Not directly. For old buildings, the Land Register records the person identified as the builder in the municipality’s notification, and the municipality should name the actual builder, not the heir. According to ÚGKK’s interpretation, an heir can be registered if they provide a document establishing that they inherited the house. A solemn declaration is not sufficient. If the house was omitted from the inheritance proceedings, the court will, on application, deal with it in supplementary inheritance proceedings.
Your grandfather built the house, and your family has lived there for decades, but only the land is recorded on the property title sheet. The inheritance proceedings following his death concluded without dealing with the house because it was not in the Land Register and no one included it in the inventory of assets. Now you want to sell it, mortgage it to a bank or simply put the paperwork in order, and the municipal office offers to name you directly as the builder in its notification. According to ÚGKK’s interpretation, however, the Land Register will not accept such a notification without further documents.
Who the Land Register will record as the owner of an old house
For a house whose occupancy approval decision or use permit became final before 1 October 1976, the application must be accompanied by a notification from the municipality stating when the house received occupancy approval or was brought into use, the building registration number assigned to it and the identity of its builder according to the occupancy approval decision or use permit. The Land Register will record the builder as the owner.
The following quotation is reproduced in its original language:
[…] ako vlastník sa zapíše osoba uvedená v oznámení obce ako stavebník.
The same applies to houses built from 1 October 1976 to 31 December 1989, for which the municipality’s notification also states the purpose for which the house has been continuously used (Section 46(10)). The builder is the person who built the house, not their heir.
In Cadastral Bulletin 2/2022, ÚGKK addressed a case in which a municipality identified someone as the builder of a house dating from before 1976, even though that person was born after that year. According to ÚGKK, the district office’s cadastral department must investigate such an inconsistency and request documentary evidence of who actually built the house or of how ownership passed from the builder to another person. In that situation, the municipality’s notification alone is not sufficient for registration. It should identify your grandfather as the builder, while your ownership must be established by a further document.
What document an heir needs to establish ownership of the house
The general registration rule allows someone other than the person named in the first document to be registered as the owner if another public instrument or other document establishes their ownership (Section 46(1)). In Cadastral Bulletin 2/2025, ÚGKK states that, where ownership passes by inheritance, a person other than the builder may also be registered in this way, even though the provision concerning buildings from 1976 to 1989 does not expressly say so. The heir therefore submits an inheritance decision showing that they inherited the house. According to ÚGKK, cadastral departments do not accept a solemn declaration that the house belongs to the family as proof of ownership. If the house has passed through several generations, the entire chain of inheritance must be documented, including the inheritance from your grandfather and from each subsequent predecessor in title.
When the house was omitted from the inheritance proceedings
An unregistered house has often not been dealt with in the inheritance proceedings at all. There is no need to amend the original decision to address this. The law provides for supplementary proceedings in this situation.
The following quotation is reproduced in its original language:
Ak sa objaví po právoplatnosti uznesenia, ktorým sa konanie o dedičstve skončilo, ďalší poručiteľov majetok, prípadne aj dlh, súd na návrh vykoná o tomto majetku dodatočné konanie o dedičstve.
The court will discontinue the supplementary proceedings if the property did not belong to the deceased (Section 211(3)). It is therefore sensible to have the municipality’s notification identifying your grandfather as the builder, together with other documents relating to the construction, ready before filing the application. The decision issued in the supplementary proceedings then serves, together with the municipality’s notification, as the basis for registering the house by record entry (Section 34(1) of the Cadastral Act).
Houses built from 1976 to 1989 and rights to the land as at 1 April 2024
For these more recent houses, the municipality’s notification must be accompanied by a document establishing that, as at 1 April 2024, the builder owned or had another right to the land beneath the building (Section 46(10)). As at the same date, a house from this period is deemed to have been built in accordance with the law if it is continuously used for its intended purpose and its owner owns the land or has another right to it (Section 142l(3) of Act No. 50/1976 Zb.). The Cadastral Act thus ties the condition to the builder, while the transitional provision of the former Building Act ties it to the owner of the building. The former Building Act was repealed with effect from 1 April 2025; the new Building Act preserves legal relationships established under it (Section 84(1) of Act No. 25/2025 Z. z.).
If your grandfather died before 1 April 2024, the law does not specify how the condition applies in that situation. At the end of the aforementioned response from 2025, ÚGKK states that the owner of the building must establish their right to the land. However, it did not expressly consider the case of a builder who died before that date. It is therefore advisable to check the procedure for the particular house with the cadastral department in advance. We discuss the general procedure for old buildings in our answer on registering an old building without occupancy approval.
How we can help
We will check what documents exist for the house, what the municipality should state and whether the house needs to be dealt with in supplementary inheritance proceedings. We do this as part of our legal due diligence on property. We will prepare and file the application to register the house, together with its supporting documents, through our application for registration of rights in the Land Register service, which also covers applications for record entry. If several relatives claim the house or the necessary documents are missing, we will prepare an action for a declaration of ownership.
This answer provides general information on the law as at 3 October 2026. It does not constitute legal services or replace an assessment of an individual case. The details of your situation may differ. Book a consultation to discuss them.
