The Saeima¹ has adopted and
the President has proclaimed the following law:

On the Entering of Immovable Property in Land Registers

Chapter I
General Provisions

Section 1. This Law prescribes the procedures by which the land regained or privatised by natural persons or legal persons, the land of the State and local governments, as well as the apartments and buildings (structures) that are located on this land or in the land shall be entered in Land Registers.

Section 2. Rights related to immovable property shall be corroborated in the Land Register in accordance with the requirements specified in the Land Register Law, taking into account the provisions of this Law.

Section 3. Immovable property shall be entered in the Land Register based on the document certifying the legal acquisition of the immovable property.

Section 4. A request for corroboration shall be appended by documents in the cases laid down in this Law and Land Register Law. A judge shall obtain the land boundary plan and information regarding the cadastral surveying of the building (structure) or, if the laws and regulations governing the operation of the cadastre do not provide for the cadastral surveying of the building (structure), on the registration of the building (structure) in the State Immovable Property Cadastre Information System (hereinafter - the Cadastre Information System) that is required for the entering of the immovable property from the Cadastre Information System. Consulting the Cadastre Information System shall be equivalent to obtaining the relevant information from a document in paper form.

[30 October 2014; 11 October 2018]

Section 5. The documents appended to a request for corroboration shall be stored in the immovable property folder, but a Land Register statement (certificate) that has been prepared in accordance with the procedures specified in the Land Register Law shall be issued to the owner upon his or her request.

[16 June 1999]

Section 6. [30 October 2014]

Chapter II
Entering of Land in Land Registers

Section 7. The land regained by a natural person or legal person shall be entered in the Land Register in the name of this person upon the decision on the restoration of land ownership rights taken in accordance with the procedures specified bin the Law or upon a court judgment.

Section 8. The land of the State or local governments shall be entered in the Land Register in the name of the State or the relevant local government on the basis of the documents indicated in the law On the State and Local Government Land Ownership Rights and Recording of Such Rights in Land Registers.

Section 9. (1) The land privatised by a natural or legal person shall be entered in the Land Register on the basis of a purchase contract.

(2) In the case of the buyout of land, a request for corroboration shall be appended by the decision on the transfer of the land in ownership for payment, which is taken by the authority specified in laws.

[16 June 1999]

Section 10. When entering the land in the Land Register, a judge of the Land Registry Office shall examine the request for corroboration and the relevant documents referred to in Section 7, 8 or 9 of this Law in accordance with Section 77 of the Land Register Law, and also verify that the request is appended by the documents referred to in this Law.

[30 October 2014]

Section 11. If the decision on the restoration of land ownership rights or the transfer of the land in ownership for payment or the purchase contract lays down restrictions or encumbrances of ownership rights, a notation shall be made on the restrictions and encumbrances that have been specified in the decision or contract concurrently with the entering of the land in the Land Register by taking into account the cases specified in the Land Register Law. The notation should be replaced with an entry, if the land owner or the relevant interested person submits a request for corroboration.

[30 November 2000; 11 October 2018]

Chapter III
Entering of Buildings (Structures) of Natural Persons in Land Registers

Section 12. Buildings (structures) shall be entered in Land Registers concurrently with land, except in the cases referred to in Section 13 of this Law.

Section 13. Buildings (structures) which in accordance with Section 14 of the law On the Time and Procedures for the Coming into Force of the Introduction, Inheritance Law and Property Law of the Renewed Civil Law of 1937 of the Republic of Latvia are an independent immovable property and are located on the land of another person shall be entered in the Land Register in accordance with general procedures.

Section 14. (1) When entering buildings (structures) that are an independent object of the ownership rights, a separate division shall be opened in the Land Register.

(2) If the land is acquired in the ownership by the owner of the buildings (structures) or the building (structure) - by the land owner, the building (structure) property shall be added to the land property division and building (structure) division shall be closed also without the request of the owner if the judge of the Land Registry Office does not establish the obstacles laid down in laws and regulations for joining the land property and building (structure) property. In such case the cadastre number of the land property shall be retained for the immovable property.

[30 October 2014]

Section 15. When entering the buildings (structures) in the Land Register in accordance with Section 13 of this Law, the following notation shall be made in part one of the division of the Land Register: "Building (structure) is related to the plot of land (cadastre designation of the relevant land unit).

[30 October 2014]

Section 16. [30 October 2014]

Section 17. Buildings (structures) shall be entered in the Land Register on the basis of one of the following documents:

1) a statement from the State Archive on the ownership of the buildings (structures) or the land as on 21 July 1949, if the buildings (structures) have been built before 21 July 1940;

2) a document, which is issued by the authority specified by the law, regarding the restoration of ownership rights to illegally alienated buildings (structures);

3) a deed certified in accordance with specified procedures on the acceptance of the building (structure) for service;

4) a written deed of transaction on the acquisition of the buildings (structures) (if the transaction has been concluded until 28 February 1993, as well as in other cases specified by other laws it must be notarially certified);

5) a certificate on the rights to the estate (until 31 December 1992);

6) a judgment or decision of a court, except for those court judgments which are referred to in Section 7 and 8 of the law On Returning the Buildings to their Lawful Owners;

7) a deed on the acquisition of buildings (structures) in auction by judicial process (until 29 March 1995);

8) an extract from a register of a collective farm or a farm record card issued by the State Archive or local government which certifies the acquisition of the buildings (structures) in connection with property relations in the collective farm homestead specified by the law;

9) a contract on the acquisition of buildings (structures) as a result of the privatisation of the State or local government's property;

10) any other document, which certifies legal acquisition of the buildings (structures).

Section 18. If a natural person has acquired the buildings (structures) before 5 April 1993 and he or she has not retained any document certifying the ownership rights (contract, certificate on the rights to the estate, a deed on the putting into service of the building and similar documents), the buildings (structures) shall be entered in the Land Register in the name of this person, on the basis of a statement of the local government or the State Land Service, where the legal basis upon which this person has acquired the buildings (structures) is indicated.

Section 19. (1) The following shall not be entered in the Land Register as independent objects of property:

1) small buildings, except for garages;

2) fences;

3) linear engineering structures, except for transport structures;

4) the following transport structures: aqueducts, irrigation and cultivation hydrostructures, railway tracks, and also engineering structures included in the composition of the railway infrastructure in accordance with the Railway Law;

5) engineering structures the area of which is less than 50 square metres or height is less than 10 metres.

(2) The size restrictions referred to in Paragraph one, Clause 5 of this Section shall not apply to cultural and historical engineering structures and transport structures.

[30 October 2014]

Section 20. If the buildings (structures) on which restriction for alienation or servitudes have been imposed in accordance with the procedures laid down in the law and that have been registered in the Cadastre Information System or local government, the restriction for alienation or servitudes shall be entered in the Land Register in the form of notations, and the notations shall be deleted or replaced with entries only upon the request of interested persons.

[30 October 2014]

Section 21. If a natural person has acquired buildings (structures) after 4 April 1993 as a result of a transaction or by inheritance, they shall be entered in the Land Register in the name of this person provided that the applicant for corroboration shall submit evidence that an assignor or estate-leaver has been the owner of these buildings (structures). If the referred to assignor has acquired the buildings (structures) after 4 April 1993, the evidence of the ownership of the previous assignor or estate-leaver and legality of the transaction shall be submitted (legal capacity, capacity to act, a consent of the third person when such consent is required in accordance with the law), until the ownership rights of the assignor or estate-leaver is proved (construction, registration in the institutions specified by the law).

[16 June 1999]

Section 22. If the applicant for corroboration cannot submit the documents referred to in Section 21 of this Law, the basis for corroboration may be a court judgment recognising his or her ownership rights. In preparing a case for examination, the court shall publish in the official gazette Latvijas Vēstnesis an announcement inviting the persons having any objections against the claim to submit them to court within three months.

Section 23. (1) The conditions referred to in Section 21 of this Law shall not be applied and buildings (structures) shall be entered in the Land Register in accordance with the general procedures, if they have been acquired on the basis of laws regulating the restoration of ownership or privatisation or alienation of State and local government property.

(2) If the privatisation or alienation of State and local government property has been conducted on the basis of the law On Privatisation of Objects of State and Local Government Property or the Law on the Alienation of the Property of a Public Person, the authority conducting the privatisation and alienation shall submit a request for corroboration to the district (city) court.

[16 June 1999; 30 October 2014; 11 October 2018]

Section 24. Buildings (structures) owned by a member of a co-operative (co-operation) society of horticulture, garage, summer cottages or other shall be entered in the Land Register in his or her name, if the relevant member of the co-operative has participated in the drawing up of the deed on the putting into service of the building (structure). If this person has not been a member of the co-operative (co-operation) society of horticulture, garages, summer cottages or other when the building (structure) was put into service, a request for corroboration shall be appended by the statement from the relevant co-operative, successor in interest or the State Archive on the admittance of this person as a member of a co-operative.

Section 25. Newly erected buildings (commenced construction to putting into service) shall be entered in the Land Register on the basis of the statement issued by the construction inspection (building authority) in which the legal basis of construction and characterisation of newly erected building is indicated.

[16 June 1999]

Chapter IV
Entering of Buildings (Structures) of Legal Persons in the Land Register

Section 26. Buildings (structures) of legal persons shall be entered in the Land Registers in conformity with the requirements specified in Sections 12-15, 19 and 25 of this Law.

[30 October 2014]

Section 27. Presence of the buildings (structures) in the balance sheet of a legal person (in the accounting of fixed assets) shall not of itself result in ownership rights.

[16 June 1999]

Section 28. Buildings (structures) shall be entered in the Land Register on the basis of one of the following documents:

1) a document on the restoration of ownership rights issued by the authority specified in law;

2) a deed certified in accordance with specified procedures on the acceptance of the building (structure) for service;

3) a deed of transaction on the acquisition of the buildings (structures);

4) a judgment or decision of a court, except for those judgments referred to in Sections 7 and 8 of the law On Returning the Buildings to their Lawful Owners;

5) a deed on the acquisition of buildings (structures) in auction by judicial process (until 29 March 1995);

6) a deed of government or local government taken in accordance with administrative procedures regarding the transfer of buildings (structures) in the ownership to other legal subject, also regarding the inclusion thereof in the composition of the fixed assets of the undertaking (company);

7) company's memorandum of association approving the transfer of the buildings (structures) into ownership of the company;

8) deed of evaluation of fixed assets which certifies inclusion of the buildings (structures) in the composition of a company's fixed assets, transforming the State or local government undertaking into a company;

9) any other document which certifies legal acquisition of the buildings (structures).

Section 29. Legal persons shall append to a request for corroboration the documents which certify their legal capacity and capacity to act (articles of association, by-laws etc.).

Section 30.

[16 June 1999]

Section 31. If a legal person has acquired buildings (structures) as a result of a transaction, they shall be entered in the Land Register in accordance with the procedures specified in Sections 21-23 of this Law in the name of a legal person, verifying the ownership rights of the assignor until they are unequivocally proved (constructions, State or local government property, registration in the institutions specified by the law).

Section 32. (1) The conditions referred to in Section 31 of this Law shall not be applied and buildings (structures) shall be entered in the Land Register in accordance with the general procedures, if they have been acquired on the basis of laws regulating the privatisation and alienation of State and local government property or the modification of State and local government undertakings into companies.

(2) If the privatisation or alienation of State and local government property has been conducted on the basis of the law On Privatisation of Objects of State and Local Government Property or the Law on the Alienation of the Property of a Public Person, the authority conducting the privatisation and alienation shall submit a request for corroboration to the district (city) court.

[16 June 1999; 30 October 2014; 11 October 2018]

Section 33. Buildings (structures) which have been owned by a legal person, except for religious organisations, as on 21 July 1940 shall be entered in the Land Register in the name of a legal person on the basis of the statement from the State Archive and a statement signed by the manager of this legal person, that the buildings (structures) are included in the balance sheet (in the accounting records of fixed assets). A request for corroboration shall be appended by the statement of the relevant State authority that the buildings (structures) have not been transferred into State ownership, and by a document on the restoration of the land ownership rights.

[16 June 1999]

Section 34. Buildings (structures) of religious organisations shall be entered in the Land Register on the basis of the decision of the city council or parish council on the restoration of ownership rights or an agreement on the return of the property.

Chapter V
Entering of the State and Local Government Buildings (Structures) in Land Registers

Section 35. Buildings (structures) of the State and local government shall be entered in the Land Registers in conformity with the requirements specified in Sections 12-15, 19 and 25 of this Law.

[30 October 2014]

Section 36. (1) Buildings (structures) shall be entered in the Land Registers in the name of the State or local government on the basis of one of the following documents:

1) a statement from the State Archive on the proprietary effects of the buildings (structures) to the State, liquidated State institution, undertaking or company with State capital on 21 July 1940;

2) a deed on the acceptance of the buildings (structures) for service;

3) a deed of transaction on the acquisition of the buildings (structures);

4) a judgment or decision of a court, except for those judgments referred to in Sections 7 and 8 of the law On Returning the Buildings to their Lawful Owners;

5) a deed taken in accordance with administrative procedures on the transfer of the buildings (structures) owned by the State to local government or vice versa;

6) a statement issued by a State or local government institution which attests that the building (structure) is included in the balance sheet of the State or local government institution;

7) any other document, which certifies legal acquisition of the buildings (structures).

(2) State buildings (structures) shall be entered in the Land Register in the name of the relevant State institution in accordance with provisions of Section 8 of the law On the State and Local Government Land Ownership Rights and Corroboration of Such Rights in Land Registers. If buildings (structures) are located on foreign land, they shall be entered in the Land Register in the name of the State on behalf of the person of that Ministry, in the possession of which these buildings (structures) are, if it is not otherwise specified by the Cabinet.

(3) If the former owner or his or her heirs have not applied for the buildings (structures) within the time period laid down in laws and regulations and if these buildings (structures) are in the possession of a ministry or local government and are included in the balance sheet (in the accounting records of fixed assets) thereof, and are necessary for the fulfilment of the State or local government functions, such buildings (structures) shall be entered in the Land Register in the name of the State on behalf of the relevant ministry or in the name of the relevant local government on the basis of the following documents:

1) the statement issued by a ministry or local government on the fact that buildings (structures) are in its possession;

2) the statement issued by a local government on the fact that the former owners or their heirs have not applied for the buildings (structures) within the time period laid down in laws and regulations.

[16 June 1999; 20 December 2007]

Section 37. Buildings (structures) which within the period from 21 July 1940 have been built by undertakings, institutions, organisations subordinated to the USSR, also Latvian divisions of the public organisations of the USSR, the Ministry of Defence of the USSR, Ministry of Interior and the internal security force and border guard forces thereof, except in the cases when these buildings (structures) have been alienated in accordance with the procedures specified by the law shall be entered in the Land Registers in the name of the State.

Section 38. The following buildings (structures) shall be entered in the Land Register in the name of the local government, if:

1) they have been built before 21 July 1940 on the land which has been entered in the Land Register in the name of the relevant local government or fund of rural local governments, if the relevant local government has regained land ownership rights and the buildings (structures) are in the legal possession of the local government or the authority thereof and are included in the balance sheet thereof (in the accounting records of fixed assets, which is certified by a statement signed by the relevant manager;

2) they have been built using the resources of the local government after the coming into force of the Law On Local Governments of 15 February 1990;

3) they have been transferred into the ownership of the local government under the law;

4) they have been transferred into the ownership of the local government under a legal act issued by the Council of Ministers or the Cabinet;

5) they have been acquired by another legal basis.

[16 June 1999]

Section 39. Buildings (structures) which have been transferred into the ownership of the State without remuneration by local government during the land reform, and buildings (structures) which have been transferred into the ownership of the local government by the State or other local government during the land reform may be entered in the Land Register also in those cases when these buildings (structures) have not been recorded in the Land Register before they have been put into service. Ownership rights shall be corroborated on the basis of the decision of the relevant city council, parish or district council or the order of the Cabinet.

Chapter VI
Entering of a Residential Property in Land Registers

Section 40. Privatised apartments in a multi-unit residential house may be entered in the Land Register only when the residential house has been entered in the Land Register in accordance with this Law and a statement from the Privatisation Commission of Residential Buildings on the division of the residential house into residential properties has been appended.

[16 June 1999]

Section 41. Privatised residential property in a multi-unit residential house of the State or local government shall be entered in the Land Register in the name of acquirer in accordance with the procedures specified by the law.

[16 June 1999]

Section 42. In accordance with the procedures specified in Section 41 of this Law, on the basis of a document submitted by the relevant Apartment Privatisation Commission, also apartments which have been privatised in accordance with the law On the Privatisation of Co-operative Apartments, the law On the Privatisation of Agricultural Undertakings and Collective Fisheries or other laws shall be entered in the Land Register.

Section 43. Until the modification of the privatised co-operative and other privatised residential houses into residential properties, an apartment may be entered in the Land Register if the residential house has been entered in the Land Register in accordance with the Law on Residential Properties.

[30 October 2014]

Section 44. If ownership rights to an apartment have been acquired as a result of a transaction or by inheritance after 4 April 1993, they shall be entered in the Land Register and the ownership rights shall be corroborated in accordance with the procedures, which have been specified in Sections 21-23 or Sections 31 and 32 of this Law.

Section 45. Ownership rights to apartments which have been acquired in a residential house owned by private persons and public persons shall be corroborated in the Land Register if the residential house has been entered in the Land Register and residential properties have been registered in the Cadastre Information System.

[30 October 2014]

Chapter VII
Entering of Immovable Properties Divided into Several Independent Properties in Land Registers

Section 46. Immovable property, also buildings, which have been divided into real parts, upon agreement of joint holder or by a court judgment, if necessary, imposing restrictions or determining servitudes, may be entered in the Land Register in separate sections as an independent object of property in the following cases

1) each owner has a separate plot of land, on which his or her buildings or part of his or her building is located, and the cadastre number has been assigned to the plot of land;

2) a local government has specified an address for each separated immovable property;

3) the cadastral survey file of a building (structure) has been arranged for each part of the residential house and household buildings as an independent property.

[20 December 2007]

Section 47. Ownership rights shall be corroborated in the case referred to in Section 46 of this Law on the basis of agreement of joint holders or a court judgment on the termination of a joint property. A document approving the legal acquisition of the immovable property (land, building) and a decision of the local government on the location (address) of buildings (structures) shall be appended to the request for corroboration.

Chapter VIII
Final Provisions

Section 48. A judge shall examine the requests for corroboration related to the entering of an immovable property in Land Registers within the time period specified in the Land Register Law.

[11 October 2018]

Section 49.

[11 October 2018]

Section 50. Natural persons - former owners, who owned the land on 21 July 1940, spouses thereof and first class intestate heirs, politically repressed persons and persons with Group I disability whose land ownership rights have been restored in the course of land reform - shall be exempted from the processing fee which is collected in accordance with Section 107 of the Land Register Law when initially recording the immovable property in the Land Register and corroborating the rights related thereto.

Transitional Provisions

1. With the coming into force of this Law, Cabinet Regulation No. 140, Regulations Regarding the Entering of Immovable Properties in the Land Registers, issued in accordance with Article 81 of the Constitution (Latvijas Republikas Saeimas un Ministru Kabineta Ziņotājs, 1996, No. 11), is repealed.

2. Provisions of the second sentence of Section 19 of this Law shall not be applied, if the objects referred therein have been transferred for privatisation until the day of coming into force of this Law and are located on a land owned by or under the jurisdiction of the State or local government.

[16 June 1999]

3. Provisions of Section 21 of this Law shall not be applied (alienation agreements may not be the basis for the corroboration of the ownership rights of the acquirer), if the immovable property has not been entered in the Land Register and alienation contract on:

1) buildings (structures) has been concluded after 1 January 2000, except for the buildings (structures) referred to in Sub-paragraphs 3 and 4;

2) residential properties has been concluded after 1 January 2001;

3) buildings (structures) to be privatised has been concluded after 1 January 2002;

4) buildings (structures) of those undertakings (companies), which have been recognised as insolvent with a court judgment, has been concluded after 1 January 2002.

[16 June 1999; 30 November 2000]

4. The new wording of Section 4 of this Law shall come into force on 1 January 2015.

[30 October 2014]

This Law has been adopted by the Saeima on 30 January 1997.

Acting for the President, Chairperson of the Saeima, A. Čepānis

Rīga, 20 February 1997

¹ The Parliament of the Republic of Latvia

Translation © 2019 Valsts valodas centrs (State Language Centre)