An amendment to the act on land registration and mortgage
On 1 July 2014, an amendment to the Act on Land Registration and Mortgage entered into force. Since then, excerpts from and copies of entries in the Land and Mortgage Register may be obtained via the Electronic Land and Mortgage Register (https://ekw.ms.gov.pl/eukw/menu.do), once the relevant fee has been paid, in the PDF file form, whereas a printout of the same has the same legal force as a court-issued deed.
A motion may also be filed online for a land and mortgage document to be issued in the paper form. Such document is then sent to the applicant by the Central Land and Mortgage Register Information Retrieval Office via the regular post.
The amendment enables also verification whether documents printed out by an individual applicant were indeed issued by the Central Land and Mortgage Register Information Retrieval Office and whether their content has not been subject to change since the issuance.
Additionally, a possibility was introduced for some institutions (including, for example, notaries and bailiffs) to search for land and mortgage registration not only according to the number but also, for instance, according to the personal data of the owner or the property address. That is – as the Ministry of Justice holds – aimed to facilitate and accelerate assessment of the debtor’s property, and in this way to increase enforcement efficiency and financial security of business entities.
Whereas via the Electronic State Criminal Register (https://ekrk.ms.gov.pl/ep-web), an enquiry may be sent and a response from the Register may be obtained through the Internet without the necessity to visit the Information Centre or Information Point of the State Criminal Register. A certificate of clean criminal record may be sourced therefrom through the Internet and printed out at home. What is required is only to open a user’s account and make the fee payment.
Also, since 1 July 2014, the fee for obtaining information from the State Criminal Register is to be decreased. Currently, the charge for obtaining information both of an individual and a collective entity amounts to PLN 30 – in the case of a paper-form enquiry, and PLN 20 – when via the Internet.
According to the Department of Social Communication and Promotion at the Ministry of Justice, in order to obtain a certificate from the State Criminal Register via the e-Platform, it is necessary to open an individual or business account. Having logged in to the account by entering the login and password, one should fill in the relevant form, make the due payment through the e-Platform by way of a wire transfer, and put the e-signature on or sign off with a safe e-PUAP profile. The Information Centre of the State Criminal Register, having checked with the Register’s databases, responds through the system to the enquiry made. The recipient is sent a certificate in the form of an XML file, which is recordable on the computer’s hard-drive and possible to be visualised – in the form of a PDF file – through the e-Platform. Information about an individual or a collective entity provided via an IT system is secured with a safe e-signature of the person authorized to provide such information.
In the case of delivery via an IT system, the information is deemed to have been provided on the date indicated on the electronic acknowledgement of correspondence receipt. Whereas in case such receipt acknowledgement is missing, the delivery is deemed effective upon 14 days since the information placement on the IT system.
