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

IX. Significant Problems

This section summarizes some of the more significant problems related to the Registro Predial system. These problems are related to the inability to expand the system and to the failure to institutionalize some of the basic concepts and reforms.

A. Lack of Government Support

The Registro Predial has not enjoyed sustained support from senior government officials and as a result has not been able to maintain the momentum generated by the pilot projects. While this has not stopped the Registro Predial from slowly expanding its geographical jurisdiction within Lima region, it has prevented the decentralization of the registry within Lima region as well as the establishment of Registro Predial offices in the other 12 regions of the country.

Persons familiar with the work of the Registro Predial and the ILD have offered several explanations for the lack of government support. Since none of these can be confirmed, they will be mentioned as possible reasons for the inability to extend this new registration system beyond Lima.

One explanation is that at the time the ILD was lobbying for and promoting its registration system, the ILD attacked the Registro de Propiedad Inmueble and thus offended a number of key government personnel. This has meant that the Registro de Propiedad Inmueble was not disposed to working with the new system and until recently was not open to collaboration with the Registro Predial. This situation is now changing, and a committee formed by staff from both registries was established early this year to explore ways of collaborating.

Another explanation is that those Pueblos Jóvenes in the Lima area that were already registered in the Registro de Propiedad Inmueble have been reluctant to transmit their registrations over to the Registro Predial. In addition, some property owners feel that the Registro Predial, as a new and parallel registry, is not as legitimate a registry as the traditional Registro de Propiedad Inmueble. Thus, when possession rights were sometimes incorrectly registered during the enthusiasm of the first year of operation, or every time there is a case of double registrations of a property (apparently this does not happen very often), skepticism about the system is voiced.

The resistance by the public notaries to the Registro Predial is also often cited as a reason for its political difficulties. The notaries may be an important political sector; however, it is difficult to understand how such a small group of persons could be so powerful.