According to the provision of article 6 par. 2 of Law 2664/1998, as amended and in force, "in the case of an inaccurate first registration, it may be requested, with a lawsuit before the competent Court of First Instance, for the recognition of the right that is violated by the first registration and the correction, in whole or in part, of the first registration", while according to par. 3 of the same article "in the case of the initial entries with the indication "unknown owner" within the meaning of paragraph 1 of article 9, instead of the action provided for in paragraph 2 of this article, the correction may be requested by the request of the person who claims to have a right registered in the Land Registry [ …]”
In view of the fact that thousands of properties are at risk of passing into the ownership of the State after the end of the relevant correction deadlines either because they were registered as "unknown owner" in the relevant cadastral sheets or because they were erroneously declared as belonging to the ownership of the Greek State, the question arises as to who will be listed as true beneficiary with the application or action of article 6 of Law 2664/2018 in the event that the beneficiary at the time of the first registrations (which coincides with the effective date of the competent Land Registry Office) has today passed away.
In this case, the application for correction of the inaccurate registration is made by his heirs or by anyone who has a legal interest and whose request is the correction of the inaccurate registration and the registration of the true beneficiary of the right in the relevant cadastral sheet at the time of the first registrations. The wording of the request for the correction of the incorrect registration and the registration as the true beneficiary of the right in the relevant cadastral register at the time of the first registrations is directly related and dependent on the time of death of the heir and specifically on whether it occurred before or after commencement of operation of the relevant cadastral office. And this is because the acquisition of ownership by hereditary succession has the particularity that, regardless of the time of drafting the relevant document for the acceptance of inheritance, it always refers to the time of induction (ex tunc), which is the time of death of the heir according to articles 1193 , 1195, 1198, 1199 and 1845 AK, regardless of the time of transcription or registration of the relevant document accepting the inheritance.
Therefore: a) if the death of the heir occurred after the entry into force of the Land Registry, i.e. the deceased was alive at the time of its entry into force, then the beneficiary of the registrable right is the heir and with the application the information of the heir will be requested in the cadastral register and b) on the contrary, if the death of the heir occurred before the entry into force of the Estate Registry, then the beneficiaries of the registrable right are the heirs thereof, given that a person who does not exist is not understood to be the bearer of real rights, and with the application will be requested to be entered in the cadastral sheet of the heirs of the deceased with reason for acquisition Inheritance and title of acquisition the already registered according to article 7A of Law 2664/1998 act of declaration of acceptance of inheritance.
[EfAth 5848/2010, Greece 2011, 568, MP Lam 28/2012 LAW, MP Thes. 3363/2017 LAW].
Thomas Steph. Summer
MDE lawyer
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