Susana Lastarria-Cornhiel, Grenville Barnes (1995):
Assessment of the Praedial Property Registration System in Peru

.D. Public Property Registry (Registro de Propriedad Inmueble)

The Registro de Propiedad Inmueble currently operates under the administrative umbrella of the Superintendency of Public Registries, which is independent of any ministry. During the period 1981 to 1992, the Registro de Propiedad Inmueble operated independently. In 1993 it was transferred to the Ministry of Justice where it stayed until the Superintendency became operational in 1995. Under the present arrangement, the Registro de Propiedad Inmueble is completely self-financed, even though the Superintendency approves the Registro de Propiedad Inmueble budget. Of the income generated by the Registro de Propiedad Inmueble, 97% remains in the Registry, 2% is transmitted to the Superintendency, and the remaining 1% is distributed to Registro de Propiedad Inmueble offices in low-income regions.

The Registro de Propiedad Inmueble is decentralized by region, and in some regions there are branch offices at the province level. The registry system within each region is autonomous. In 1990, there were 42 Registro de Propiedad Inmueble offices throughout the country. Currently, the Region of Lima has 5 offices (Lima, Huacho, Cañete, Callao, Huaral) which employ some 256 persons.

The legal basis for the Registro de Propiedad Inmueble is the Civil Code which was recently (1984) amended. Arts. 2008 to 2017 deal with general arrangements in the public registries and Arts. 2018 to 2023 with registerable transactions in the Registro de Propiedad Inmueble. The Registro de Propiedad Inmueble is a registration of deeds system in which documents affecting title to land are recorded. However, the system has been improved by organizing this information on a parcel-by-parcel basis (folio real). Unfortunately, the parcels are not adequately defined nor are they integrated into a cadastre. Registration of immovable property is not compulsory and the majority of land parcels in Peru are not registered.

The Registro de Propiedad Inmueble continues to play an important role even though the parallel Registro Predial is now operational. This is partly because the Registro Predial system has not been extended outside the Region of Lima and so registration in all other regions is done through the Registro de Propiedad Inmueble. In addition, while all rural property falls under the legal jurisdiction of the Registro Predial, only a proportion of urban properties do. Much of the property now falling under the jurisdiction of the Registro Predial has title or other documents previously registered in the Registro de Propiedad Inmueble. The registration process within the Registro Predial, therefore, involves a transmittal (traslado) of these documents from the Registro de Propiedad Inmueble to the Registro Predial (see Section VI, C, 5, d for the levels of these transmittals).