The Head of the Registry Agency Daniela Miteva announced that the final full digitalization of the Property Register has started. Until now, only notary deeds after 2009 were accessible through the single electronic portal of the Registry Agency, but according to Ms Miteva this will change soon. The idea that all notary deeds stored in the registry’s archives will be accessible at the touch of a computer key is certainly not new, but now it seems closer than ever.
Easier access
In her interview with the legal website news.lex.bg. the Head of the Agency pointed out how in Sofia alone there are numerous property deals per day, the documents for which have to be processed within the work day by the administrative authorities responsible for this, as well as to be reviewed by the relevant registry judge, which in itself delays the registration process unnecessarily much. By scanning and creating a batch history of each and every property subject to registration since 1908, the process of requesting services will be eased for both the citizens and the registry officials. She also pointed out that the process of scanning the deeds and creating property batches for each of them will start early next year and the implementation period is expected to be within 2 years.
Data protection and double property batches
The issue of privacy protection related to the issuance of uncertified transcripts is back on the agenda, especially since most notaries insist that they should not be issued at all. Who and how will have access to the property records is a question facing Ms Dineva with a clear answer – access should be restricted in the same way as in the Commercial Register. The idea is again that access should be restricted by registered entry and that the persons who have had access to the accounts should be visible to interested parties. According to her, information on property batches should not be unnecessarily restricted, precisely because this portal was created for the convenience of citizens and not the other way around.
Another problem that could arise in the digitization process is precisely human error. In order to avoid the possible creation of more than one property batch for the scanned title deeds, the Head of the Agency has put in place a team of 12 jurists and IT professionals whose task will be to ensure that the daunting task of scanning and creating the unified electronic system is carried out smoothly and optimistically without error.
