A mortgage is a lien on immovable property, the purpose of which is to secure a specific claim by a creditor against a debtor. The registration of a contractual mortgage in the land register is of constitutive significance, as it is the only way to achieve absolute effect and effectiveness against third parties. Creditors rely on the information in the land register as a public record of immovable property when creating a mortgage.
Land registry data are generally considered to be correct, but in certain cases there may be discrepancies between the registered and the true owner of the property. In the latter case, these are so-called unregistered property positions, which introduce legal uncertainty into the legal transations. The latter include joint property, anticipated right to property, right to property based on adverse possession and right to property acquired by building on a foreign object.
Courts often litigate disputes between unregistered right to property positions and mortgage creditors. The distinction between a mortgage created by a legal transaction (contractual mortgage) and a mortgage created by a court order (forced mortgage) is crucial for the resolution of the dispute. Case law and theory take the view that a bona fide mortgage creditor with a contractual mortgage has priority over an unregistered holder of the right to property, as creditor is protected by the principle of trust in the land register. The principle protects bona fide acquirers of rights who have acted honestly in the legal transaction and relied on the information in the land register. As a consequence, the contractual mortgage creditor should not suffer the adverse consequences of an incorrect land registry status. However, the opposite position is taken by the courts and theory in the case of the competing positions of the unregistered holder of the right to property and the creditor with forced mortgage. The principle of reliance on the land register does not protect a creditor with a forced mortgage, regardless of his possible good faith.
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