Digital property files get postponed

The Ministry of Digital Governance has been forced into a new delay for the implementation of the digital property file, with which notaries could complete property transfers in a short period of time by obtaining the required supporting documents through interoperability.

Although it was supposed to be fully operational on November 1, this date has been pushed to January 1, 2024. Of course, the market considers the schedule set by the relevant ministry to be unattainable, as there are insurmountable problems, which for now at least cannot be resolved.

At the same time, the notary will not be able to draw from the digital property file all the required supporting documents (they amount to approximately 17 in each case), but only six to eight supporting documents, while the system will work exclusively for properties that are registered.

Persistent red tape

Essentially, the bureaucracy remains and there will be few, it seems, real estate transfers that can be served by the digital real estate file. And this is because, as the notaries report, approximately 85% of the properties that have acquired a KAEK (land register number) present errors. Obvious mistakes (in name, etc.) will be addressed, they note, however differences in area cannot be addressed.

Although the government claims that they will be able to unlock KAEK and proceed with corrections, in practice this is impossible. And this as in the case, for example, that a plot of land has been declared to cover 160 square meters and from the registration and the engineer’s topography it stems it is 160.8 sq.m., then no correction can be made. Such a change is likely to create a problem for the neighboring plot, reducing its declared square meters.

All these have not been foreseen by the new system. In this context, a meeting of notaries with the staff of the Ministry of Digital Governance was planned last week for an exchange of views and the presentation of the new system.

It is noted that before the notary can start the transfer procedures, the pre-procedure by the engineer must be finished, which also requires in many cases months to complete the collection of the documents from the town planning and cadastral offices. In fact, as the notaries claim, today there are approximately 30,000 pending property transfers, as it is impossible to collect the data.

Interoperability

However, the Ministry of Digital Governance claims that with the digital property transfer file notaries will be able to obtain the necessary supporting documents and complete the relevant contracts in a short period of time, without having to wait for the municipalities, the tax office or other state bodies to issue them. All documents will now be pulled through interoperability. With the planned changes, the transfer of property can, they claim, be completed in a few days, while the legality check will also be completed in one day.

According to the competent ministry, from January 2024 the digital property transfer file will operate, in which the notary will enter a digital application and send an invitation via gov.gr to the buyer and seller. Within this common digital environment, tax information, insurance information and some other supporting documents will be collected.

Upon completion of the process, the digital contract will be created. This means that the title deed will be a digital document whose content will not need to be repeated in various documents as is done today.