The land registry found an error in the agreement. Can it be corrected after the registration application was filed?

What counts as a document suitable for registration?

A written agreement, official public document or other document is suitable for registration if it is free of writing and calculation errors and other obvious inaccuracies, and is in Slovak, Czech or an officially certified translation (Section 42(1) of the Cadastral Act).

The Act also specifies its required content: the parties and their identification details; the legal act, its subject, place and time; and identification of the property by cadastral area, parcel number, register “C” or “E”, land type and area, building registration number, apartment number, floor and entrance, and, for co-ownership, a fractional share (Section 42(2)). Most returned agreements fail on this list rather than the substance of the bargain.

After filing, only an addendum will do

Once the application is filed, the following rule applies:

Unofficial English translation:

If an agreement contains writing or calculation errors or other obvious inaccuracies after the registration application is filed, the parties may correct them only by an addendum. Where the agreement takes the form of a notarial deed, such errors and inaccuracies are corrected under special legislation.

— Section 42(4) of the Cadastral Act

This rules out popular shortcuts. You cannot send a “corrected version”, strike through and initial a detail, or replace a page in the filed copy. The addendum must be signed in the same way as the agreement, including certified signatures where the law requires them for a transfer.

For an official public or other document, the procedure differs: the district office returns it to its author or the applicant for registration by record, setting a correction deadline (Section 42(5)).

When signatures need not be certified

Certification is required for the transferor’s signature, the signature of a person bound by a pre-emption right, the burdened person when creating an easement or the beneficiary when ending it, and co-owners terminating and settling co-ownership. If represented, the signature on the power of attorney must also be certified. This does not apply where a party is a state authority, the Slovak Land Fund, a municipality, a self-governing region or Railways of the Slovak Republic, or where the agreement is a notarial deed or is authorised by an attorney (Section 42(3)).

A discrepancy between the document and a reference register does not prevent registration. If identity is not in doubt, the office records the reference register data (Section 42(6)). Not every address discrepancy is therefore cause for alarm.

What happens if the addendum is late?

Proceedings are suspended when a party is asked to supply a document or remedy defects in the application or attachments within a set period (Section 31a(c)). If the defects are not remedied in time, proceedings are discontinued (Section 31b(1)(f)).

The real loss is priority. Rights to the same property are registered in the order the district office receives documents creating, changing or ending them (Section 41(2)). A new application means new priority. If an enforcement order, another bank’s security agreement or another transfer has arrived meanwhile, your transaction moves behind it.

How to avoid this

Prevention is the cheapest solution. We prepare agreements and applications to pass first time, identifying properties against current cadastral records; see preparation of agreements and registration applications. With attorney authorisation of an agreement, the office’s review is narrower and signature certification under Section 42(3) is unnecessary.

If a request to remedy defects has already arrived, its deadline is decisive. Contact us as soon as you receive it. We handle suspended and refused land registration proceedings, including preparation of the addendum and signatures by all parties, which is often harder in practice than the legal analysis itself.