POMIDA AND DEED WRITERS: REQUEST TO SOLVE TWO SERIOUS PROBLEMS THAT HINDER ACTUAL TRANSACTIONS AND NATIONAL LAND REGISTRY!

To the Deputy Minister of Environment Mr. Nikos Tagaras

To Deputy Minister of Lands, Mr. Theodoros Livani

Here Athens, June 2022

SUBJECT: Request to resolve two serious problems impeding real transactions & National Land Registry.

Honorable Ministers

Tens of thousands of apartments and horizontal properties throughout the country, as well as parking lots of apartment buildings, have become “things out of transaction”, due to the lack of provisions that POMIDA and the Coordinating Committee of the Notaries Associations of Greece (SESSE), call you and again to adopt quickly, in order to immediately resolve the following two serious legal problems, two open wounds literally, which hinder real transactions, parental benefits and donations and the completion of the National Land Registry, especially in view of the 1.4.2022 validity of the “Building Identity”:

1. Right to unilaterally modify the constitution of a property horizon when there is a difference in the surface, in favor of or at the expense of a neighboring horizontal property.

With par. 5 of article 98 of Law 4495/2017, as amended by Law 4759/ 2020, the insurmountable problem faced by tens of thousands of owners of horizontal properties throughout Greece, whose apartments had some difference in their surface in relation to the approved urban plans, for or against common areas of apartment buildings, something that previously required a modification of the horizontal property constitution with the participation of all co-owners of the building, which was practically impossible.

However, this difficult issue was successfully resolved problem, the other remains unsolved – easier to solve – a problem, in the many cases where the difference in the surface of the horizontal property that is to be subject to the provisions of Law 4495/2017 has arisen in favor of or against one or more neighbors horizontal properties, where today it is required to amend the constitution with the participation of all the co-owners and the remaining floors, something practically impossible, although in reality this problem only concerns them owners of the affected horizontal properties!

Indeed in most of these cases – which have almost always resulted from the construction of the apartment building – the plans that have been attached to the composition of the property horizon, they reflect the real situation, but there are deviations in relation to the plans approved by the town planner. add a new paragraph to article 98 of Law 4495/2017 which stipulates that:

“Especially in the case of arbitrary extension independent horizontal property at the expense of adjacent horizontal property of this or another owner, it is possible to subject it to this law, without the consent of the other co-owners when the arbitrary expansion or impairment of the independent horizontal property exists from the construction – construction of the building. In the same way, the owners of the horizontal properties affected by this differentiation, have the right to unilaterally make a notarial deed amending the deed establishing the horizontal property, in order to incorporate the area subject to the provisions of this article into their horizontal property or to exclude it from her. In this case, the consent of all co-owners is presumed.”

2. Legal arrangement of parking spaces with millimeters in the piling of apartment buildings.

With the sub number 23/2000 decision of the Plenary of the Supreme Court, the parking spaces that had been set up as independent horizontal properties in the open space of a gated apartment building were deemed invalid, even if they had been set up before the entry into force of Laws 960/1979 and 1221/ 1981. However, the jurisprudence finally vindicated all those who had paid for and obtained such invalid parking spaces in the parking lot, with the help of article 182 of the Civil Code, according to which an invalid deed can be converted into another valid one, with the conditions of this article, judging that the invalid creation and transfer of the parking space as an independent horizontal property,can be valid as a valid grant of the right to exclusive use of this space.  from undivided co-ownership of the plot of land which corresponded to the thousands of invalid parking spaces. This problem, which appears smaller when the user of the parking space also has another horizontal main use property within the same apartment building, and much more acute when the user does not have, and consequently cannot acquire, by conversion, the right to exclusive use of the parking space of this, it becomes disastrous in the status of a functioning Land Office, given that the co-ownership percentages corresponding to the invalid parking spaces, should be included in the receiver of the unused co-ownership percentage and registered as “unknown owner” as a result after the first registrations are finalized to come in thousands to the Greek State, all over the country, even though they lack any economic or practical value for it!  after paragraph 5 a new paragraph 6 be added, and the following paragraphs be renumbered, specifying that:

“6. a) The owner of horizontal property – main use space of an apartment building that owns by ownership an open parking space in the basement of the same apartment building, which is an independent horizontal property at the time of establishment, must make a unilateral amendment of the horizontal property deed in order to convert the open parking space in the piloti as a follow-up to the exclusive use of the horizontal property of the main use area and at the same time to incorporate in the last percentage of ownership in the plot that it had during the establishment of horizontal properties the open parking space in the piloti. In this case, the consent of all co-owners is presumed.

b) Open parking space in pilaster of an apartment building which is an independent horizontal property at the time of establishment and does not belong to the ownership of the owner on the horizontal property – space of main use of this apartment building may be transferred exceptionally and only to another owner on the horizontal property – space of main use of this apartment building. In this case, the acquiring owner of the horizontal property – main use area must make a unilateral amendment to the horizontal property deed in order to convert the open parking space into the parking lot as a follow-up to the exclusive use of the horizontal property – main use area and at the same time integrate into the lastly, the percentage of co-ownership in the plot that the open parking space in the pilothouse had during the establishment of horizontal properties. In this case, the consent of all the co-owners is presumed”.

At your disposal for any clarification and cooperation!

Best Regards