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All signs are of no use if a right of way for the neighbor is recorded in the land register.
This right depends on the property and remains intact even if the owner changes.
© Paul Zinken/dpa
Buying a property or land is something unique for most people.
They are likely to be correspondingly inexperienced.
But when you look at the land register you should know what you are doing.
Munich - The land register plays a crucial role when buying a property.
All important information about the property is summarized here.
It contains information about the owner and possible encumbrances on the property.
Buyers or heirs should pay particular attention to sections II and III of the land register, which is divided into three sections, when transferring ownership.
This is what lawyer Holger Schiller from the NRW Home Ownership Association recommends.
This contains important entries about property-like rights and financial burdens (Section III).
We clarify important questions on the topic.
What exactly can be read from the land register?
For example, financial burdens (Division III).
If a property purchase has to be financed with a loan, banks require security in return.
The most common form is to register a mortgage in the land register.
If borrowers can no longer pay the installments, the bank has access to the property and, if in doubt, can foreclose on it in order to get the missing money.
Other securities for the bank include registered mortgages or pension debts.
The land register also contains property-like rights and encumbrances (Section II) - so-called easements.
For example, you guarantee third parties the right to use the property for certain purposes.
According to Julia Wagner from the owners' association Haus & Grund Germany, such entries can influence the value and use of a property.
In addition, easements do not simply disappear into thin air with a change of ownership, explains Tim Mensak, trusted lawyer for the Builders' Protection Association.
Because they are tied to the property and not to the owner.
What are basic easements?
Common rights of way include walking, driving or management rights.
If there is a right to walk or drive in the land register, the group of people named in the entry is entitled to enter or drive on the property.
A typical example of this is the so-called hammer property.
This is the name given to the back of two properties lying one behind the other, which is only connected to the street via the path that leads through the front property.
“So in order to get to his property, the owner has to use part of the front property,” says Tim Mensak.
He is entitled to this with a registered right of way.
For example, a utility right allows an adjacent property owner to run utility lines under, over, or through another property to serve their own property.
What also happens in practice: the registered housing law.
This guarantees rights holders that they are allowed to live in a building or at least parts of it.
“For example, if the seller’s parents still live in the house, the buyer takes over the housing rights,” says Holger Schiller.
In most cases, housing law ends with the beneficiary's permanent move to a nursing home, especially if this is regulated by a contractual clause.
Otherwise, the right ends with the death of the person entitled to the apartment.
And usufruct rights are also not uncommon in the land register.
It gives the usufructuary the right to either live in the property themselves or rent it out and thus generate income.
“If a usufruct right is registered, it can significantly reduce the sales value of the property,” says Holger Schiller.
How is an easement deleted?
“Entries can be deleted at the request of the owner of the contaminated property,” says Milan Bayram from the Federal Chamber of Notaries.
The prerequisite for this is either the consent of the rights holder in a notarized form or the fact that the right has expired and the land register entry is therefore outdated.
The notary then applies to the land registry office to delete the easement on behalf of the property owner.
“This can be the case, for example, if a right to housing ends because the user of the apartment has died.
Or if an easement was limited and the period ends,” says Tim Mensak.
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When and how is a mortgage deleted?
“A land charge or mortgage generally remains in the land register until the entire underlying loan has been paid off.
Only then is deletion possible,” explains Holger Schiller.
Once the loan has been paid off, the bank issues a cancellation permit for the mortgage.
If the owner wants to have the entry in the land register deleted, he must go to the notary, who will notarize it and send the documents to the land registry office.
Does it make sense to have outdated land register entries deleted?
Anyone who wants to sell a property or land would usually do well to have existing easements and financial encumbrances on the property deleted.
If the land register has a clean slate, the possible proceeds can be higher.