In the “Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia” no. 92/2023 from October 27th 2023, the Law on Amendments to the Law on State Survey and Cadastre and the Law on Amendments to the Law on the Procedure for Registration in the Cadastre of Real Estate and Utilities were published.

These laws will enter into force on the eighth day from the date of publication, i.e. on November 4th 2023. In the following, we will list the key amendments, as well as the reasons for their adoption.

I Law on Amendments to the Law on State Survey and Cadastre

The legislator considered it necessary to enable the registration of all types of infrastructural and underground facilities in one place, i.e. in one database, bearing in mind that, according to previously applicable legal solutions, some types of infrastructural and underground facilities were registered in the real estate cadastre database, some in the utilities cadastre database, while for certain types of infrastructural and underground facilities, registration in the aforementioned databases was not possible at all or was not adequate. The new database is a set of geospatial and other data on infrastructural and underground facilities, real rights on them and owners of real rights, and in particular contains the following thematic units:

1. traffic (land, water and air traffic);
2. underground and above ground installations (utilities);
3. electronic communication networks and means;
4. underground facilities.

This systemic approach enables obtaining information and data in one place within the integrated geodetic-cadastral information system for all facilities from the real estate cadastre and for all types of infrastructural facilities that exist in a certain location, an adequate graphic representation of the infrastructure, better space planning possibilities, prevention of damage to underground and above ground installations (utilities), reduction of costs of direct and indirect damage during the construction of new facilities, as well as smooth realization of parceling and re-parceling projects on the land above the underground infrastructure.

Bearing in mind that the ultimate goal of these amendments is to improve the quality, reliability and accuracy of real estate data, it is important to mention the provisions related to the work of geodetic organizations, with the aim of preventing possible abuses and negligence in their work. Namely, through practice it has been shown that some geodetic organizations misused the delegated authority to perform field geodetic works, by presenting untrue data in the elaborate of geodetic work, rather than the factual situation established in the field. For this reason, it is stipulated that the geodetic organization will be deprived of its license if it submits the elaborate of geodetic works and a record of the inspection of non-existent changes or with untrue data, or the elaborate was prepared by a person who is not employed or engaged in that geodetic organization. The inspector’s authority was added to prohibit the geodetic organization from performing geodetic works for a period of one month if it repeats the identified irregularities within one year of the originally ordered measures to eliminate them. In addition, the provision that stipulates the obligation of the geodetic organization to report certain changes to the Republic Geodetic Institute has been amended, and it is now specified that it is obliged to report a change in business name, i.e. name, legal form, seat, address of the business premises outside the seat, change in the number of employees , geodetic instruments and any other change that is important for its work, within 15 days from the date of the change, and the obligation to prepare and submit a report on self-verification of the fulfillment of the requirements from the checklist and self-assessment of risk at the request of the inspector, within 15 days from the date of receipt of the request, was added.

With these amendments, the text of the law is aligned with international standards and best practice guidelines in the field of mass real estate valuation and keeping a price register.

Finally, terminological harmonization was carried out, and the most significant change in this regard is the replacement of the term “cadastre of utilities” with the term “cadastre of infrastructure and underground facilities” (abbreviated: “cadastre of infrastructure”).

II Law on Amendments to the Law on the Procedure for Registration in the Cadastre of Real Estate and Utilities

The reasons for the adoption of these amendments are contained in the need to eliminate certain deficiencies observed in the current application of the Law on the Procedure for Registration in the Cadastre of Real Estate and Utilities, by specifying certain provisions and improving existing legal solutions, all with the aim of speeding up and simplifying the procedure of registration in the cadastre.

In order to increase the promptness in the solving of cases, the provisions related to registration ex officio, by force of law, have been changed, so that it is now carried out if unconditional registration without the adoption of a decision is prescribed by a special law, in accordance with the program of implementation of law enforcement activities, as well as on the basis of the reasoned proposal of the competent authority, when it determines or finds out that, considering the factual situation, the procedure must be initiated in the interest of the party or when, for the sake of protecting the public interest, it is necessary to initiate the procedure in accordance with the program of implementation of activities in the registration procedure. The aforementioned programs are issued by the Republic Geodetic Institute, with the consent of the Government of the Republic of Serbia.

Although earlier it was stipulated that it would be regulated by a by-law, now the law itself prescribes the method of determining the unique registration number of real estate, as well as its structure.

Of particular importance for citizens is the amendment of the provision that prescribes the manner in which a party can submit a request for registration in the real estate cadastre. It is stipulated that the party can do this via the e-counter, through a professional user who is authorized in accordance with this law to digitize a document issued in paper form, unless this is expressly excluded by law, and it is additionally specified that the request must be submitted on the electronic form. In accordance with that, the provision which prescribed that the Republic Geodetic Institute will ensure the submission of requests through the e-counter by December 31st 2020 at the latest, to persons who do not have the status of professional users, and that until then those persons should submit requests in the form of paper document, was deleted.

Also, it is specified that the deviation from the order of priority does not only apply to registrations made on the basis of the regulations governing expropriation, but also to registrations for the purposes of expropriation (e.g. parceling and re-parceling for the purposes of expropriation), and that the presumption of registration in the cadastre cannot be prescribed, before the decision of registration in the cadastre is made.

Another novelty is the possibility for entrepreneurs and companies registered in the Register of Intermediaries in Real Estate Transactions and Leasing to issue an extract from the real estate cadastre database and an extract from the infrastructure cadastre database, which have the same validity as those issued by the Republic Geodetic Institute.

It is interesting that, due to the large number of initiated misdemeanor proceedings, the provisions prescribing the misdemeanor liability of officials for non-compliance with the prescribed deadlines for solving cases in the cadastre registration procedure were deleted.

Due to the already described amendments to the Law on State Survey and Cadastre, it was necessary to harmonize terminology in this law as well, which resulted in the change of the name of the law itself to “Law on the Procedure for Registration in the Real Estate Cadastre and Infrastructure Cadastre”.