Measures imposed by the National Authority of Cadaster and Real State Publicity in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

By: Mihaela Ispas, senior associate and Andreea Soare, associate

In the current climate where public authorities have imposed certain measures in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the National Authority of Cadaster and Real Estate Publicity (“NACREP”) has taken certain measures mainly for limiting the direct access of the public in the public common areas of each territorial office subordinated to NACREP and also for granting online access to information.

Therefore, any interested entity requesting NACREP’s services is encouraged to use exclusively the online platforms for registering their requests for information and paying the related fees.

Suh online process is easy, fast and ensures access of all persons authorized for obtaining information, in accordance with Law no. 7/1996 on Cadaster and Real Estate Publicity (“Law 7/1996”). According to article 3 paragraph 6 of Law 7/1996, in order to fulfill their duties, local and central public authorities, public institutions, courts of law, public notaries, judiciary experts, persons authorized to perform cadaster, geodesy, cartography and photogrammetry works, as well as enforcement officers (the “Authorized Entities”) have free of charge, direct and permanent (personal or by representative) access to the online platform and services of cadaster and land book services, in the conditions regulated by order of the general director of NACREP. By virtue of an order issued by the NACREP director, it is granted and revoked the right of access to information for any other individuals and entities and also the set of data, tariff by time unit, manner and payment term are being regulated. The right of access can be individually revoked in the conditions provided by the technical norms, without any prior notice and it expires at the end of the period for which the fee has been paid.

In light of the above legal provisions, the Authorized Entities have been permitted online access in view of consulting the land book, cadastral plan, obtaining via electronic means cadastral data required for performing and transmitting, also via electronic means, of cadastral documentation, for the purpose of registering them with the land book, as well as in other cases regulated by order of the NACREP director. Authorized Entities can obtain information by registering online requests with the local offices subordinated to NACREP, by accessing the eTerra informatic system (version 1.2.1). Upon registering the online documentation, such will bear qualified electronic signature and will be attached in pdf format. The requests submitted will include the contact data of the applicant (domicile, phone number and e-mail).

According to NACREP press releases, the requests accompanied by documents which do not bear a qualified electronic signature will be rejected by the territorial offices subordinated to NACREP, invested for resolving the respective requests. For all submitted requests, payment will be made by payment order in the banking accounts of the local offices of cadaster and real estate publicity vested with resolving the requests, and the information will be communicated via the eTerra online system.

Therefore, in the context of the exceptional measures taken at national level and of the measures imposed by authorities for preventing the spread of COVID-19, a favorable set-up is being proposed which allows the performance of the current activities for the purpose of obtaining the information required for implementing the transactions and registering the acquirers’ rights with the land books.

In particular, with respect to the activity of public notaries, NACREP, through its territorial offices, in accordance with Law 7/ 1996 and the Protocol of collaboration between NACREP and the National Union of Public Notaries in Romania regarding the manner of performing real estate publicity operations (approved by Order of the NACREP general director no. 309/ 2010, as further amended and supplemented), provides them the possibility of registering on-line requests. The online system allows public notaries to submit requests for obtaining land book excerpts for authentication, requests for registration with the land book, as well as any other requests for providing cadaster and real estate publicity services available at the level of NACREP.

Also, interested individuals and entities, which do not qualify as Authorized Entities, may register requests for obtaining a land book excerpt for information purposes and a cadastral plan on orto-photoplan, by virtue of the online platform https://epay.ancpi.ro.

Territorial offices within NACREP have implemented the measures imposed by NACREP at national level dealing with public health and safety, by organizing access to information and performance of current activities online.

We now briefly tackle the measures adopted at the level of the Bucharest Office of Cadaster and Real Estate Publicity which, starting with 12 March 2020, suspended its activity with the public and imposed the following measures:

1. All documents (e., requests and supporting documents) will be transmitted to the authority and, respectively, issued: a) by post office or courier at the address: 1A Expozitiei Blvd., District 1, Bucharest, phone no. 037.44.88.101; b) online, through the public notary; c) by facsimile, at the fax no.: 037.44.88.176; or d) by e-mail, at the addresses: bcpi1@ocpib.ro, bcpi2@ocpib.ro, bcpi3@ocpib.ro, bcpi4@ocpib.ro, bcpi5@ocpib.ro, bcpi6@ocpib.ro, corresponding to the six offices for cadaster and real estate publicity within the Bucharest Office.
2. A call service center has been set-up (the relevant phone numbers being available at the link: http://www.ocpib.ro/fisiere/5261.pdf), where interested persons may obtain information regarding the authority’s activity, being also allowed to access such information via e-mail.
3. The applicants will submit requests for obtaining the land book excerpt for information purposes and the cadastral plan on orto-photoplan via the online platform: https://epay.ancpi.ro.
4. The fees for the required services will be paid by bank wire to the bank account of the NACREP Bucharest Office, IBAN RO03TREZ701501503X017558, opened with District 1 Treasury.
5. In the case of requests communicated online, via facsimile or e-mail, it is also required to subsequently transmit via post office or courier the request, evidence of paying the tariff and the original/ legalized documents (the requests having as subject matter issuance of land book excerpts, certificates of encumbrances received by the authority via facsimile, e-mail, online or by any other communication means which ensure receipt confirmation are resolved and issued without being conditioned upon receiving the requests in original, subject to paying the applicable fees).