Policy Context and Legal Framework

Estonian Land Register is a title based electronic register. The right has to be entered in the land register in order to be valid. The entries made in the land register are presumed correct. The land register is accessible online and all register parts are valid electronically.

Estonia has a system of a strong land register which ensures the legal certainty of immovable property ownership and hedges risks of immovable property transactions because:

- the real rights related to a registered immovable are made public through the land register and nobody can be excused of nescience of the data of the land register;

- real rights in immovable property are created, amended or extinguished by making a respective entry in the land register and they can be relied on upon making transactions;

- entries regarding a registered immovable are made in the order of registering applications in the land registry journal;

- the rights entered in the land register can be amended only on the basis of the application or consent of the owner of the right or through judicial proceedings.

Implementation and Management Approach

The Digital Land Register project was initiated in 2002. The coordinating and supervising party was Ministry of Justice. The development team was in Centre of Registers and Information Systems. As Centre of Registers and Information Systems also offers the IT-solutions to the all organizations under the governance of the Ministry of Justice therefore it was not necessary to include any partners into the development process. The basic requirements were described in collaboration with two parties and also assistant judges from Land Registry departments were involved.

Technology solution

Impact

Land register information system and data exchange has done electronic conveyancing much easier. It has improved the quality, speed and security of the process of registering.

Now the whole Registration procedure (entering files the application, making entries into register part and announcing concerned parties) is covered with digital Land Register software.

It is easy to make hanges in information system if necessary. Information system is sustainable and can be easily developed further.

Lot of activities are half-automated which means registration is more efficient and lot of routine work can be done without human intervention.  Quality of texts of entries is improved as these are composed automatically base on templates. As a result of less work the number of workers in Land registry departments have been decreased approximately 20%

There are fewer mistakes thanks to digital structured data exchange. For example from Land cadastre we get up-do-date information, and based on that there are automatically new entries made about the parcels’ address, intended purposes or areas.

There is also electronic data interchange with notary’s information system. Notaries get information from land register for using in contracts and submit contracts and file the application electronically to land register information system. At the moment there are no applications on paper between notary and land register. (More in added documents)

The proceeding deadlines have decreased from 3 months to approximately 10 days.

Land register information is available for everyone and everywhere you have internet connection and information you get from the register has legal power electronically. For example people who need land register information do not have to spend half a day to go to land registry department to get information. Banks and all the other institutions can trust electronic land register.

Track record of sharing

Digital Land register has been introduced at several conferences in the world like e-conveyancing, Cinder, e-Justice. Several countries have been interested in digital Land register and it has been introduced to the delegation of these countries during their visits to Estonia. Feedback has always been positive and interest towards the system is enormous.

Estonia is participating in ELRA meetings and take part in e-conveyancing workgroup.

Also other project teams who are developing other information systems under Ministry of Justice have been using experiences and lessons learnt from Digital Land register project.

Lessons learnt

Everything is possible if:

- Team and it's leaders have big dreams and all members are well motivated and believe in the result.

- There is good and strong cooperation between related parties. Like developers, law-makers, final users,

- The state infrastructure and ID-cards, digital signatures, X-road etc. are existing in good level.