Land Registry Extract
An official cadastral document — a certified extract from the land and buildings register — showing a plot's registered area, land classification, and boundaries; distinct from the land and mortgage register, which records legal ownership.
Applies to Poland.
Definition
A land registry extract (wypis z rejestru gruntów, often accompanied by a wyrys z mapy ewidencyjnej — an extract from the cadastral map) is issued by the local starosta's office based on the land and buildings register (ewidencja gruntów i budynków), Poland's cadastral system. It records technical and administrative facts about a plot: its registered area, land classification (e.g. agricultural, forest, building land), and boundary geometry.
This is easily confused with the land and mortgage register (księga wieczysta), but the two serve entirely different functions. The land and mortgage register records the legal status of a property — who owns it and what encumbrances burden it — while the cadastral register and its extracts record physical and classification facts about the plot itself. A property's legal owner in the land and mortgage register and its registered area in the cadastral extract should be checked separately, since discrepancies between the two do occur, particularly on older or subdivided plots.
A land registry extract is commonly required when applying for a building permit, when a notary prepares certain property transactions, or when a plot needs to be formally identified for a subdivision or conversion of its classification.
Examples
An architect requesting a building permit application submits a land registry extract confirming the plot's registered area and classification alongside the design.
A buyer discovers the plot's actual area in the cadastral extract differs slightly from what the listing stated, and asks the seller to clarify before proceeding.
A notary preparing a sale requests both a current land and mortgage register printout and a land registry extract, since each document answers a different question about the property.
How this affects buying and selling
Buyers should not treat the land and mortgage register as covering everything about a property — it says nothing about the plot's registered classification or exact boundaries, which is exactly what the land registry extract is for. Anyone planning to build, subdivide, or change a plot's use should pull this document early, since classification issues (for example, land still registered as agricultural) can otherwise surface only after money has already changed hands.
