The public registry of Georgia is a single official space in which rights to immovable and movable things, public-law restrictions, tax pledges and mortgages, and data on entrepreneurs are formally recorded. Registration proceedings are the procedure through which these entries are created, amended and terminated. If you intend to sell real estate, register a mortgage or change your company data, it is essential to understand how the proceedings start, when the registering organ suspends them, on what grounds registration is refused, how an already completed registration is cancelled, and within what period a decision may be appealed.
Structure of the Public Registry and the Presumption of Reliability
The public registry is a union of several separate registries: the registry of rights to immovables, the registry of public-law restrictions, the registry of tax pledges and mortgages, the registry of rights to movable things and intangible assets, the registry of entrepreneurs and non-commercial legal persons, the address registry and the registry of economic activities. The legislation also provides for the inclusion of a factoring registry in this union. The subject of registration may be a right in a thing or an intangible asset, an obligation connected with ownership of an immovable, a change in or termination of such rights and obligations, as well as the creation of a public-law restriction or a tax pledge or mortgage.
Data registered in the public registry enjoy a presumption of reliability: they are presumed trustworthy unless and until they are declared invalidated, void or nonexistent under the procedure established by Georgian legislation. This is precisely why a registry entry serves as the principal source of certainty for the parties to a transaction, and why its amendment or cancellation occurs only on the grounds provided by law, which are examined below.
Accessibility of Information and Related Decisions
Data registered in the registry and the documentation kept at the registering organ are public and available for inspection by any person, except in cases established by Georgian legislation. Where a decision has been taken on suspension of the proceedings, refusal to satisfy the request or termination of the proceedings, the original of the documentation submitted for that purpose may be requested by the applicant or a person authorised by him; any other person or administrative organ may request it only on the basis of a corresponding act of a court, in cases established by legislation. Requesting an original or a copy of the documentation does not suspend the effect of the registered data and does not prevent the issuance of an extract or other information from the registry. The procedure and conditions for inspecting stored information and documentation are determined by the relevant instruction.
When a request for information is submitted, the registering organ assigns the interested person a thirty-day period for presenting additional information or a document if the content of the request cannot be understood or the requested information cannot be identified, if the application is not accompanied by the document or information prescribed by legislation, or if another circumstance provided by legislation exists. While such a period is running, the examination period of the application is deemed suspended, and it is renewed only after the requested material has been submitted or the ground for suspension has been eliminated. If the interested person fails to use this period, the application remains unexamined. In every case of refusal to provide information, assignment of a period, renewal of the running of a period or leaving an application unexamined, the organ takes a corresponding decision, while the grounds for refusal are determined by the law, the instruction and Georgian legislation.
Commencement and Course of Registration Proceedings
Registration proceedings are commenced on the basis of an application of the declarant or a decision adopted by an authorised organ. The application must be accompanied by the registration documentation and information defined by the instruction, and the registering organ is entitled, in a particular case, to additionally require any document or information necessary for deciding the question raised by the application. Registration is carried out both on the basis of registration and other documents themselves and on the basis of electronic copies of that documentation created in the proper manner.
The organ confirms the submission of an application by entering it in the application registration book and assigning it a registration number. A precondition for entering an application submitted through automated management means into registration is payment of the registration fee, whose amount is determined by the procedure established by the state. As a result of registration the registering organ prepares an extract, and upon registration of ownership of an immovable on which ownership has not yet been registered, or upon a change of cadastral data, an additional cadastral plan as well. This rule does not extend to registrations of public-law restrictions, tax pledges and mortgages, or rights in movable things. The agency is entitled to store and issue any document as an electronic copy, to receive and issue information through unified automated management means, and an application may be submitted through any territorial registration service or through an authorised person.
Suspension of Registration Proceedings
The registering organ takes a decision on suspension of registration proceedings if any of the following circumstances exists in connection with the application:
- the application is not accompanied by a document or information required by legislation, or the registration fee has not been paid;
- the application or an accompanying document has not been submitted in the form and manner established by legislation;
- the submitted material does not allow identification of the subject and object of the right, obligation, restriction or pledge, or of the owner;
- there is a discrepancy defined by the instruction between the cadastral data submitted for registration and those registered in the registry, or the area of the immovable, save for cases provided for by the instruction, exceeds the area indicated in the title document;
- the organ has officially learned of an appeal against the registration document or a part of it, where that appeal suspends the operation of the document;
- a court (arbitration) act that has entered into legal force and provides for suspension of the proceedings has been submitted;
- a case of suspension of the effect of registered data exists, and, where registration of a right in a land plot is requested, cadastral data are absent at the organ or do not correspond to the established requirements;
- the documents submitted for registration have been forwarded to a law-enforcement organ for study of their legality;
- an application for registration of a public-law restriction is not accompanied by the confirming legal act, but a document of application to and submission to a court, or a document confirming that a dispute is pending, has been presented;
- other grounds provided for by Georgian legislation exist.
Termination of Proceedings and Refusal of Registration
Registration proceedings are terminated if the declarant or his authorised person has requested their termination, if within the suspension period no information or document confirming elimination of the ground for suspension has been submitted, if during the proceedings the organ has officially learned that the subject or object of registration no longer exists or that the registration document has been declared invalidated, void or nonexistent, and likewise where a court (arbitration) act that has entered into legal force provides for termination of the proceedings or another ground provided by legislation exists.
Refusal of registration is different in nature: it means that the organ's position towards the very possibility of registration is negative. The registering organ takes a decision on refusal of registration during the proceedings if:
- the right, obligation, restriction, tax pledge or mortgage sought, or the abandonment of ownership, is not subject to registration;
- a right, restriction or pledge already registered excludes registration of the right submitted for registration on the same object;
- the registration document was issued, received or drawn up by an unauthorised person;
- the fact of cancellation of the registration document has become known in the established manner;
- a court (arbitration) act that has entered into legal force and provides for refusal has been submitted;
- at the time of the registration request ownership had already passed to a new owner;
- the registration request is identical to the registered data;
- an application for registration of a public-law restriction is accompanied neither by the confirming legal act nor by the documentation of application to a court;
- the request for creation of a public-law restriction is identical to a request under which registration proceedings are already pending at the agency;
- other grounds provided for by Georgian legislation exist.
Suspension of Effect and Cancellation of Registration
Even a completed registration may be restricted or cancelled. The effect of registered data is suspended if the registration document has been appealed and that appeal suspends its operation, if a legal act of an authorised organ on suspension of the effect of the registered data has been submitted, or if a court judgment that has entered into legal force confirms that the registration document was issued, received or created through a criminal act of a person. During the period of suspension it is impermissible to prepare an extract concerning the thing or intangible asset, and likewise to register a right or obligation, with the exception of a tax pledge or mortgage.
A registration must be declared invalidated if a registration document confirming the transfer or termination of the right has been submitted, if the title document underlying the registration has been declared invalidated, void or nonexistent, if the decision on registration has been declared invalidated, or if the fixed term of the right has expired. It is important that declaring a registration invalidated does not entail automatic restoration of a registration that existed before it. A registration must be declared void or nonexistent if the decision on registration has been declared void or nonexistent, or if a court act that has entered into legal force confirming that fact has been submitted. The consequences of declaring a registration void or nonexistent are determined by the procedure established by legislation.
Form of the Decision, Technical Errors and Appeal
On the question of registration the registering organ issues a decision in written form which contains the type of decision, its title, the name and address of the organ, the time of issuance and the registration number, the reasoning and legal grounds, the organ where the decision may be appealed and the period for filing the appeal, the surname, name and signature of the authorised person, and the service seal. A right, an obligation, a tax pledge or mortgage and a public-law restriction in a thing are deemed created, changed or terminated, and ownership deemed abandoned, from the moment the decision is issued. The decision enters into force upon publication in the manner established by legislation, and its placement on the official website of the organ also counts as publication. A decision may be issued through automated management means, in which case it may not comply with the general requirements concerning reasoning, signature and seal.
If a technical error has been committed in the registry — inaccurate transfer of data from documentation, an error made in the course of technical work or calculation, or an orthographic, arithmetic or other technical inaccuracy — the registering organ is obliged to correct it immediately upon discovery. This is a mechanism for rectifying defects and does not concern substantively disputed cases.
An interested person is entitled to appeal the decision of the registering organ within thirty calendar days from its official notification, and where the decision has been published, from the moment of publication. The further appeal procedure and the competent organs are determined by Georgian legislation, which is why missing the period may cost you the opportunity to appeal, while a timely reaction will protect your rights.