Analysis of the Four Principles of the Interim Regulations on Real Estate Registration

On November 24, 2014, Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council issued the "Interim Regulations on Real Estate Registration" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations"), which came into effect on March 1, 2015. The concept of real estate registration was first formally introduced at the national legal level in the 2007 "Property Law," but it was not until March 2013 in the "Plan for Institutional Reform and Functional Transformation of the State Council" that the establishment of a unified real estate registration system was explicitly proposed. Originally, it was required to be introduced by June 2014, but before the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee, to balance the interests of various parties, the task was divided: the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council was responsible for clause coordination, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development for registration of houses on state-owned land, and the Ministry of Land and Resources for registration of real estate on collective land, mainly including homesteads, forestland, and grassland. Under these circumstances, the "Unified Real Estate Registration Regulations" involved amendments to multiple laws, including the "Land Administration Law," "Urban Real Estate Management Law," "Grassland Law," "Forest Law," and "Rural Land Contracting Law." According to experts involved in the legislative work, although Article 10 of the "Property Law" had authorized it, the "Property Law" could not authorize administrative regulations to override the law. Against this backdrop, the "Regulations" were ultimately delayed beyond the scheduled time.

The "Regulations" mainly follow four principles: First, unified standardization, specifying that one department is responsible for registration and setting unified requirements for institutional setup, register management, basic procedures, information sharing, and protection. These four principles are reflected in:

Unified department

[1] Article 6: The competent department of land and resources under the State Council is responsible for guiding and supervising nationwide real estate registration work. Local people's governments at or above the county level shall designate a department as the real estate registration institution for their administrative regions, responsible for real estate registration work, and subject to the guidance and supervision of the competent department of real estate registration of the higher-level people's government.

　　解读：

[2] Compared with the Property Law, the Regulations clarify that nationwide unified responsibility lies with the Ministry of Land and Resources, but this only establishes unified attribution at the national level. At the local level, governments at or above the county level have not yet specified specific institutions. This article does not determine the specific registration department for local people's governments at or above the county level. It will only become operational after local governments issue detailed rules and establish undertaking departments. In May 2014, the Ministry of Land and Resources formally established the Real Estate Registration Bureau, responsible for guiding and supervising nationwide real estate registration work, including land registration, housing registration, forestland registration, grassland registration, and sea area registration. In November 2014, the Central Organization Establishment Committee approved the renaming of the China Land and Mineral Resources Legal Service Center (Land Dispute Mediation Office of the Ministry of Land and Resources) to the Real Estate Registration Center of the Ministry of Land and Resources (Legal Affairs Center of the Ministry of Land and Resources), undertaking support work related to real estate registration policies, operations, and technology, as well as legal affairs of the Ministry of Land and Resources. The Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region issued the "Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Real Estate Registration Work Plan," actively responding to and implementing these measures.

[3] Unified registers

[4] Article 8: Real estate shall be registered with the real estate unit as the basic unit. Real estate units have unique codes. Real estate registration institutions shall establish unified real estate registers in accordance with the regulations of the competent department of land and resources under the State Council.

　　解读：

[5] Compared with the Property Law, the Regulations clarify the content of registration registers. Urban real estate management is relatively standardized, but for rural areas in China, due to varying practices in different localities regarding current rural land, some places have already issued certificates, while others have not.

Unified Basic Procedures

[Article 14] Applications for real estate registration due to transactions, establishment of mortgage rights, etc., shall be jointly submitted by both parties. In any of the following circumstances, a single party may apply: (1) first-time registration of unregistered real estate; (2) acquisition of real estate rights through inheritance or acceptance of a bequest; (3) establishment, modification, transfer, or termination of real estate rights based on effective legal documents from a people's court or arbitration commission, or effective decisions from a people's government; (4) application for modification registration due to changes in the right holder's name, title, or natural status; (5) application for cancellation registration due to destruction of real estate or waiver of real estate rights by the right holder; (6) application for correction registration or objection registration; (7) other circumstances where a single party may apply as stipulated by laws or administrative regulations.

　　解读：

According to Article 28 of the Property Law: Where the establishment, modification, transfer, or termination of property rights occurs due to legal documents from a people's court or arbitration commission, or expropriation decisions from a people's government, it takes effect upon the effectiveness of such legal documents or expropriation decisions. The Regulations do not specify which specific party constitutes the "single party" in various circumstances, so in practice, the real estate registration authority exercises discretion.

[Article 15] The party or their agent shall go to the office of the real estate registration authority to apply for real estate registration. Before the registration authority records the application matters in the real estate register, the applicant may withdraw the registration application.

[Article 16] The applicant shall submit the following materials and be responsible for their authenticity: (1) registration application form; (2) identity certification materials for the applicant and agent, and power of attorney; (3) relevant materials proving the source of real estate rights, documents evidencing the cause of registration, and real estate title certificates; (4) materials on the boundaries, spatial limits, and area of the real estate; (5) materials explaining interests related to others; (6) other materials as stipulated by laws, administrative regulations, and the implementation rules of these Regulations. The real estate registration authority shall publicly disclose the required materials list and model documents for registration applications at its office and on its portal website.

[Article 17] Upon receiving application materials for real estate registration, the registration authority shall handle them as follows: (1) if the application falls within the scope of registration duties, the materials are complete and conform to legal forms, or the applicant submits all supplementary materials as required, the application shall be accepted and the applicant shall be notified in writing; (2) if the materials contain errors that can be corrected on the spot, the applicant shall be informed to make corrections on the spot, and after correction, the application shall be accepted and the applicant shall be notified in writing; (3) if the materials are incomplete or do not conform to legal forms, the applicant shall be informed in writing on the spot of non-acceptance and provided with a one-time notice of all required supplementary materials; (4) if the real estate to be registered is not within the authority's registration scope, the applicant shall be informed in writing on the spot of non-acceptance and directed to apply to the authority with registration jurisdiction. If the registration authority fails to notify the applicant in writing of non-acceptance on the spot, the application shall be deemed accepted.

　　解读：

This article specifies the materials required for applying for real estate registration, standardizes the registration process, simplifies application procedures, and emphasizes the principle of on-site review.

Unified information sharing

[Article 24] Information related to real estate registration, along with approval and transaction information from departments such as housing and urban-rural development, agriculture, forestry, and marine affairs, shall be shared in real time. Information that can be obtained by the real estate registration authority through real-time sharing shall not require applicants to submit repeatedly.

[Article 25] Departments such as land and resources, public security, civil affairs, finance, taxation, industry and commerce, finance, auditing, and statistics shall strengthen the sharing of information related to real estate registration.

　　解读

After information sharing among departments, the scope of inquirers has expanded from rights holders and interested parties to relevant state organs, which may, in accordance with laws and administrative regulations, inquire about and copy real estate registration materials related to matters under investigation and handling. Under the current registration system, courts can search for properties by person through judgment documents, but court inquiries require parties to provide property clues, such as the location of the property, and then conduct inquiries at the real estate registration authority where the property is located. In litigation practice, the Xi'an Real Estate Registration Department does not accept lawyers' inquiries regarding property rights disputes arising from creditors' rights and debts.

The registration of real estate property rights has long been scattered across multiple departments such as land, housing, agriculture, and forestry, with varying standards and platforms, which is highly detrimental to the protection of rights holders. After acquiring rights through contracts, rights holders face unclear standards on how to fulfill overlapping responsibilities among departments due to different management platforms. Since the Property Law was enacted, the ownership status of real estate has been clearly based on registration. The introduction of the regulations will promote a process of confirming these pending rights.