The Land Register in Austria – General Remarks
The Land Register is a public register kept by the District Courts, where the properties and the rights in rem that they are subject to are registered:
- Freehold property
- Condominiums
- Rights of lien
- Building rights
- Easements and land charges
Particular circumstances of legal import can, moreover, be indicated by way of explanatory notes (e.g. bankruptcy, trusteeship, not being of age, ongoing auction procedures) and clarifications (entitlements arising from easements, obligations under public law, etc.).
The significance of the Land Register especially lies in the fact that the rights in rem mentioned can only be acquired by way of an entry in the Land Register (the so-called “registration principle”) and that anyone can basically trust the accuracy and completeness of the Land Register in conjunction with the collection of deeds (the so-called “principle of trust”).