In a letter, the systemic banks and debt management funds, the well-known services, requested from the Deputy Minister of Digital Governance, Konstantinos Kyranakis, who is responsible for the Land Registry, to be granted direct access to the Land Registry database for their own purposes. This right is currently only granted to lawyers who represent citizens or legal entities.
According to Joint Ministerial Decision No. 11206 ΕΞ 2021 (Government Gazette Β’ 1539/15.4.2021), as amended by Joint Ministerial Decision No. 54829 ΕΞ 2023 (Government Gazette Β’ 7380/27.12.2023) of the Ministers of Justice and Digital Governance, any natural or legal person registered in the land registry as the rightful holder of a registrable right has the right to access the land registry records about them, which are included in the descriptive and spatial database of the National Land Registry.
Article 2 of the aforementioned Joint Ministerial Decision defines the persons entitled to access and investigate land registry data. Among them are lawyers, who can do so exclusively for the exercise of their professional activities. Further access is granted to other individuals (such as bailiffs, notaries, engineers, and forestry department staff), albeit in a more limited capacity, and always under the condition that the access serves exclusively their professional activities—or, in the case of forestry staff, their official duties.
The above provisions clearly show that, given the sensitive nature of the Land Registry’s database, the legislator’s enduring concern has been to ensure that access to this data is granted with appropriate caution, considering the necessity of such access and the role of each public function involved.
Therefore, it is clear that granting access to credit institutions and debt management companies to the requested land registry data is not justified, as the conditions described above do not apply in their case.
It is also noted that under the current legislative framework, such access is not permitted, except when there is a specific legal interest and relevant orders are assigned to lawyers in the course of their professional activities—and any case, not directly to credit institutions or debt management companies. Maintaining the current framework is deemed both appropriate and necessary, particularly in the context of ensuring fairness in cases of litigation between credit institutions, debt management companies, and citizens or legal entities, given the need to protect the data and rights of citizens. Consequently, the existing legal framework is considered sufficient, and there is no reason to grant access to credit institutions and debt management companies to the database of the public entity ‘Hellenic Cadastre’.
