LOS SUELOS CONTAMINADOS Y EL REGISTRO DE LA PROPIEDAD.

Abstract

As a legal institution, the property registry has a role to play in the legal protection of land, particularly in the matter of soil pollution. The property registry, created to imbue real estate trade with legal certainty and entrusted principally with the task of providing erga omnes publicity of the legal situation of property (Mortgage Act, articles 1 and 2), can also publish information about the environmental limitations on property. Thus, the fourth paragraph of article 9 of the Mortgage Act, introduced by Act 24/2001 of 27 December on fiscal and administrative measures and measures of a social nature, states that registrars will have computer applications for processing graphic bases that can be coordinated with registered properties and for incorporating zoning, environmental and administrative constraints into the appropriate property records. A chronological overview of the relationship between soil pollution and property registration is given, from the earliest remarks by Martín Mateo to the findings of the Third National Environment Conference of 1996. Analysis continues with Act 10/1998 of 21 April on waste and the extremely important Royal Decree 9/2005 of 14 January establishing the list of potentially soil-polluting activities and the criteria and standards for declaring soil polluted. The last law discussed is Act 22/2011 of 28 July on polluted soil and waste.