It is absolutely essential and highly necessary to safeguard the buyer’s financial and other interests to consult a specialized attorney so that the latter may visit the competent Land Registry and/or Cadastral Office to which the property belongs based on its location, and conduct a thorough legal review regarding the following:

a) whether the property is registered in the seller’s file maintained at the Land Registry and/or Cadastral Office

b) whether the property’s title deeds, as recorded, accurately reflect its true and actual condition, including its stated area, the presence of any unauthorized structures, etc. It is worth noting at this point that in the event of unauthorized structures, the notary will request from the seller the relevant certifications regarding the legalization of said structures, an element absolutely necessary for the drafting of the sales contract. The attorney undertaking this particularly responsible task of verifying the title deeds of the property to be purchased  must, in fact, to further safeguard the buyer’s interests, extend the review to cover at least the past 20 years, in order to ensure the proper continuity of the property’s title deeds and to rule out the possibility of claims by third parties, for example due to adverse possession, etc.

c) A very important part of the review is the search of the relevant records at the Land Registry/Cadastral Office regarding any existing or even previously removed encumbrances (mortgages, mortgage notes, liens) on the property. The attorney must be particularly careful during this review, as encumbrances always follow the property and not the current owner, with the result that any oversight regarding the existence of an encumbrance on the property could lead the buyer to acquire a property burdened, for example, with a mortgage pre-notation, which will continue to encumber the property even after the sale. Equally important is the investigation into any third-party claims on the property, as a claim similarly encumbers the property and its subsequent owner.

d) Today, as the National Land Registry is being finalized, most areas have now been incorporated into the Land Registry system, so Land Registry Offices now operate alongside the Land Registry Offices, to which all entries from the Land Registry have been transferred to the relevant registration sheets. The verification of these registration sheets, which is usually done via computer, is absolutely essential, as it has been observed very frequently that there are incorrect entries in the relevant cadastral sheets or even that properties have not been declared in the Cadastre due to oversight or negligence and appear as having an unknown owner. Depending on the circumstances, the attorney must advise the buyer to ensure that all procedures for correcting any existing errors are followed, e.g., by filing a claim for manifest error or even through legal action, always prior to the sale.

 e) Furthermore, if the property is a condominium (an apartment in a multi-unit building or residential complex) or a vertical property, it is necessary to review the horizontal or vertical property deed, the table of millimeter allocations, and the bylaws, if it is an apartment building.

 In light of the above, the attorney must prepare a title search report regarding the property to be purchased, which will detail his findings from the investigation he conducted, and which report he must provide to the prospective buyer so that they have full knowledge of the condition of the property they intend to purchase. The inspection and the report must cover a  significant period of time (at least twenty years) prior to the purchase in order to trace the entire legal  history of the property. Specifically, this report will provide a positive or negative assessment regarding the legality and soundness of the title, ultimately guiding the buyer in deciding whether or not to sign the purchase agreement.