Libro Cuarto Título III. De los registros y de los registradores

The Register of Property of the central zone with seat in the capital city shall be in charge of the registration of the other zones that do not have their own and, as General Register, of the control and supervision of the other Registers of Property.

The inspection of each register shall be in charge of the judge of First Instance in Civil matters, designated annually by the Supreme Court of Justice, if there are several judges in the department in which the respective register has its seat.

The judges of First Instance shall visit the register of their jurisdiction, in order to ascertain the functioning of the office, the condition in which the books and files of the same register are found, and the activity and competence of the personnel. They shall draw up a record in which they shall set forth their observations and whether the office work is up to date or suffers delay, sending a copy of the same record to the Supreme Court of Justice so that, if applicable, it may order such measures as it deems appropriate.

If the judges notice any lack of formality on the part of the registrars, in the manner of keeping the register, or in the arrangement of the documents corresponding thereto, they shall issue the necessary provisions to correct it and, where applicable, shall sanction the registrars in the manner established by this Code.

In the registries it is mandatory to keep the following principal books:

1°.Of delivery of documents;

2°.Of registrations;

3°.Of statistical tables; and

4°.Of indexes in alphabetical order of surnames of the owners and possessors of immovables.

The registrar shall likewise keep such books as are necessary for special registrations and such others as determined by the regulations of the register. The books may be electronic and physical.

The Registrar is empowered to progressively innovate the controls and operating systems by implementing all kinds of programs, techniques and processes to effect, formalize and execute all registral operations, using for such purpose information-technology, computerized, digital, magnetic, electronic, teleprocessing means and means of any other nature, according to economic possibilities and in accordance with the security standards established and approved by the Register.

The books of the registers shall be public; they shall not be removed for any reason from the office of the register where they shall be kept with all necessary precautions for their preservation and security. Judicial and extrajudicial proceedings requiring exhibition of said books shall be conducted precisely in the same office.

Only the books of the register kept legally shall constitute proof.

Books that are destroyed or deteriorated in such a manner that their consultation is difficult shall be replaced under the responsibility of the registrar, with prior judicial authorization.

Once the transcription has been made, the registrar shall close the new book with a notation stating that all transcribed entries have been compared and are in agreement with the original.

Each register shall be in charge of a proprietary registrar, appointed by the President of the Republic by governmental agreement through the Ministry of Gobernación. His exchange, transfer or cessation shall be decided in the same form.

Each register may have one or more auxiliary registrars, designated by the proprietary registrar under his liability, who shall sign the endorsements, documents, entries, registrations, annotations and cancellations determined by said public official.

Each auxiliary registrar shall have the same qualifications as the proprietary registrar, shall be subject to the same limitations and shall guarantee the liabilities he may incur with mortgage or bond. The proprietary registrar shall fix the amount of the guarantee in accordance with the criterion and limits referred to in Article 1228 of this Code.

To be appointed Registrar of Property, one must be a Guatemalan by origin, a notary and an attorney in active collegiate standing.

The office of registrar is incompatible with the practice of the professions of attorney and notary and with any employment or public office.

The registrars, before entering upon the exercise of their offices, shall guarantee the liabilities they might incur, with mortgage or bond. The Ministry of Gobernación shall fix the amount of the guarantee, having regard to the importance of the Registry, between one thousand and ten thousand quetzales.

The guarantee referred to in the preceding article shall not be cancelled until one year after the registrar has ceased to exercise his office, unless a claim against the registrar is pending, in which case the cancellation shall be subject to the outcome of the trial.

If the guarantee is a mortgage and an unpaid balance remains upon auction of the immovable, the registrar shall be liable with his other property for said balance.

The registrars shall send to the registrar of the capital, during the month of January of each year, a statistical table relating to the preceding year, which shall contain: the alienations and their price, with separation of rural and urban estates; the real rights imposed upon them and their value if stated; the mortgages, number of mortgaged estates, amount of the capital secured thereby and the cancellations effected.

In the month of February of each year, the registrar of the capital shall send to the Ministry of Gobernación a table with the statistical data that shall comprise all operations carried out in the Property Registries. The statistical data shall be compiled by said registrar in the respective book.

In each Register there shall be a substitute registrar, appointed by the Executive upon proposal and under the liability of the titular registrar, to act in his stead in cases of absence, illness or incompatibility in the performance of his functions. The substitute shall have the same qualifications as the titular registrar. If the interim period exceeds one month, the substitute shall furnish security on the same terms as the titular registrar.

The substitute registrar shall act in place of the principal registrar on an occasional basis, when the latter, his spouse or his relatives intervene in a registrable document or are a party to the trial from which the writ or order for a registration or annotation derives.

When incompatibility exists as to both registrars, the Ministry of Gobernación shall designate, in each case, the notary who is to authorize the operations.

Registrars are not parties to any litigation in which the validity or nullity of a registration is at issue, except when liability is imputed to them for abuses of their functions or for defect in a registration, and in ocursos de queja.

Whoever through the fault of the registrar appears in the register as improperly exonerated from any registered obligation or encumbrance shall remain liable for said obligation or encumbrance, jointly and severally with the registrar; and the latter shall further be liable for the damage and losses caused by such damage or omissions.

The judge of First Instance to whose jurisdiction the register belongs shall be competent to hear actions for damage and losses brought against the registrar.

Violations of this law or of the regulations relating to the Registry, committed by the registrars, even if they cause no harm to a third party nor constitute a crime, shall be punished with fines of five to fifty quetzales.

The fine shall be imposed by the judge of the department to which the Registry corresponds and with no further procedure than the proceedings necessary to ascertain the fact. Legal remedies shall remain available to the person penalized.

The amount of the fines shall be paid into the justice funds.

The provisions of the preceding articles, as to compensation for damage and losses and subjection to fines, shall not preclude the imposition of the penalty that, in case of crime, is applicable pursuant to the laws.

When a registrar is at the same time ordered to pay compensation for damage and losses and to pay the fine, the former shall be paid with preference.

The registrars shall receive the fees fixed by the Fee Schedule and shall defray, without any charge, the ordinary office expenses, which include the provision and preservation of the books of the register.

The registrars, before signing and sealing the entries of the Register, shall take care to review them in order to attest to the crossed-out or interlineated words.

Errors or omissions committed in the books of the Register shall not be corrected with erasures or by intercalating words between lines, after the entries have been signed.

Registrars may not rectify material errors without the consent of the interested party. A material error shall be understood to exist when some words have been written for others, the expression of any circumstance whose absence does not cause nullity has been omitted, or proper names or amounts have been mistaken in copying them from the title, without thereby changing the general meaning of the registration or that of any of its concepts.

Errors of concept may not be rectified except by unanimous agreement of the interested parties, and in default of such agreement, by judicial decision ordering rectification.

Errors of concept committed in presentation entries or in marginal annotations may be rectified by the registrar when the principal entry suffices for them to be known.

It shall be understood that an error of concept is committed when any of the words expressed in the registration alter or vary its true meaning.

The registrar or any of the persons interested in an entry may oppose the rectification requested by others on the ground of error of concept, provided that in their judgment the concept supposed to be erroneous is in accordance with the merits of the title to which the entry refers. Any question arising for this reason shall be decided judicially.

Errors of concept shall be rectified by a new entry, which shall be made upon presentation of the same title already registered, if the registrar acknowledges his error or the judge declares it; and by virtue of a new title if the error was committed due to the vague, ambiguous, or inaccurate drafting of the original title and the parties agree to it, or it is so declared by judicial decision.

Whenever an error is rectified by virtue of the same title previously presented, the expenses and losses arising from the error shall be borne by the registrar.

Otherwise, the interested parties shall pay the expenses of the new registration and any others caused by the rectification.

When material or conceptual errors void a registration, there shall be no rectification except by judicial declaration.

The rectified entry shall in no case produce effect except from the date of the rectification, without prejudice to the right of third parties to claim the falsity or nullity of the title to which the erroneous entry refers.

With respect to the details regarding the manner of keeping the register, the registrars shall observe the prescriptions contained in the regulation of the branch.