Category: real estate law

If the seller sells their property and the buyer does not pay the full purchase price immediately, the seller generally retains ownership until the full purchase price has been paid, i.e. they will only consent to the buyer's ownership being entered in the land register once the buyer has paid the full purchase price.

In such cases, the solicitor who drafted the contract submits the contract of sale to the land registry and requests that the land registry register the buyer's right to retain ownership of the property until the full purchase price has been paid. The real estate authority suspends the procedure for registering ownership for a maximum of six months from the date of submission of the application.

When the buyer pays the full purchase price of the property, the lawyer who drafted the contract submits the registration permit previously issued by the seller and deposited with the lawyer to the land registry office, and on this basis, the land registry office registers the buyer's ownership in the second part of the title deed and deletes the buyer's right from the third part of the title deed.

If the registration permit is not submitted within 6 months of the submission of the buyer's registration application (during the suspension period as described above), the buyer's right will begin to function as a prohibition on alienation and encumbrance.

What should we do if there is a marginal note on the title deed of the property we wish to purchase? Firstly, there is no need to panic, as a marginal note does not necessarily mean that we are involved in a suspicious transaction. Secondly, we should be cautious.

The most important thing we need to do is to find out the content of the marginal note. This is primarily the job of our solicitor, but there is no reason why we cannot take matters into our own hands. The easiest way to view the documents on which the marginal note is based is at the relevant land registry office. For information on how to access the documents, see our tip on the public nature of the property register.

When we submit a document to the land registry office, the registration number of the submission and a brief summary of the marginal note are entered into the title deed of the property in question by the land registry office within a short period of time. Once the land registry office has made the change requested in the application, the marginal note is deleted.

The marginal note therefore indicates that an application has been submitted and/or a procedure is in progress in relation to the property, which the land registry office has not yet assessed. However, the content of the marginal note on the title deed does not always provide comprehensive information about the underlying legal transaction. For example, if the buyer purchases only a part of a property held in undivided joint ownership, only the buyer's name will be indicated in the marginal note, but not which co-owner's ownership share the sale relates to.

Accordingly, it must be assumed that the land registry entry is correct until someone proves otherwise (e.g. the registered owner must be considered the owner until someone proves, for example, with a death certificate, that the person in question has died and is therefore no longer the owner).

Public credibility also means that if a right has been registered in the land registry or a fact has been recorded, no one can claim that they were unaware of it. We therefore recommend that any legal transactions relating to real estate (e.g. rental agreements!) should only be carried out with the knowledge of the latest title deed.

The persons named in the documents may only be identified by means of a written authorisation countersigned by a solicitor or signed by two witnesses or recorded in a notarial deed (e.g. a sales contract that has already been submitted but not yet reviewed by the land registry) or the documents serving as the basis for registration or cancellation (e.g. a sales contract on the basis of which the buyer's ownership has been registered).

If we are unable to obtain such permission from the above-mentioned entitled parties, we must prove that access to the document is necessary for the enforcement of one of our rights or for the fulfilment of our obligations based on legislation or an official decision.

As a general rule, ownership of real estate is established by registration in the land registry. However, there are exceptions to this general rule. These are owners of real estate who are not registered in the land registry.

Ownership outside the land register is independent of whether the owner is registered in the land register or not. An owner outside the land register may be, for example, someone who acquires ownership by inheritance, or a spouse if the property belongs to the joint property of the spouses.

Therefore, it is not sufficient to conclude a purchase agreement, have it registered with the land registry office, pay the purchase price and submit the registration permit to the land registry office; the buyer only acquires ownership by registering the property in the land registry.

The property register contains data on properties, rights and facts related to properties that can be entered in the property register, as well as data necessary for identifying persons registered as entitled parties.

The land registry is an electronic database containing information on the property and its owner, encumbrances on the property, entries relating to the property that have already been deleted, and maps relating to the properties. In addition, the land registry also includes paper-based documents relating to the property (e.g. the purchase agreement on the basis of which the land registry office registered the owner's title).

Anyone can view the contents of any property's title deed. Everyone can download two title deeds free of charge each year from the magyarorszag.hu website. Let's take advantage of this opportunity to check the current legal status of our properties!

The following types of copies can be requested:

a) full copy: which contains all entries, including those that have already been deleted,
b) review: which contains existing entries (the current status).
In our experience, the review (which only contains current data) is the better choice in 99% of cases, as there is no need for historical information (deleted data, former owners, etc.), but it makes the title deed much longer and more difficult to understand.

The title deed consists of three parts, which are marked with Roman numerals. The first part (I) contains the details of the property (cadastral number, name of the municipality where the property is located, floor area of the property, etc.). The second part (II) lists the owner (or asset manager, if applicable) and their details. The third part (III) contains the encumbrances on the property (e.g. usufructuary rights, mortgage rights) and certain legally significant facts are also recorded here (e.g. minority, guardianship, building restrictions, etc.).