Amendments to the Law on State Survey and Cadastre and the Law on the Procedure for Registration in the Cadastre of Immovable Property and Lines: NEW/EXPANDED CADASTRE BY 1. JULY 2025?

29.10.2023.

On October 26, 2023, the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia adopted the Law on Amendments to the Law on State Survey and Cadastre (“Law on Cadastre“) and the Law on Amendments to the Law on the Procedure for Registration in the Cadastre of Immovable Property and Lines (“Law on Cadastral Registration“).

The key novelties introduced by these two laws into the system of real estate records and rights to them relate to changes in the land cadastre. Namely, the Law on Cadastre provides, among other things, that the Lines Cadastre will now be replaced by the so-called Infrastructure Cadastre (“Cadastre of Infrastructural and Underground Facilities“), which will have a broader scope. The Infrastructure Cadastre is now the basic register of infrastructure and underground facilities and real rights to them.

Infrastructure objects are underground and above-ground objects of transportation infrastructure (land, water and air transportation), underground and above-ground installations (lines), electronic communication networks and means, with associated devices and plants. Associated devices and facilities include devices that are built on the infrastructure facility, and which enable its functioning and purposeful use, and cannot be separated from the infrastructure facility without destruction or significant damage (completely incorporated parts of the infrastructure facility). Devices that are built on an infrastructural object and which enable its functioning and purposeful use, and can be separated from the infrastructural object without destruction or significant damage, are considered movable property and are not subject to surveying or registration in the infrastructure cadastre.

An underground facility is an independent facility built entirely underground. A facility that is built partially above the ground is an underground facility if its functional purpose is realized underground.

The survey of infrastructural and underground facilities is financed by the holders of rights to infrastructural and underground facilities, local self-government or other interested legal and natural persons. The data collected during the surveying process make up the elaboration of the survey of infrastructure and underground facilities and are used for the establishment of the infrastructure cadastre.

Furthermore, the novelty introduced by the Law on Cadastre refers to the Lines Cadastre Extract/Sheet, which will now be called Extract from the Infrastructure Cadastre Database and is a basic document on infrastructure and underground facilities and real rights to them.

The Real Estate Extract/Sheet will now be called Extract from the Real Estate Cadastre Database.

The Law on Cadastre stipulates that the Republic Geodetic Authority is obliged to establish an information system for the cadastre of infrastructure and underground facilities by July 1, 2025 at the latest.

Infrastructural and underground objects that are registered in the Real Estate Cadastre, when the information system for the cadastre of infrastructural and underground objects is established, will ex officio delete them from the Real Estate Cadastre, change the way of land use (culture) and enter them in the Cadastre of Infrastructural and Underground Facilities, without making a decision.

Owners of infrastructural and underground facilities, as well as facilities which have the same function, which are not registered in the Real Estate Cadastre or the current Lines Cadastre, are obliged to engage an authorized geodetic organization to survey those facilities and to submit a request for registration in the Cadastre of Infrastructural and Underground Facilities, within of three years from the date of establishment of the cadastre of Infrastructural and Underground Facilities.

By-laws will be harmonized with the provisions of the Law on Cadastre within six months from the date of entry into force of this law, and until then the by-laws that were adopted before the date of entry into force of this law will be applied.

The catalog of codes and names for the Cadastre of Infrastructural and Underground Facilities will be issued by the director of the Republic Geodetic Authority within six months from the date of entry into force of this law.

The Law on Cadastral Registration makes terminological adjustments in the sense of replacing the word cadastre lines with the words cadastre infrastructure.

One novelty introduced by the Law on Cadastral Registration is the regulation of the entry of the unique registration number of immovable property by the law itself. For each immovable property, a unique immovable registration number – JMBN is determined and entered, and the life cycle of the immovable property is monitored.

It is important to note that handling via the e-counter is expressly limited to professional users.

A significant novelty is the abolition of civil servants’ misdemeanor liability for failure to make decisions within the time limit prescribed by law.