On February 1, 2014 amendments to the law on registration of right to real estate came into force

Federal Law No 379-FZ, dated 21 December, 2013 “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation” introduced amendments to several federal laws, including the Federal Law of No 122-FZ, dated 21 July, 1997 “On State Registration of Rights to Real Estate and Transactions with it” (hereinafter - the Law on registration), that came into force on 1 February, 2014.

For example, amendments to Article 16 establish that:

• when applying for state registration by a notary public in electronic form, application may only be signed by secured qualified electronic signature of a notary;

• if the right arises under the notarized transaction or under another performed notarial act, application for state registration of rights and other necessary for state registration documents can also be submitted to the respective body, authorized for state registration of rights, by an employee of notary, subject to written confirmation of his/her authority to file applications and other required for state registration documents, issued by a notary, signed and sealed;

• if the right arises under the notarized transaction or under another performed notarial act, application for state registration of rights and other necessary for state registration documents, submitted by a notary public or by its employee, are accepted by the body, carrying out state registration of rights, or by a multipurpose center at the same day and are considered within 5 days, following the day of application acceptance

Paragraph 5 Article 18 of the Law now establishes, that if the applicant is a notary, certificate of state registration of rights and (or) other documents will be transferred to this notary or to a notary employee.

Amendments to Paragraph 1 Article 31 provide that authorities, carrying out state registration of rights, shall not be responsible for the legality of the notarized transaction.

It should be noted, that previously real estate agents performed due diligence of documents, and 40 % of transactions had been challenged in court. Now a notary will make inquiries to the state authorities in electronic form and will transfer documents to Rosreestr for real estate registration.