Land cadastral systems in Netherlands

Introduction

The land cadastral system is a comprehensive register of real estate’s meter-and-bound of a country. It usually includes details of the ownership, tenure, precise location, dimensions and the value of individual parcels of land. Cadastre is a primary source of data that can be used when solving land disputes or lawsuits between owners of parcels of land. (Willem Jan Walker).

Geographically, Netherlands is located in Western Europe bordering the North Sea between Germany and Belgium. Netherlands has only one single land registry and cadastre which comprises all lands and all territorial waters, whoever is the owner. The State owns the land, however from a different point of view, State is said to be an owner like anybody else (Zeeuw, 2015).

The cadastral land system in Netherlands came into existence after the annexation of the kingdom by France. In 1808, Napoleon Bonaparte decided to establish a system of land taxation based on an accurate inventory of land ownership and use because he needed money to finance his activities. Later, the cadastral system was adopted by King William (Zeeuw, 2015).

The tax was levied on the parcel of the land regarding the revenue that one could get from it, and the amount of tax itself was based on the repartitioned system. Unlike other countries, the land registration and the cadaster are combined into one organization. The cadastre became a key to the public registers. The main processes in a cadastral system are an adjudication, transfer and subdivision (Willem Jan Walker).

The administrative structure in the cadaster was as follows; the country was divided into municipalities, which were divided into cadastral sections that became cadastral pieces of land. First, the land surveyors and the municipal executives determined the precise boundary of a municipality.

The Civil Code prescribes four requirements for a legal transfer of rights which are the right of disposal of the seller, the agreement between buyer and seller, the obligatory title, and recording in the public registers hold by Cadaster. The system of delivery is ‘causal’, meaning right holders have to secure their ownership right in the chain of transfers. The registers and cadastral maps guarantee in practice legal land tenure security, and security in the land market which is also valid for securing loans by mortgages. Information on taxable persons, objects, and values are derived from the files of Cadaster and are regularly supplied to the municipalities as key source data for their land taxation (Lowman).

Many government bodies use Land information from the registers of Cadaster, mainly providing source data to support the government in the interference in private property rights justified by the general interest. The Cadaster promotes an efficient geo-information infrastructure integrated with a system of national key registers. To manage the information on owners, rights and parcels, the Cadaster and Land Registry Agency maintain two separate databases.  A cartographic database (the surveying and mapping information system, LKI) and an administrative database (automated Cadastral Registers), which contains the essential legal and administrative information of any parcel of land. Since the introduction of the land registers and cadaster in 1832 basically, all changes in the cadastral parcels are maintained on the cadastral map.

Real-time kinematics (RTK) GPS was introduced in 2000 to measure cadastral boundaries. Before that, GPS was only used to survey control networks by the department of the Agency responsible for the National Triangulation Network. Since using this was limited to the static survey, Fast Static and finally Real Time surveying with high relative precision was possible, and thus, GPS became an option as an instrument for measuring cadastral boundaries (Willem Jan Walker).

Cadaster is always questioning itself how to perform its public tasks in the best way possible. It is estimated that by 2020 new technology will have enabled citizens and businesses to perform acts that only professionals, like Cadaster, were able to perform before (Zeeuw, 2015).

In real-estate sector, land administration, planning and construction Netherlands fulfil a significant role in providing the information basis, which serves as a foundation for the operation of these industries in a manner fitting with the current day developments and the users’ needs. For the coming years, Netherlands have a lot of ambitions like; to provide information on the legal status and the use of all spatial objects since they realize that information is readily available and accessible to citizens, businesses, and government. To provide the information platform that enables all users to work with spatial information (Zeeuw, 2015).

Conclusion

Land cadastral systems provide important data involving a particular parcel of land which can be very useful in solving land disputes between owners. Napoleon Bonaparte was the spearheader of this system in Netherlands. This cadastral system involves adjudication, subdivision and transfer. After carrying out various experiments and investigations, the Netherland’s Cadaster and Land Registry Agency believes that the introduction of GPS in cadastral boundary survey will enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the process. The introduction of the new procedures and the provision of all field parties with GPS equipment has been going on since 2002 though it is estimated that by 2020 new technology will have enabled citizens and businesses to perform acts that only professionals, like Cadaster, were able to perform before. Land administration, planning and construction Netherlands fulfil a significant role in providing the information basis, which acts as a foundation for the operation of different industries. Netherlands’ goals for development are; to provide information on the legal status and the use of all spatial objects since they realize that information is readily available and accessible to citizens, businesses, and government. To provide the information platform that enables all users to work with spatial information.

 

 

 

 

 

References

Lowman, W. (n.d.). The integration of the Cadastre and Public Registers in the Netherlands. Retrieved from www.eurocadastre.org/pdf/310107_Netherlans_TEXT.pdf

Willem Jan Walker, P. v. (n.d.). Land registration and cadastre in the Netherlands, and the role of cadastral boundaries.application of GPS technology in the survey of cadastral boundaries. Netherland’s Cadastre and Land Registry Agency, P.O. Box 9046, 10.

Zeeuw, K. d. (2015, November 12). Netherlands | CSDILA icon. Retrieved from Cadastral Template 2.0: http://www.cadastraltemplate.org/cadastraltemplate/netherlands.php