Mortgage inspection: what it is and what it is for

THE'Mortgage inspection of a property is a check that allows you to verify the formalities (such as transcriptions, inscriptions and annotations) registered in the mortgage database relating to a specific property.

In practice, it is a way to find out if the property is subject to mortgages, foreclosures, seizures or other situations that could affect its ownership or the possibility of selling it.

It is possible to carry out a mortgage inspection by querying the mortgage databases present in the Registrar's Offices throughout Italy except for the provinces of Trento, Bolzano, Trieste, Gorizia and other municipalities where the land register system is in force.

Like most services relating to Real Estate Advertising - formerly the Real Estate Registry -, the mortgage inspection (often called mortgage verification in common parlance) also involves a multi-step process which in some cases can prove complex.

What is meant by mortgage inspection
The mortgage inspection is a procedure aimed at resolving a need relating to the verification of information or the retrieval of documents by querying mortgage databases. There is no single way to carry it out but, from time to time, it is necessary to strategically evaluate the type of documents to be requested and the information they contain, to obtain the desired result quickly.

Except for some particular cases, the starting point of a mortgage inspection is the mortgage certificate relating to a property or a person (natural or legal person). The document summarizes the list of steps for or against (transcription, registration and annotation formalities) recorded in the Conservatory, called the summary list of formalities.

What is the difference between a mortgage inspection and a mortgage search?
It is a point on which we often tend to get confused, for a simple reason: in many cases in the mortgage inspection we already find the data we need or have requested, and the mortgage inspection procedure ends when we obtain the document.

In the majority of cases, however, the mortgage inspection continues with at least two other steps:
_ the development of a note, or a formality present on the mortgage certificate in the "summary list of formalities" section;
_ the request for a copy of the deed.

Article no. 2643 of the Civil Code (R.D. 16 March 1942, n. 262) indicates in detail the types of deed that must be registered in the Conservatory and that we can recover.

Contracts concerning the transfer of ownership of real estate; the establishment, transfer or modification of real rights of enjoyment over real estate; corporate relations for the conferment of enjoyment of real estate or real estate rights.
Deeds of renunciation for usufruct, surface, emphyteusis, grantor, habitation, servitude.

Forced execution measures, judicial requests and sentences that refer to real estate or real estate rights.

In practice: the mortgage certificate is the official document of the Registry which contains detailed information relating to the formalities of a property or of the person owning a real asset on the property (mortgage certificate for property and mortgage certificate for subject).

The mortgage inspection is the procedure that allows natural and legal persons to verify the presence of formalities on the property of interest, which can be found in the title search or in other documents (mortgage inspection for property).

These two terms are not to be confused with the hypocadastral survey, a document that cross-references the data of the historical cadastral survey for property or subject, with those of the mortgage survey.

What does the mortgage inspection reveal?
The mortgage inspection as already mentioned is a procedure with which we can obtain various information. 

The starting point is the mortgage search: in the list of formalities we find the data necessary to start the inspection procedure.

There are three types of formalities that we find in the title search.

1. Transcriptions relating to deeds of transfer or creation of rights over properties.

2. Registrations relating to prejudicial from the conservatorship or encumbrances: prejudicial from the conservatorship: legal mortgages, judicial mortgages, injunctive decrees, real estate foreclosures and
conservative seizures;
encumbrances: in addition to the two types of mortgage prejudicial to the conservatorship, legal and judicial, there is a third type of mortgage, the voluntary mortgage. This encumbrance is generated by a voluntary act of the debtor and is one of the most used forms of guarantee (think of the stipulation of a mortgage contract).

3. The notes relating to variations or cancellations linked to previous formalities (transcripts and registrations).

The combination of this information, divided into multi-step steps, allows us to arrive at the document
desired.
Here are the three most common examples:
_ the need to recover an old lost deed if the notary who drafted it is no longer in business;
_ the need to verify the presence of a mortgage and whether it has been cancelled;
_ the need to trace an act of provenance.

How to request a mortgage inspection?
The process for carrying out mortgage inspections can be long and complex.

Many professionals in the sector make use of external consultants to extrapolate the data they need, both because it is necessary to have in-depth knowledge of the query procedures of the Agency's Sister platform Revenue, both because every piece of information sought (and found) requires evaluations on the next steps to be taken.

Only an experienced professional is able to understand how to continue the inspection correctly and quickly.

Through personal consultation we have the possibility of querying the mortgage database to obtain information on the properties we own.

This type of research is carried out in the periods following the date of computerization of the individual Conservatory: if we need to find information relating to previous historical periods, we must necessarily go, by making an appointment, to the local real estate advertising service.

Even individuals who do not own the property can use the electronic mortgage inspection service: in this case it is possible to inspect the transcription notes, registration notes and annotation requests recorded even before the computerized period.

How much does a mortgage inspection request cost?
The mortgage inspection is a service made available to natural and legal persons by the Revenue Agency.

Consultation of the information contained in the cadastral survey:
- it is free for those who are owners - even only partially - of the right of ownership on the property being inspected (or owners of other real rights of enjoyment); in this case we are in the field of personal mortgage inspection;

- there is a fee for subjects who have no real right to the property they request inspection of; in this case the taxes established by the Revenue Agency and specified in a document called mortgage tax table are applied.