How can I verify the data in the State Register of Property Rights to Immovable Property? Verification methods and step-by-step instructions

The necessary information is provided by the electronic service of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. Below we’ll provide detailed step-by-step instructions for extracting the necessary information from the State Register of Property Rights to Immovable Property.

Why might you need to check an apartment in the Register?

Unfortunately, cases of real estate fraud have become more frequent lately. Besides, there are a huge number of schemes that you can fall for. The most obvious ones are renting out or even selling an apartment that actually has a different owner. Buyers and renters should be careful and check information on the property carefully.

You should visit the State Register of Property Rights to Immovable Property website in the following cases:

• Buying an apartment or renting property for a long time;
• Property exchange;
• Conclusion of a Deed of Gift of an apartment;
• Housing privatization;
• Registration of inheritance.

Experts also recommend your checking your own apartment in the register from time to time or even banning transactions with your property.

This is due to the fact that in 2019, Ukrainian law enforcement agencies identified a group of hackers who illegally deprived Ukrainians of property rights. The cybercriminals got access to the registries with the help of officials, to whom they sent special computer viruses in letters to them. In order not to be included in the list of victims, it is best to always be aware of what is happening to your property. This will let you avoid illegal activities.

It should be noted that the register contains information about the property that was purchased or registered on the initiative of the owner after January 1, 2013. If the apartment was registered earlier, and is absent in the electronic register, then in any case, before the transaction, you have to ask for documentary confirmation of your property rights.

Methods for checking an apartment in the Register

1. When buying property on the secondary market, it is recommended to receive detailed information about the apartment. To do this, you have to order an extract from the Register on the website of the Ministry of Justice. This service is not free, so you have to pay a small service fee, which is around UAH 30. To receive an extract, you need to add Opendatabot to the messenger, and then enter the owner's tax number and select the property you are interested in.
   The received extract will contain the following information:
   • Information about property and its owner (owners);
   • Form of ownership and method of confirmation of ownership (deed of gift, purchase and sale agreement, etc.);
   • If there is encumbrance over an apartment.
2. The second way to check the owner of an apartment or the property is to visit the website of the Judicial Power of Ukraine and go to the section “Case hearing status”. After that, you have to indicate the name of the owner of the object you are interested in in the column “party to the case”. If there are open court cases, such information is displayed. Using this method, you can find out, for example, whether relatives are suing because of the apartment that the new owner inherited.
3. Check debts for utility bills in the Unified Registry of Debtors. Information appears in the Registry if the service provider has already appealed to a court and received a court order.
4. To track changes in property ownership. This method is the most difficult, because a potential buyer of an apartment cannot obtain such information on his own. To do this, you should contact the state registrar and pay an administrative fee. The information received allows you to find out how often the owners of the apartment changed, and how many there were. If the owners change very often, this should raise suspicion. There is a chance to fall into the trap of swindlers or just buy a problem apartment in which, for one reason or another, no one wants to live.

If you do not want to search for information about the property and risk getting mixed up with swindlers, you can always buy an apartment with the help of RIEL Real Estate Corporation. Buying a home or commercial property from a trusted company with an impeccable reputation is always the safest and most reliable option.

Step-by-step instruction for extracting information from the Ministry of Justice official website

Despite the fact that there are different methods of checking property, the most informative method is to obtain the necessary information about an apartment from a unified register on the official website of the Ministry of Justice. Although, fewer than all know how to get the information they need. Hopefully our step-by-step instruction will be helpful.

Step 1. Go to the Ministry of Justice web portal and register a personal account

First, visit Ministry of Justice of Ukraine website, click on "Online services", go to the section "Information from registers", and then select the item "State Register of Property Rights to Immovable Property". After that, please log in. You can do that using an EDS (electronic digital signature). You can get an EDS free of charge at the tax office. You can also get a free EDS online within five minutes on the PrivatBank website.

Step 2. Apply for information about property and its owner

Next, let's figure out how to check the owner of the apartment. To do this, on the electronic service account, please select the item "Information from the State Register of Property Rights to Immovable Property" and find the object you need. Searching for the required property is possible in several ways:

• By the address;
• By the registration number of the object;
• By the owners’ data (the most accurate search is by the owner's tax ID).

It is also necessary to fill in other empty fields (region, type of application, and so on) and start the search. If successful, the desired object will pop up.

If you need a search according to the data of a legal entity, you have to know the company’s EDRPOU.

Step 3. Pay service fee

After the property is found, the user must pay for the service. There shouldn't be any difficulties here, because the standard form of payment via Internet banking is used. As of this writing, the cost of obtaining an extract is UAH 20 plus 3 for bank commission. Total for obtaining information on the property and the owner is UAH 23.

Step 4. Getting an extract

After receipt of payment, the extract is sent to the user's email address specified during registration. The document is in PDF format. Another way to view the extract is to click on the "Back" immediately after payment, and you will be able to see all the necessary information on the property owner in new page.

What other options are there in electronic services account on the Ministry of Justice website?

We have figured out how to check the ownership of an apartment in Ukraine. However, there are other options in electronic services account available for users. For example, you can ban on registration actions with the property you own. This ban is valid for 10 days. You can also set up SMS update. In this case, if registration actions take place with the property, notification will be texted to the specified phone number. The cost of this update service is UAH 30 per month for one property.