Real Rights and Land Registration
Land registration provides publicity and certainty for real rights. A candidate must understand the cadastral framework, the land register, title deeds, and the role of the Survey and Land Registration Bureau. Study the registration procedure: application, supporting documents, verification, entry, and issuance of title. Know the effect of registration, the protection of bona fide purchasers, and the correction of errors.
Mortgages, easements, long leases, and rights of way must be registered to bind third parties. Understand the priority rules, ranking by date of registration, and the effect of a caveat or objection. Questions frequently test the notary's role: the notary prepares and authenticates the deed, but registration is a separate act before the registrar.
Traps: assuming the notary's seal alone creates a real right; overlooking the need to register a mortgage; and confusing the land register with the notarial register. Another trap is the effect of an unregistered sale of immovable property, which may be valid between the parties but ineffective against third parties.
Rule of thumb: deed for validity between parties, registration for effect against the world. Worked example: two sales of the same plot; the first buyer who registers in good faith prevails over an earlier unregistered purchaser, subject to any proven bad faith.
Study the correction of register errors and the remedies for wrongful registration, including compensation.