Land registries are required to acknowledge power of attorney documents.
Normally, to transfer ownership of a fixed property, an inheritance certificate is needed, acting as an heir. But, as a ruling indicates, sometimes a power of attorney is enough.
When someone inherits a property owner's land, they take ownership of the immovable property with their death. The heirs then have to update the land registry by transferring the land to their name. Generally, an inheritance certificate must be submitted to the land registry office. However, in some situations, alternative documents like that of the Nuremberg Higher Regional Court (Az.: 15 Wx 2176/23) mentioned in the Procedural Law of Inheritary Law of the German Bar Association are also valid.
In this particular scenario, a woman inherited land from her deceased husband and wanted to update the land registry. Since she lacked the inheritance certificate, she submitted her husband's notarized general power of attorney, which he had granted her after his death. The land registry office rejected her application due to the missing inheritance certificate.
The court later thought this was unfair. With the power of attorney, the woman could effectively act for the heirs after her husband's death. The power of attorney would not end since the woman was both the attorney-in-fact and the heir.
Since the woman inherits the property anyway - whether she's an attorney-in-fact representing other heirs or gets the land register adjusted as the sole heir - it's up to the concerned parties to correct the land register using a power of attorney or an inheritance certificate.
The land register as the ID card of a real estate property
Ownership of the property changes hands even if an inheritance certificate is absent because the woman represents the heirs in the transfer or updates the land register as the sole heir, so the land registry cannot be wrong. The land registry functions like a property's ID card, including all the relevant information about the property: the owner, address, dimensions, location, and details of mortgages or charges. Anyone who sees the extract from the land register can form a complete picture of the property.
The rights to the real estate are recorded in the land register, whether they're granted, modified, transferred, encumbered, or withdrawn. [
Read also:
- In a different real estate scenario, an advisor suggested that the lack of an inheritance certificate could be bypassed with a valid power of attorney, as legal precedents have shown.
- If a potential buyer encounters legal issues related to the ownership of an apartment or condominium, checking the land registry for any judgments related to the property can provide helpful information.
- In the rapidly changing real estate market, monitoring real estate prices and staying updated on legal matters, such as changes in land registry procedures, is crucial for an investor's advisor to offer sound advice.
