With a letter from systemic Banks and Funds claims management, the well-known servicers, asked the Deputy Minister of Digital Governance responsible for the Land Registry Konstantinos Kyranakisto provide them with direct access for research to the Land Registry database, in order to use them for their own purposes. So far, only lawyers representing citizens or legal entities have this right.

The government’s response came through a letter signed by Mr. Kyranakis and is unequivocally negative, citing the principle of “equality of arms” which would be violated to the detriment of citizens, but also the discrediting of the lawyer’s profession.

Specifically, the letter reads as follows:

“Dear Sirs,

In response to the above relevant letter, we express our express opposition to granting credit institutions and claims management companies access to the Hellenic Land Registry Agency’s online application for the following reasons:

Pursuant to No. 11206 EX 2021 KYA (Government Gazette B΄1539/15.4.2021), as amended by No. 54829 EX 2023 (Government Gazette B’ 7380/27.12.2023) Joint Ministerial Decision of the Ministers of Justice and of Digital Governance, any natural or legal person who is registered in the cadastral books as the beneficiary of a registrable right, has the right to access the cadastral records that concern him and are contained in the descriptive and spatial database of the National Cadastre.

In article 2 of the Joint Ministerial Decision on the subject, the persons who have the right to access and search the cadastral data are defined, which includes among others the lawyers, exclusively and only for the exercise of their professional activity. Furthermore, access is also granted to other persons (such as bailiffs, notaries, engineers, Forest Service personnel) but more limited, and again under the condition that the access serves exclusively the exercise of their professional activity – or, in the case of of Forestry Services, of their official competence.

From the above it is clear that, in view of the sensitive nature of the data of the Cadastre base, it is a perennial care of the legislator that any access to this data is provided with due care and sparingly, weighing the necessity of this access and the role of each public function in which this feature is provided.

Therefore, it is clear that credit institutions and claims management companies should not be granted the requested access to the cadastral data in the letter, as the above conditions are not met.

It should be noted that in the present legislative framework such a right does not exist, except only under the condition of existence in concreto legal interest in assigning relevant orders to lawyers, in the context of the exercise of the professional activity of the latter – and in any case not directly for credit institutions and management companies. The maintenance of this framework is deemed appropriate and necessary, inter alia, from the point of view of the principle of equality of arms in case of disputes between credit institutions and claims management companies on the one hand, and natural and legal persons on the other, given in particular the need to protect the data and rights of citizens. Consequently, the current legislative framework is considered sufficient, and there is no reason to grant access to credit institutions and debt management companies to the database of the n.p.d.d. “Greek Land Registry”».