State register of property to work in full in late 2013, market waiting for explanations from justice ministry, says expert

Kyiv, April 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Deals in the system of the state register of ownership rights to immovable property are registered, but the existing drawbacks, including the double interpretation of legal acts which duplicate each other during the state registration, could be removed so that the system can operate in full no earlier than in late 2013.

Head of the Law Committee at the Association of Realtors of Ukraine (ASNU), Yuriy Pita, gave his opinion at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.

"Today the deals are being signed, notaries have loosened up, stopped being afraid and learned to work with the system, so the register has started working," he said.

However, there are some drawbacks, and the state register will not function in full until they are removed, Pita said, referring to addresses of constructors.

"I believe that it will work in full at the end of the year, as there are many questions on the primary registration of property – registrars do not know the answers to many questions, so it is a problem to register ownership rights to projects finished on the primary market, for example," he said.

Pita added that market players expect that the Justice Ministry of Ukraine will explain the details.

"We're waiting for some explanations, as the Justice Ministry is silent, there are no explanation documents. Everyone interprets the law and cabinet resolutions, which duplicate each other, in their own way, and I'm sure that each region has its own practice now," the expert said.

Pita said that market player hope that the drawbacks in the operation of the state register of ownership rights to property will be removed and the rights will be registered on the equal conditions all over the country.

As reported, a State Registration Service has been created in Ukraine, to which from January 1, 2013 the function of state registration of ownership rights to property was transferred from the Technical Inventory Bureau to the service, while the bureau will continue conducting a stocktaking.

Earlier, the State Registration Service reported that it is preparing draft laws that will facilitate the procedure for the state registration of mortgage changes or mortgage abeyance and mortgage encumbrances.