Land titles, Albania will have a cadastre. How will property disputes be solved?

Albania will finally have a cadastre. This institution will finally attempt to offer a solution to the issue of properties, which has also been imposed as a condition by the international community. This has been set out in a special bill that the government has sent to Parliament. Along with the bill “On the finalization of transitional property issues”, which is also being discussed by MPs, its aim is to find a solution of the problem concerning land titles in the country. Government experts admit that this problem has not received a solution due to the legal vacuum and the inefficient ways of handling it, but also due to the fact that the institutions which have handled properties so far, have not acted as one and have caused numerous delays in this process.

“The division of work among a number of institutions has not yielded the required results. None of the processes may be considered as finalized”, experts say, adding that the mistakes which have accompanied the initial process of the registration of properties have led to the creation of a new transitional process of the registration of properties, causing a further delay of the process of properties. Therefore, experts consider the setting up of the Cadastre as a very important thing. This will be the only institution which will handle the registration of properties and the finalization of transitional processes concerning properties. This includes the legalization of illegal constructions and processes relating to agricultural land.  “There will never be successful results in handling properties if each process is handled separately from each other. These processes should be coordinated and be implemented in a systematic way”, the law on cadastre states.

Deadline: Another decade is needed for this issue to be finalized

“The effect that the bill is expected to bring is the consolidation of relations regarding property titles within a 10 year period. This is believed to be the time needed for all the procedures provided by the law to be finalized”. This is stated in the new bill “Regarding the finalization of transitional property processes”, which means that Albania will need to wait another decade in order to see a final solution to the problems concerning properties.