EL DERECHO DE FORO.

Abstract

This paper addresses the leasehold estate, a concept that retains legal relevance from the standpoint of registration. The leasehold estate is an institution rooted in custom in Galicia and Asturias. Having expanded widely and been valid for many centuries, the leasehold estate was abolished by the 1963 Compilation of Civil Law of Galicia, which, curiously, regulated this concept systematically while at the same time it set a period of ten years, counting as of entry in force, for its repeal. Indeed, substantive civil law extinguished the leasehold estate by reunifying all types of control into one, i.e., beneficial ownership, thus splitting away from the historical trajectory of this concept. The leasehold estate continues to be regulated in mortgage legislation, and it is still disclosed in the records of the property registration offices of Galicia and Asturias. A gap is thus created between the substantive situation and the registered situation. Updating property registration offices could make it unnecessary for the judicial authorities to intervene in regard to those entries of land under leasehold estates that contain a statement of the payers and the lands at issue with a definition of the land's location and borders. However, judicial intervention, which is prohibited by Transitional Provision Two of the 1963 Galician Compilation, will be unavoidable if the property registry discloses a leasehold estate as a whole, without naming the holders of beneficial ownership or specifying the lands in which they hold their interest.