State registration of a right may not be rejected where missing of the deadline for submitting an application is recognised as valid

As a result of legislative reforms implemented by the Ministry of Justice, it has been established that state registration of a right may not be rejected where missing of the deadline for submitting an application for state registration of a right is recognised as valid. And missing of the deadline may be considered as valid where the applicant substantiates the reason for missing the deadline beyond his/her control, that is to say not at his/her fault and clearly lists the grounds (force majeure, illness, engagement in military operations or combat missions, etc.), upon availability whereof the authorised body carrying out state registration — by the motion of the applicant — considers missing of the deadline for applying for registration as valid.

Another amendment stipulates that a person may submit an application for state registration of a right to the Cadastre Committee both in person and through a notary, and in case of such a request, the notary is obliged to perform the relevant notarial act.

In addition, the Law of the Republic of Armenia “On state duty” stipulates that persons are released from state duty for notarial act of submitting for state registration, taking into account that state duty (that is to say, only the established fee, and not the state duty will be paid for the notarial act of sending for state registration) is already charged for the notarial certification of transactions on the arising, change and transfer of the rights over an immoveable property.

It should be reminded that the legislative changes were made on the basis of Decision SDVo-1448 of 2019 of the Constitutional Court, according whereto the provisions of the Law “On state registration of property rights” were recognised as contradicting to the Constitution, according to which missing of the established 30-day deadline for submitting the transactions concluded through notarial procedure for state registration leads to the invalidity of the transaction and the refusal of state registration on that ground, substantiating that the Law does not provide for the possibility of restoring the deadline in the absence of a person’s guilt, thereby hindering the realisation of the person's right to legitimate and lawful expectations over the property.