The protection of land rights in the Netherlands

1. Introduction
Given below is an explanation of the Dutch system for registering land rights
and the protection that the title holders can derive from that system. In
response to increasing
automation, a number of amendments will shortly be introduced. Those
amendments will also be explained.
2. The system for registering rights
In the Netherlands, land rights are registered in two phases. In the first
phase, the parties enter into a contract of sale, which means that they agree
on the obligation to transfer a piece of land. That obligation is laid down in a
contract of sale, but at this stage ownership has not yet been transferred.
That happens in the second phase, in which the intervention of a civil-law
notary is mandatory. The civil-law notary draws up a deed of conveyance,
which has to be listed in the public registers kept by the registrar. Once he
has received the deed, the registrar verifies within a maximum of 4 days
whether the registration requirements have been met. If he decides to
register the deed, he adds a registration report to the deed, which is then
returned to the party offering the land. His decision to register the deed has
retrospective effect to the time at which the land was offered. From that
time onwards, the deed of conveyance is registered and the ownership is
transferred. The registrar does not issue a title certificate setting out the
rights of the new owner. Members of the public are themselves responsible
for consulting the deeds in the public registers in order to establish who the
owner is and can in principle rely on the details laid down in the deed. The
Dutch system should therefore be formally considered to be what is known
as a system of deeds. In the event of people suffering losses because the
deed contains inaccurate information or because the registrar has
erroneously registered it, those people can recoup their losses from the civillaw notary or from the Dutch Land Registry Office.
In the Netherlands, that is a self-administering state body which is liable for
errors made by the registrar. Apart from the public registers, the registrar is
also charged with keeping what is known as the cadastral register. This is a
parcel based property register which in addition to references to the public
registers also lists the names of rights and title holders. In formal terms,
this register serves only for levying tax and no rights can be derived from
registration as an owner. In practice, however, registration as a title holder
in the cadastral register plays an important role. Before drawing up a deed
of conveyance in the cadastral register, the civil-law notary looks into the
question of whether the selling party is listed as the owner. Should that not
be the case, the civil-law notary is not in principle permitted to draw up the
deed. This is stipulated by the governing board of the Order of Civil-Law
Notaries following consultation with the insurance company of those civillaw notaries. The insurer wants to limit the risk that he will have to pay out
damages because the civil-law notary helped to transfer the property of an
un authorised person or co-operated with someone other than the actual
owner in establishing a mortgage right.
This forces civil-law notaries to resolve differences of opinion with the
registrar concerning the implications of a registered deed in advance of a

new transfer. They can do this by eliciting a court ruling using a specific
procedure.
In practice, this system adequately serves both the economic interest of
smooth legal transactions and the interest of legal certainty. Because the
registrar quickly updates his registration, civil-law notaries, who are also
responsible for transferring purchase amounts, are able to transfer the
purchase amount previously received from the buyer or his mortgage bank
to the vendor on the day on which their deed is presented. Proceedings
relating to the legal status virtually never arise. This is because the civil-law
notary of the parties to the deed investigates in advance the identity, the
legal capacity in general and the authority to perform this specific legal
transaction. The civil-law notary verifies the selling party's previous
acquisition in ownership by making a comparison with the registrar's
registration.
3. The system for registering boundaries
The legal boundary of a transferred piece of land is determined in the
Netherlands by the intention of the parties, as specified in the deed. It is
possible to have the intended boundary measured in advance by a land
surveyor of the Land Registry Office, but this is not usually done. If part of
an existing parcel is transferred, a land surveyor of the Land Registry Office
visits the site after a number of months. He makes a request to the adjacent
owners to adjust the boundary at the site. Provided that the boundary does
not differ from the description in the deed, the designated boundary is
created up to the boundary of a new cadastral parcel. If the parties are
unable to agree on the course of the boundary, the Land Registry Office
does not create a new cadastral parcel. The cadastral boundaries are not
made visible at the site. They are however laid down in a digital cadastral
map. This map is based on individual boundary sketches made by the land
surveyor, who in rare cases of boundary disputes plays an important role.
Agreements have been made with the notarial profession about the
registration of drawings in which the boundaries have already been
described in outline form.
It is theoretically possible that a boundary other than that originally
intended by the parties is designated. In that case, the cadastral boundary
is different from the legal boundary. In practice, however, this is never the
court's ruling. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, the court assumes
that the cadastral boundary coincides with the original intention of the
parties, and is therefore the legal boundary. It is for this reason that in the
event of a boundary dispute the parties usually accept the cadastral
boundary as indicated in the Land Registry. The advantage of this system is
that the transfer can take place in advance, without the formality of a
survey. Here too, the Dutch system is based on part on the economic
interest of smooth transaction legal transactions.
4. Digitalisation of the public registers
Up until now, only the register of names and rights and title holders (the
cadastral registration) was automated and available for consultation via the
Internet. However, it will shortly also be possible to store deeds in the public
registers in digital form so that they can be consulted via the Internet too.
This is done by scanning the paper deeds as soon as they arrive. This means
that the registrar no longer has to make copies of deeds and send them by

mail in response to requests to inspect them. Electronic copies can be called

up online by clients. When the request is made, an automated process is
triggered which results in the copy being sent over the Internet in the form
of an e-mail. One of the risks of digitalizing documents that were originally
laid down on paper is that the digital files regularly have to be transferred to
other tapes or magnetic disks. This is necessary because of the limited lifespan of information carriers of this nature, but also because certain formats
fall into disuse. If a digital file has been stored in an obsolete format, it will
have to be converted to a more up-to-date one. However, deeds or details
from those deeds can be lost during the transfer or conversion process. On
the request of the civil-law notaries, it has therefore been decided to lay
down backups of digital files as copies on microfilm for the time being.
In the future, we want to register the deeds in digital form in the public
registers. Current legislation does not yet permit deeds to be presented
electronically, but a draft bill that allows this has been submitted to the
Dutch parliament. It is important for legal certainty that exclusivity and
integrity are monitored. Monitoring exclusivity relates primarily to the
signature. Third party acquirers can rely on a registered deed in the
Netherlands. If there are errors in a deed, the loss can be recouped from the
civil-law notary who signed the deed. An alternative to the written signature
will therefore have to be found for the electronic presentation of deeds. For
this purpose, a link to the European directive is being sought. We will require
the electronic signatures that the directive places on par with a written
signature. This authentication is also known as the advanced electronic
signature. It will probably be possible in due course to create that signature
using various technologies (such as biometrics). In the situation as it stands,
this can only be done with what is known as asymmetric encryption. This
technology involves the use of private and public keys, which are
inextricably bound. The databases being authenticated are encrypted with
the private key into what is called a digital signature. The accompanying
public key is registered in a digital identity document, the certificate, that
can be sent to the registrar with the digital signature. This certificate is
issued by a certificate service provider, and also shows the name for the key
holder in the certificate. To avoid having to keep cumbersome administrative
records and all possible identity verifications, the Land Registry Office has
decided not to issue keys and certificates itself. The registrar accepts all
certificates that meet the requirements of the European directive for what is
known as a qualified certificate. Theoretically, this could imply that
certificates must be accepted from various certificate service providers, but
because all deeds in the Netherlands are drawn up by civil-law notaries and
the Order of Civil-Law Notaries has its own certificate service provider, it is
probably that only the certificates of a single certificate service provider will
be used. To secure the integrity of the electronically-transmitted deeds, we
will be using unique verification numbers, known as hash values. The civillaw notary's automated system calculates the hash value of a deed prior to
transmission and sends it as part of the digital signature to the registrar.
Upon receipt, the registrar's system also calculates the hash value and
compares it with that of the digital signature. If the two hash values are not
the same, the electronic presentation is rejected because the deed has
apparently been altered by unauthorized persons since being signed.
Those wishing to present deeds electronically must first report to the
registrar. They are then required to stipulate the certificate service providers
whose certificates they will be using. The registrar will then ensure that they

are given the technical means to verify the authenticity of certificates from
that certificate service provider.
5. Automated processing of electronically presented documents
Presenting documents electronically also makes it possible to automate the
verification of registration requirements and to automate the updating of
the registers. Methods that can be used for this are currently being looked
into. The study is focusing on the use of electronic forms that civil-law
notaries can call up via the Internet. If the form is filled in correctly, the civillaw notary can download it and print it out at the office on sealed paper and
turn it into the original of a written deed. For registration in the public
register, the digital file that the civil-law notary has downloaded and given
his digital signature is presented as a copy of this paper document. Because
it is only possible to download a form that meets all registration
requirements, it is possible that registration in the public registers will take
place in automated form. The details entered into the free fields would then
have to be suitable as XML files for the automated updating of the cadastral
registration. Apart from the efficiency gains that can probably be thus
achieved, another advantage is that legal transactions concerning
registered properties are further speeded up. There is a new risk that relates
to the question of how the registrar can ascertain whether the file being
presented is the same as the completed electronic form that he knows
meets the registration requirements. We are still looking into the answer to
that question. Here too, it is possible that the solution will be found in
calculating and comparing reference numbers, the hash values.
6. Conclusion
The system of deeds that was originally introduced by Napoleon still
formally exists in the Netherlands, but has in practice developed in the
direction of a system in which the registrar and civil-law notary actually
decide who is accepted as a title holder in social and economic life. Because
civil-law notaries have a monopoly on the transfer of ownership of land, it
was possible to bring this about by means of agreements between
registrars/civil law notaries and the insurance company of those civil-law
notaries. This is a variant of what is known in Dutch politics as the polder
model. Both the economic interest of smooth legal transactions and the
interest of legal certainty are adequately served by that system.
When it comes to the extensive automation of registration, which is
currently something on which we are strongly focusing, the ability to
collaborate with a large suppliers' organization is a significant advantage.
This accelerates the introduction of automated systems. None the less, the
Dutch system is also open to criticism. This criticism comes mainly from
consumer organisations, which take the view that civil-law notaries charge
excessively high rates for work that could easily be done by others.
Prompted by this criticism, a decision has now been made to liberalise the
rates and the number of places for civil-law notary offices. It does however
remain the case that only civil-law notaries can draw up deeds of
conveyance, and for that reason there is still criticism of a system that
effectively meets the requirements from the viewpoint of protecting persons
with land rights.

La proteccin de los derechos territoriales en los Pases Bajos

1. Introduccin
A continuacin se presenta una explicacin del sistema holands de registro
de los derechos sobre la tierra y la proteccin que los titulares pueden
obtener de ese sistema. En respuesta a la creciente
Automatizacin, en breve se introducirn varias enmiendas. Estas
enmiendas tambin se explicarn.
2. El sistema de registro de derechos
En los Pases Bajos, los derechos a la tierra se registran en dos fases. En la
primera fase, las partes celebran un contrato de venta, lo que significa que
acuerdan la obligacin de transferir un terreno. Esta obligacin se establece
en un contrato de venta, pero en este momento no se ha transferido la
propiedad. Esto ocurre en la segunda fase, en la que la intervencin de un
notario civil es obligatoria. El notario redactar una escritura de transmisin,
que deber figurar en los registros pblicos que mantenga el registrador.
Una vez que ha recibido la escritura, el registrador verifica dentro de un
mximo de 4 das si los requisitos de registro se han cumplido. Si decide
registrar la escritura, aade un acta de registro a la escritura, la cual es

devuelta a la parte que ofrece la tierra. Su decisin de registrar la escritura

tiene efecto retroactivo al momento en que se ofreci el terreno. A partir de
ese momento, se registra la escritura de traspaso y se transfiere la
propiedad. El registrador no emite un certificado de ttulo que establezca los
derechos del nuevo propietario. El propio pblico es el encargado de
consultar los actos de los registros pblicos a fin de determinar quin es el
propietario y, en principio, puede basarse en los detalles establecidos en la
escritura. Por lo tanto, el sistema holands debe ser formalmente
considerado como lo que se conoce como un sistema de hechos. En el caso
de personas que sufren prdidas debido a que la escritura contiene
informacin inexacta o porque el registrador la ha registrado errneamente,
esas personas pueden recuperar sus prdidas del notario civil o de la Oficina
de Registro de la Propiedad Holandesa.
En los Pases Bajos, se trata de un organismo estatal autoadministrado
responsable de los errores cometidos por el registrador. Aparte de los
registros pblicos, el registrador tambin est encargado de mantener lo
que se conoce como el registro catastral. Este es un registro de propiedad
basado en paquetes que - adems de las referencias a los registros pblicos
- tambin enumera los nombres de los derechos y titulares. En trminos
formales, este registro slo sirve para la recaudacin de impuestos y no se
pueden obtener derechos derivados del registro como propietario. En la
prctica, sin embargo, el registro como titular en el registro catastral juega
un papel importante. Antes de redactar una escritura de transmisin en el
registro catastral, el notario analiza la cuestin de si la parte vendedora
figura en la lista del propietario. De no ser as, el notario no puede en
principio autorizar la escritura. As lo dispone el consejo de administracin
de la Orden de Notarios de Derecho Civil previa consulta con la compaa de
seguros de dichos notarios. El asegurador quiere limitar el riesgo de que
tendr que pagar los daos y perjuicios porque el notario civil ayud a
transferir los bienes de una persona no autorizada o cooper con alguien
que no sea el propietario real en el establecimiento de un derecho
hipotecario.
Esto obliga a los notarios a resolver diferencias de opinin con el registrador
sobre las implicaciones de una escritura registrada antes de una nueva
transferencia. Ellos pueden hacer esto mediante la obtencin de una
resolucin judicial utilizando un procedimiento especfico.
En la prctica, este sistema sirve adecuadamente tanto al inters
econmico de las transacciones jurdicas sin contratiempos como al inters
de la seguridad jurdica. Debido a que el registrador actualiza rpidamente
su registro, los notarios de derecho civil, que tambin son responsables de
transferir los montos de compra, pueden transferir al vendedor el importe
de la compra recibido previamente del comprador o su banco hipotecario el
da en que se presenta su escritura . Los procedimientos relacionados con el
estatus legal prcticamente nunca surgen. Esto se debe a que el notario
civil de las partes en el acto investiga de antemano la identidad, la
capacidad jurdica en general y la autoridad para realizar esta transaccin
jurdica especfica. El notario verifica la adquisicin previa de la parte
vendedora de la propiedad haciendo una comparacin con el registro del
registrador.
3. El sistema de registro de los lmites
El lmite legal de una parcela transferida se determina en los Pases Bajos
por la intencin de las partes, tal como se especifica en la escritura. Es

posible tener el lmite previsto medido por adelantado por un agrimensor de

la Oficina de Registro de la Propiedad, pero esto no se hace generalmente.
Si parte de una parcela existente es transferida, un agrimensor de la Oficina
de Registro de la Propiedad visita el sitio despus de un nmero de meses.
l hace una peticin a los dueos adyacentes para ajustar el lmite en el
sitio. Siempre que la frontera no difiera de la descripcin en la escritura, el
lmite designado se crea hasta el lmite de una nueva parcela catastral. Si
las partes no pueden ponerse de acuerdo sobre el curso de la frontera, la
Oficina de Registro de la Propiedad no crea una nueva parcela catastral. Los
lmites catastrales no se hacen visibles en el sitio. Sin embargo, se
establecen en un mapa catastral digital. Este mapa se basa en los esbozos
de lmites individuales realizados por el agrimensor, que en raros casos de
disputas fronterizas juega un papel importante. Se han concertado
convenios con la profesin notarial sobre el registro de dibujos en los que ya
se han descrito los lmites en forma esquemtica.
Es tericamente posible que se designe un lmite distinto al originalmente
previsto por las partes. En ese caso, el lmite catastral es diferente del lmite
legal. En la prctica, sin embargo, esto nunca es la decisin del tribunal. En
ausencia de pruebas en contrario, el tribunal asume que el lmite catastral
coincide con la intencin original de las partes y, por lo tanto, es el lmite
legal. Por esta razn, en el caso de un conflicto de lmites, las partes
generalmente aceptan el lmite catastral como se indica en el Registro de la
Propiedad. La ventaja de este sistema es que la transferencia puede tener
lugar por adelantado, sin la formalidad de una encuesta. Aqu tambin, el
sistema holands se basa en parte en el inters econmico de las
transacciones legales de la transaccin lisa.
4. Digitalizacin de los registros pblicos
Hasta ahora, slo el registro de nombres y derechos y titulares (registro
catastral) estaba automatizado y disponible para consulta a travs de
Internet. Sin embargo, en breve tambin ser posible almacenar escrituras
en los registros pblicos en forma digital para que puedan ser consultados a
travs de Internet tambin. Esto se hace escaneando las escrituras de papel
tan pronto como llegan. Esto significa que el registrador ya no tiene que
hacer copias de los hechos y enviarlos por correo en respuesta a las
solicitudes de inspeccin. Las copias electrnicas pueden ser llamadas en
lnea por los clientes. Cuando se realiza la solicitud, se desencadena un
proceso automatizado que da como resultado que la copia se enva a travs
de Internet en forma de un correo electrnico. Uno de los riesgos de la
digitalizacin de documentos que fueron originalmente establecidos en
papel es que los archivos digitales con regularidad tienen que ser
transferidos a otras cintas o discos magnticos. Esto es necesario debido a
la vida til limitada de los portadores de informacin de esta naturaleza,
pero tambin porque ciertos formatos caen en desuso. Si un archivo digital
se ha almacenado en un formato obsoleto, tendr que convertirlo a uno ms
actualizado. Sin embargo, las escrituras o los detalles de esas escrituras se
pueden perder durante el proceso de la transferencia o de la conversin. A
peticin de los notarios, se ha decidido, por el momento, establecer copias
de los ficheros digitales como copias en microfilm.
En el futuro, queremos registrar los hechos en forma digital en los registros
pblicos. La legislacin vigente an no permite presentar los hechos por va
electrnica, pero se ha presentado al Parlamento holands un proyecto de
ley que lo permite. Es importante para la seguridad jurdica que se

supervise la exclusividad y la integridad. El monitoreo de exclusividad se

relaciona principalmente con la firma. Los adquirentes de terceros pueden
confiar en una escritura registrada en los Pases Bajos. Si hay errores en una
escritura, la prdida puede ser recuperada del notario civil que firm la
escritura. Por tanto, habr que encontrar una alternativa a la firma escrita
para la presentacin electrnica de escrituras. Para ello se busca un enlace
con la directiva europea. Requeriremos las firmas electrnicas que la
directiva pone a la par con una firma escrita. Esta autenticacin tambin se
conoce como la firma electrnica avanzada. Probablemente ser posible a
su debido tiempo crear esa firma utilizando diversas tecnologas (como la
biometra). En la situacin tal y como est, esto slo puede hacerse con lo
que se conoce como cifrado asimtrico. Esta tecnologa implica el uso de
claves privadas y pblicas, que estn inextricablemente unidas. Las bases
de datos que se autentican se cifran con la clave privada en lo que se llama
una firma digital. La clave pblica que lo acompaa est registrada en un
documento de identidad digital, el certificado, que puede ser enviado al
registrador con la firma digital. Este certificado es emitido por un servicio de
certificados
5. Procesamiento
electrnicamente

automatizado

de

documentos

presentados

La presentacin electrnica de documentos tambin permite automatizar la

verificacin de los requisitos de registro y automatizar la actualizacin de
los registros. Mtodos que se pueden utilizar para esto se estn estudiando
en la actualidad. El estudio se centra en el uso de formularios electrnicos
que los notarios de derecho civil pueden llamar a travs de Internet. Si el
formulario se rellena correctamente, el notario civil puede descargarlo e
imprimirlo en la oficina en papel sellado y convertirlo en el original de una
escritura. Para la inscripcin en el Registro Pblico, se presenta el archivo
digital que el notario ha descargado y dado su firma digital como copia de
este documento en papel. Dado que slo es posible descargar un formulario
que cumpla con todos los requisitos de registro, es posible que el registro en
los registros pblicos se realice en forma automatizada. Los detalles
introducidos en los campos libres tendran entonces que ser adecuados
como archivos XML para la actualizacin automtica del registro catastral.
Aparte de las ganancias de eficiencia que probablemente se puede lograr,
otra ventaja es que las transacciones legales relacionadas con las
propiedades registradas se aceleran an ms. Hay un nuevo riesgo que se
relaciona con la cuestin de cmo el registrador puede determinar si el
archivo presentado es el mismo que el formulario electrnico completado
que l sabe cumple con los requisitos de registro. Todava estamos
buscando la respuesta a esa pregunta. Aqu tambin, es posible que la
solucin se encuentre en el clculo y comparacin de nmeros de
referencia, los valores de hash.
6. Conclusin
El sistema de hechos que originalmente fue introducido por Napolen
todava existe formalmente en los Pases Bajos, pero en la prctica se ha
desarrollado en la direccin de un sistema en el que el registrador y el
notario civil realmente decidir quin es aceptado como titular en el social y
econmico vida. Debido a que los notarios tienen el monopolio de la
transferencia de la propiedad de la tierra, es posible llevar esto a travs de

acuerdos entre los registradores / notarios de derecho civil y la compaa de

seguros de los notarios. Esta es una variante de lo que se conoce en la
poltica holandesa como el modelo polder. Tanto el inters econmico de las
transacciones jurdicas sin contratiempos como el inters de la seguridad
jurdica son atendidos adecuadamente por ese sistema.
Cuando se trata de la automatizacin extensiva del registro, que es
actualmente algo en lo que nos estamos enfocando fuertemente, la
capacidad de colaborar con una organizacin de grandes proveedores es
una ventaja significativa. Esto acelera la introduccin de sistemas
automatizados. No obstante, el sistema holands tambin es criticable. Esta
crtica proviene principalmente de las organizaciones de consumidores, que
consideran que los notarios cobran tasas excesivamente altas por el trabajo
que otros podran hacer fcilmente. Impulsada por esta crtica, ahora se ha
tomado la decisin de liberalizar las tarifas y el nmero de plazas para los
notarios de derecho civil. No obstante, sigue siendo cierto que slo los
notarios de derecho civil pueden redactar actos de transporte y, por esta
razn, todava existen crticas a un sistema que cumple efectivamente los
requisitos desde el punto de vista de la proteccin de las personas con
derechos sobre la tierra.