Land management and legal certainty in real estate contracts

Abstract

The priority of the overriding interests based on the social function of property overrules one of the guiding principles of Private law: legal certainty in the acquisition of property rights. This paper examines the way in which the 2015 legislative reforms in the spanish law combine ejficiently and consistently the environmental protection and urban planning with legal certainty in the acquisition of lands. Specifically, the paper analyses the legal treatment of overriding interests and the ex ante and ex post facto solutions that the legal system proposes to make them consistent with legal certainty. It is supported that the Land Register can develop a key role as the central instrument not only for property rights but also for spatial data or territorial information. Therefore the Land Register can provide efficient publicity to prospective purchasers and third parties about the public domain and other public restrictions that affect property rights. This conclusion is achieved especially from the combined reading of the Mortgage Act (as amended by the Act 13/2015) and certain sectoral regulations among which it can be highlighted the Act 33/2015, which amends the Act 42/2007, on Natural Heritage and Biodiversity.