on a map and the rights associated with it are recorded on the “Main Book” along with the name of the owner.

When the whole parcel is transferred, only the name of the owner is changed; when part of the land is transferred, the plans must be amended.

The Land Register consists of: the main register ("Libro Maestro") and the collection of documents.

In the main register, which consists of three sections, every landed property has its own entry organised by entry numbers.

The collection of documents contains all the documents which served as basis for the registration of a landed property.

The sections of the main register are:

A, which contains a description of the property;

B, which contains the name of the owner and describes how the parcel was acquired;

C, which contains the encumbrances on the property.

The new electronic database – that was fully introduced in 2008 – is integrated with the cadastral data and replaces the traditional books.

The most relevant principles at the basis of our system are:

principle of registration; principle of legality; principle of public faith.

PRINCIPLE OF REGISTRATION

In contrast with the provisions of the Italian Civil Code real property rights are not acquired until they are legally entered in the Land Register: both the title and the entry (“intavolazione”) are required.

This is only valid as far as contracts between living persons are concerned.

PRINCIPLE OF LEGALITY

Entries in the Land Register may only be made following a decree of the land register judge.

No point must be neglected in the judge’s examination, including the legality of the document, the capacity of the parties, issues that affect the validity of the deal, the impact of the right in question on property, and any defects regarding the description of the property.

The land register judge is supported by a registrar, who is deeply involved in all the phases of the procedure.The phases are:•presentation of the application to the relevant land registry office;•recording of the application in the chronological register;•comparison of the land register, examination of application and documents by the registrar, preparation of the decree;•emission of the decree by the land register judge;•official entry in the main book;•notification of the land registry decree to the person concerned

PRINCIPLE OF PUBLIC FAITH

Thanks to the accurate examination formerly described, the land register entries enjoy public faith: any person relying on them in good faith enjoys almost absolute protection.

This principle is related to two legal presumptions:

if a right is registered for a person in the Land Register - unless an objection against the correctness is entered within the limited period of 60 days or unless the incorrectness is known by the person acquiring the right - it is to be presumed that the right belongs to him;

if a registered right is cancelled in the Land Register – unless an objection … - it is to be presumed that the right does not exist.

A person who buys a plot from somebody incorrectly listed as its lawful owner in the Land Register, legally acquires the property, as long as he is fully unaware of the incorrectness of the Land Register.

Similarly, if a mortgage has been incorrectly extinguished, it is not possible to assert to a subsequent purchaser of the property in good faith that the right in fact exists.

It is clear that the public faith in the Land Register results in a very high degree of reliability in real-estate transactions.

Unfortunately, as we said, not all the entries of the Land Register enjoy public faith, since this is only valid for third persons who acquire a property after a previous contract between living persons.

In order to guarantee a similar protection to those who contract with persons who have inherited an estate, the legislator of 1929 introduced in our Region the certificate of inheritance.

This is an official certificate of the right of inheritance (moulded on the German “Erbschein”) issued by the Tribunal.

It states the identity of the heir and his respective share in the estate as well as any limitations to the heir's power of disposition over the estate.

It is presumed that the person identified as heir in the certificate of inheritance has the right of inheritance stated therein and is not subject to limitations other than those stated. The law protects those who acquire a property from the person named as heir in the certificate of inheritance in good faith.

They obtain title even though the transferor is not the true heir, unless they had knowledge of the inaccuracy of the certificate.

TYPE OF ENTRIES

registration (“intavolazione”), which has the effect of acquiring, modifying or extinguishing a right;

booking (“prenotazione”), which has the effect of registration, if subsequently justified (e.g. when the title consists of a judgment still subject to appeal);

annotation (“annotazione”), which describes legal acts or facts (e.g. incapacity related to minor age or bankruptcy, protection of artistic heritage, etc.)

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

Any person may inspect the Land Register and obtain a copy of any register or cadastral map of a registered property without any restriction.

The inquiries are carried out by the names of the owners of rights, their taxpayer’s code or the number of the lot. The cost of an excerpt is around € 10

Professionals and offices can also obtain a computerized link to the Land Register and download data.