Documents confirming ownership of housing

First, let’s understand what ownership is.

The owner owns, uses and disposes of his property at his own discretion. The owner has the right to take any actions with respect to his property that do not contradict the law.

Ownership is confirmed by a title document. There are many types of title deeds. It all depends on the type of property and the method of acquiring real estate.

Therefore, the title documents for the house (apartment) are:

  • contracts, on the basis of which the right of ownership is acquired (purchase and sale, donation, mines);
  • a certificate of ownership issued by the privatization body to tenants of residential premises in the state and communal housing fund;
  • a certificate of ownership of immovable property, issued before January 1, 2013 by a local self-government body or local state administration;
  • a certificate of the right to inheritance, issued by a notary or a consular institution of Ukraine;
  • a certificate of ownership of a share in the joint property of the spouses in the event of the death of one of the spouses, issued by a notary or a consular institution of Ukraine;
  • a court decision, which has entered into legal force, regarding the acquisition of the right of ownership of immovable property;
  • other documents that, in accordance with the legislation, confirm the acquisition of ownership rights to real estate.

The right of ownership and other real rights to immovable things, the encumbrance of these rights, their occurrence, transfer and termination are subject to state registration. That is, your ownership of the house (apartment) must be registered.

State registration of property rights to immovable property – official recognition and confirmation by the state of the facts of acquisition, change or termination of property rights to immovable property by entering relevant information in the State Register of Property Rights to immovable property.

Since January 1, 2013, the State Register of Property Rights to Immovable Property has been operational, in which all property rights to immovable property are registered.

The right of ownership of immovable property that arose before January 1, 2013 is recognized as valid if the registration of such right was carried out in accordance with the legislation in force at the time of its occurrence. That is, ownership registered before January 1, 2013 remains valid. It is not necessary to re-register them in the State Register of Rights.

For example, if a person has been the owner of an apartment since the 1990s, then he remains the owner from now on. Until 2013, the registration of ownership of apartments, residential buildings, non-residential premises and other immovable property was carried out by the Bureau of Technical Inventory (hereinafter – BTI), with the issuance of documents (Excerpts) or the placement of appropriate stamps (marks) on the document itself. Such registration was carried out by BTI in the Register of ownership rights to immovable property (in which only apartments, houses, premises were registered).

That is, if the ownership right to real estate arose before 2013, you must have a title document (one of the ones listed above) that contains a BTI stamp or a BTI mark, or there is an extract from the BTI register, then the documents are considered to be properly executed, and the ownership right is registered until 2013 in the old Register of ownership rights to immovable property and, accordingly, the state recognizes ownership of such property.

If there are no documents specified above, or ownership documents that were issued earlier in the 80s and 90s without the use of notary forms on ordinary paper and are not registered in the BTI, i.e. there are no BTI stamps, BTI marks, or an extract from the BTI, then such a right is not properly registered and such property must be registered in the State Register of Real Property Rights today, because the right of ownership as such has not arisen.

In order to carry out state registration of the right of ownership of real estate objects, it is necessary to apply to the TsNAP, where the administrator registers the application in the state register and forwards the documents to the state registrar for consideration.

Real rights to immovable property and their encumbrances that arose after January 1, 2013 are subject to registration in the State Register of Real Rights to Immovable Property (hereinafter referred to as the State Register of Rights). It is after such registration that the person becomes the full owner of the house (apartment).

The fact that your real estate is registered in the State Register of Rights is confirmed by the Extract from such register. The extract is issued to you by the notary or state registrar who registered the right of ownership. Therefore, the ownership right that arose after January 1, 2013 is confirmed by the title document and the Extract from the State Register of Rights. If the title document for the house (apartment) has been lost, real estate transactions can be carried out based on information from the State Register of Rights.

In addition, you can check yourself whether information about your house (apartment) is contained in the State Register of Rights by using the electronic services of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine on the website – https://kap.minjust.gov.ua/.

To do this, you need to enter the office using an electronic digital signature and search for your real estate at the address. If information about real estate is found, you will be able to obtain information from the State Register of Rights about your house (apartment). Receiving information is a paid service. Information about real estate received in electronic form has the same legal force as information received from the State registrar or notary public.