The Real Estate Records Act (ZEN), which has been in force for more than 20 years, has recently been replaced by the Real Estate Cadastre Act (ZKN), application of which started on 4 April 2022.
The ZKN establishes a single register, called the Real Estate Cadastre, which transparently replaces the previously used three separate registers (i.e., the Land Cadastre, the Building Cadastre, and the Real Estate Register), in which data on plots of land, buildings and parts of buildings in the territory of the country were entered. As before, the data will be maintained by the Geodetic Administration of the Republic of Slovenia, and the collection of documents will be maintained in both physical and electronic formats.
The fundamental goal of the ZKN is to ensure that data are entered in the real estate registers in such a way that they fulfil a multifunctional role, namely as a basis for the registration of rights in rem in the Land Register, for tax, spatial, housing, social, energy, security, statistical and other purposes.
All relevant property data is now held in two core, electronically interlinked systems, namely:
- the Real Estate Cadastre, where data on the position, shape, physical and other characteristics of parcels, buildings and parts of buildings are kept; and
- the Land Register, where information on the rights in rem on real estate is kept.
Among the most notable innovations, the ZKN provides for a single cadastral procedure, which replaces the separate procedures for the preparation of an elaboration and the procedure for the registration of new or amended data, and explicitly defines who has access to the information system, in a way that enables them to register elaborations prepared in cadastral and judicial proceedings. In the event of a claim of professional error by the land surveyor, the party in the administrative part of the cadastral procedure must, in accordance with the ZKN, submit a second opinion, i.e., a reasoned professional opinion on whether the elaboration filed in the information system reflects the correct and complete factual situation, established, and presented in accordance with the standards and rules of the surveying profession.
It is interesting to note that the ZKN introduces the possibility of registering both the area of the easement and the building right (e.g., registration of the area of an easement running along only part of a certain plot), which was not possible under its predecessor, the ZEN. The ZKN also regulates more appropriately the way in which the components of parts of buildings, such as atriums and parking spaces, are recorded, the data on plots, buildings and parts of buildings are recorded and how these data can be amended, considering the legal certainty of real estate owners.
In order to effectively correct deficiencies and irregularities in the entry of data on real estate in the Real Estate Cadastre, the ZKN introduces an alert system which provides information on plots of land, buildings or parts of buildings for which, on the basis of facts and circumstances which are likely to be proven, it may be assumed that their data in the Real Estate Cadastre are incorrect or incomplete.
The ZKN also establishes a register of addresses, which is a record of data on addresses in the Republic of Slovenia that were previously kept as an integral part of the register of spatial units. Address data are permanently stored and used for purposes such as location, identification, legal jurisdiction, delivery of parcels, etc.
Finally, the ZKN also provides for some offences, e.g., in relation to the marking of the country border, the carrying out of measurements and observations and landmarks, for the non-marking or mismarking of apartments and business premises, for the non-registration of a building or part of a building in the Real Estate Cadastre, etc. The ZKN also provides for a number of offences. The implementation of the provisions of the ZKN and the regulations issued on the basis thereof is supervised by the Survey Inspector, who may impose a fine in the event of an infringement being detected.
