Description
The peculiar and ancient system of real estate publicity in force in our province, derived from autro-Hungarian legislation, has undergone a real 'revolution' in recent years following the introduction of computerised procedures. The cardinal principles of this system of real-estate publicity, which make it unique in terms of guarantee and certainty, have nevertheless remained unchanged, fully safeguarding citizens' rights.
Historical background
Two systems of real-estate publicity currently coexist in Italy: on the one hand, transcription in the old Provinces, based on the French Law of 23 March 1855; on the other hand, the tavolare or Land Register system, in force in the new Provinces of Trento, Bolzano, Trieste, Gorizia and in some municipalities in the provinces of Udine, Brescia, Belluno and Vicenza.
The tavolare system of real estate publicity is the only, but important, institution derived from Austro-Hungarian legislation that has remained in force in the aforementioned Provinces.
It is certain that from as early as the first half of the 14th century the institution displayed those legal principles that are still valid today as the foundation of modern tavolare law. We know, in fact, that at that time Bohemia possessed a collection of customs concerning public registers in which all deeds of constitution and variation of real rights had to be entered, and that registration was not granted except on the basis of proof of the validity of the title as well as the legitimacy of the rights of the originator (e.g. seller, donor, etc.). At the same time, the fundamental principle was introduced that registration is not a mere proof but a 'substantial' requirement for the acquisition and transfer of ownership and rights in rem in immovable property.
Little by little, the principle was extended to neighbouring regions, until it was accepted by the Austrian Universal Civil Code in 1811, which made it compulsory for all the provinces of the Empire, then regulating the institution with the General Law of 25 July 1871 B.L.I. no. 95, a law recalled with amendments in our legal system by Royal Decree no. 499 of 28 March 1929.
The Tavolare Law is therefore a set of rules having the character of a special law, in force in the territories formerly subject to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and annexed to Italy after the First World War, which prevails over the common Civil Law, if incompatible with the latter.
The Habsburg origins of the Land Register
It is from the institution of the "Landtafeln" operating since the 13th century in part of the territories of the Habsburg monarchy, namely in Bohemia, Moravia and northern Silesia, that the earliest origin of the Austrian system of land registration is unanimously traced.
It was a unitary discipline dictated with regard to the aspect of the acquisition of land ownership, specifically inspired by the peculiar principle according to which real property rights were acquired only after the completion of the relevant publicity formalities, which in this case consisted in the registration in special public books called 'tabulae' or 'Tafeln'.
Entry in the register was thus not intended to have an effect merely at the evidentiary level, but rather at the substantive level, producing a decidedly constitutive type of efficacy so as to go so far as to recognise that what emerges from the public register is undisputed truth and ignorance of its content is completely irrelevant.
The subsequent evolution of the system is due to a series of regulatory measures, territorial ordinances, of which those of Ferdinand II of 1627 for Bohemia and 1628 for Moravia are worth mentioning, constituting as many occasions for perfecting and refining the informing principles of the system, and then the fundamental Sovereign Patent of 22 April 1794 that, with the introduction of the 'Hauptbuch' (Main Register) organised as a system of sheets and rubrics referring directly to the real estate, would mark the moment of the abandonment of the system's personal basis and the transition to the royal basis.
The next fundamental step was the strategic choice made by the legislator of the Austrian Universal Code of 1811 to extend the tavolar system to the entire territory of the monarchy.
This would have led to the progressive suppression of the other and different systems of real estate publicity previously in force, such as, as far as Trentino was concerned, the filing system.
This was followed by the legislation of 1871, on the one hand the law of 25 July 1871 Bli n.95, which dictated the unified regulations on the organisation and keeping of land registers, and then the law of 25 July 1871 n.96, the framework law on the system of the Land Register with which the enacted provincial legislation was to comply.
And it was precisely in this context that for the territories of the then Princely County of Tyrol Vorarlberg, of which the whole of the present-day Trentino territory was an integral part at the time, that Law No 9 of 17 March 1897 BLP and the relative regulations were issued. It should also be noted that, in addition to the territory of the province of Bolzano, the Tyrol also included the enclaves of the municipality of Pedemonte in the province of Vicenza and Valvestino in the Brescia area, territories in which the tavolare system, exceptionally managed by the Autonomous Province of Trento, is still in force today.
The legislator's decision to maintain in force the Austrian system of real estate publicity by means of Royal Decree no. 2325 of 4 November 1928 was followed by the enactment of Royal Decree no. 499 of 27 March 1929, which introduced into the Italian legal system the fundamental principles of the system, at that time contained in the paragraphs of the Austrian Universal Code, and coordinated the rules of the tavolare system with those of the Italian legal system itself.
Data structuring
The tavolare body, made up of one or more parcels of land, constitutes the actual basis of the partita tavolare, a complex of a certain number of sheets intended to receive the inscriptions referring to the parcels that make it up.
The partita tavolare is divided into three sheets distinguished by a letter of the alphabet: A, B and C.
Sheet A is called the "consistency sheet" and is in turn divided into two sections
- sheet A1 showing the heading of the cadastral parcel with indication of the number, section, cadastral municipality, district (formerly judicial district), the number of the parcel or parcels constituting the cadastral body, the number of the map sheet containing the individual parcels, the locality, the designation of the cultivation of the property and the quality of the building
- sheet A2, which shows the history of the inscriptions and modifications carried out in sheet A1 and the evidence of the active real rights for the benefit of the parcels inscribed in sheet A1
- sheet B, known as the "property sheet", which shows the property rights on the body of the table, as well as the mention of the limitations to the free exercise of this right to which the owner may be subject (interdiction, incapacitation, bankruptcy, etc.).
- The last part is represented by sheet C known as the 'aggravation sheet'. This contains the inscriptions of real rights encumbering the body of the table (passive easements, rights of usufruct, use, habitation, etc.), as well as mortgages.
All the plat entries in a cadastral municipality combine to make up the land register of that municipality.
A land register is also kept for each cadastral municipality, which shows, in two separate lists, the building plots and the land plots, indicating for each one the surface area and the number of the tavolar lot in which it is contained.
Access to data
The plat system is a typically real-based system; it is not concerned with the 'persons' of the owners or creditors, but always and solely with the 'property' that is the subject of the rights. Consultation is therefore simple and safe, facilitated by indexes: of parcels (real registers), of owners, of creditors. Thus, in order to find out the legal history of a property (who owns or has owned it, what mortgages or easements it is encumbered with, etc.), it will be sufficient to know the number of the relevant parcel of land and then go back through the aforementioned Royal Register to the plat entry containing it, thus immediately becoming aware of all the inscriptions concerning it. The operation is as simple as it is secure and exempts the user from those complex and unreliable searches conducted on the basis of the owner's name, as is the case at the Land Registries of the transcription system.