"Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today." This proverb also applies to the field of valuations, time being a decisive factor in most cases. Throughout my 17 years of activity, I have encountered many postponed or even canceled sales and many other problems caused by the lack of cadastral documentation, situations that could have been avoided if a minimum of documentation had been done some time in advance.
In the #fairvalueteam there are appraisers who are basically lawyers, economists and especially engineers, and in today's article we will address a subject that may be a little technical, but which can have a defining impact in the valuation process. The inconsistency of the areas in the documents, cadastral measurements and what is actually delimited on the ground, represents a problem with a fairly large impact when time is not your "best friend", when you want to sell the property or bring it as collateral to the bank.
These problems are detected, in most cases, when owners want to create or update their cadastre, build, sell, dismantle or annex one or more properties.
Differences can occur for multiple reasons, such as: the long time interval since the last update of the cadastre and the implementation, in the meantime, of internal and/or external changes, measurements made with old-generation equipment and low precision (e.g. theodolite, tape measure), movement of the tectonic plate, etc.
If you have contacted a cadastral engineer and such differences have been reported, the following situations may occur, according to Law No. 7/1996:
– if the area measured is smaller, then this area is registered in the Land Register based on the cadastral documentation and the owner's agreement regarding the registration of this area;
– if the measured area is larger by up to 15%, in the case of land within built-up areas, and by up to 5% in the case of land outside built-up areas, then the measured area is entered in the Land Register based on the cadastral documentation and the owner's declaration;
– if the difference in area exceeds the above percentages, changing the area in the documents is only possible based on a court decision.
Another situation that you may encounter is the lack of an exact delimitation of the property. In this situation, its identification will be carried out together with the owners of the neighboring land and a neighborhood report will be drawn up. Disagreements will be resolved amicably or in court, depending on the case.
Creating and/or updating cadastral documentation at the appropriate time can facilitate the real estate transaction process, thus allowing the transaction to be completed in a short period of time.
We know that in very large proportions things happen quickly, but we also know that in order to avoid unpleasant situations, it is recommended that you check in advance the correspondence between the written situation, from the property deed and the property cadastre, and the factual situation on the ground, and in case of any differences, contact an ANCPI authorized cadastral engineer to take the necessary steps to regulate the situation.
