When an event or circumstance occurs that affects the rights that can be registered in the Property Register, it is recorded in the register by means of a registry entry, which can take the form of an inscription or an annotation, depending on its purpose.
In this article we are going to look at what a registry entry consists of, what types there are and what requirements are needed to make them.
A registry entry is any inscription or annotation that is recorded in the Land Registry and includes any title, fact, act or circumstance that affects the goods and rights that can be registered.
The registry entry is generated every time a person presents a registrable title in the Registry, and gives rise to certain mortgage effects, which are different in each case.
Currently, registry entries can be either written or electronic.
Registry entries can be:
Registry entries are regulated throughout the articles of the Mortgage Law, which is developed in the Mortgage Regulations, whose articles 41 to 43 include the different types of entries:
The entry of presentation is the one made by the registrar in the daily operations book when someone presents a title for registration; hence its name.
The filing entry records the exact moment the security is entered in the Register, which is of crucial importance when it comes to deciding in the event of a conflict between several registered rights, since, by the principle of priority, the earlier right will prevail over the later one.
The registrar assigns a sequential number to each new filing entry, and a brief explanation of the content of the security.
The validity period of a filing entry is 60 days, although this period can be extended in certain cases.
Filing entries must contain at least the following information:
The entry of registration is a principal and definitive entry by which formal and solemn record is made of the constitution, modification or transmission of a real property right.
This entry is made in the registration books and is cancelled when the transfer of the registered right in favour of another person is registered.
A registration entry must contain the following information:
There are definitive entries, such as registration, and provisional entries, such as preventive annotation, which is born with the intention of disappearing to make way for another type of definitive entry.
The purpose of the preventive annotation is to record or give notice of a right in the making, so that it can benefit from the publicity of the registry while it is being consolidated.
The preventive annotation is a principal and positive entry, since it creates rights, and its nature varies in each case, according to the specific type of annotation in question. For example, it may consist of a record of a lawsuit, of an inheritance right, of a credit, of an attachment, etc.
With regard to its duration, the preventive annotation is cancelled when it becomes a registration (when the right is consolidated) or by expiry within 4 years, although this period can be extended in some cases.
By means of the cancellation entry, a previous entry consisting of a registration or a provisional annotation is cancelled.
The cancellation entry is not a main entry, but an ancillary one. It depends on another entry to which it relates. It is definitive and negative, because it extinguishes rights, rather than creating them.
Depending on the scope of the cancellation, the cancellation entry may be total or partial.
The cancellation entry can even be made without the consent of the registered owner or against his will, for example, when it originates from a legal provision.
Not all registrations or preventive annotations can be cancelled by means of a cancellation entry: those that are due to a court order must be cancelled by means of an executive order.
The registry folios have a margin specifically designed for making notes about circumstances, facts, references, etc., that may be relevant to the registered rights. These annotations are marginal notes, and can only be made when ordered or authorised by law.
The marginal note is an accessory entry, because it depends on a previous one on which it is based.
Registry entries are assumed to be accurate, since, if they were not, the registry system would not make sense, and the principle of publicity, which protects the right of the registered holder against everyone else, would be unfair.
However, there can be flaws in any system, and the registry system is no exception, so sometimes there can be discrepancies between the registry information and the reality outside the registry.
To avoid unfair situations, mainly caused by the fact that registered law prevails over unregistered law, the law articulates mechanisms to correct such discrepancies.
Thus, depending on the cause of the discrepancy, it can be corrected in the following ways:
The problem can be solved simply by rectifying the erroneous information in the Registry, but this must be done:
The discrepancy can also be corrected by means of a cancellation or a file for the release of liens, if the cause is that a charge or right that has already disappeared remains registered on the property registered.
If the discrepancy is due to the failure to register intermediate transfers between the registered property and the current one, the solution is the title report.
Likewise, this procedure can be used to register a property that has not yet been entered in the Land Registry or to rectify an error in the registered surface area.
To prevent the discrepancies analysed from occurring, the system is organised in such a way that the registrar and the notary must collaborate with each other and ensure that the land registry data matches that of the Property Registry.
In fact, in the inscriptions made in the latter, it must be stated whether the property is coordinated with the land registry, provided that the registrar is aware of this circumstance.
This has been the case since the approval of Law 11/2023, of 8 May, transposing European Union Directives, which had, among its objectives, the digitisation of notarial and registry actions.
