Amendment of several laws with respect to the new Land Registry Act

At the beginning of November 2021, a bill was submitted to the Hungarian Parliament on the temporary provisions relating to the new Land Registry Act and on the amendment of certain acts of cultural subject and relating to the land registry, spatial planning (in Hungarian: “területrendezés”) and urban planning (in Hungarian: “településrendezés”). In the framework of the project called “E-Land Registry”, the electronization of the land registry will be implemented and in parallel with the technical development, it is also necessary to create the legal regulatory basis. The rules of the new Land Registry Act essential for the operation of the new electronic land registry will enter into force on 1 February 2023. The bill clarifies whether the provisions of the current or the new Land Registry Act shall be applicable for proceedings commenced under the force of the current Land Registry Act and still ongoing at the time of entering into force of the new Land Registry Act.

The amendments proposed by the bill to the Company Registry Act will ensure, as an important innovation, that if the direct consequence of the ruling on the merits of the court of registration is that a right or fact registered in the land registry changes, then the court orders it with its ruling, and it must be ensured with the help of the new IT system, that these changes are smoothly implemented in the land registry (e.g. transformation of a company).

The bill would also modify the Act on the Activities of Attorneys-at-law, since following the entering into force of the new Land Registry Act, only attorneys registered in the relevant public register of the bar and having the right to act in land registry cases can act in land registry proceedings. The bill determines as new disciplinary penalty of attorneys the prohibition from land registry cases which may be imposed for at least one and maximum five years.

In addition to the above, the aim of the bill is to strengthen the protection of public records, to clarify the legal interpretation of certain procedures and competency rules, and to clearly define the scope of data and documents to be registered in public records registers. The bill also provides for the establishment of a national minority municipality archive.

The third major subject of the bill is the amendment of act related to spatial planning, urban planning and the protection of cultural heritage. As a result, the enforcement of land protection requirements will strengthen in the procedures of the spatial planning authority procedures, and the provisions will facilitate the efficient preparation and effective application of new urban plans. In addition, with respect to the spreading of solar power plants, the bill also regulates the conditions of installation in order to protect high quality lands, gardens, vineyards and ecologically valuable areas.