Survey Review

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Cadastral system in the Russian Federation after

the modern transformation

Tatiana V. Ilyushina, Tomasz Noszczyk & Józef Hernik

To cite this article: Tatiana V. Ilyushina, Tomasz Noszczyk & Józef Hernik (2018) Cadastral
system in the Russian Federation after the modern transformation, Survey Review, 50:362,
437-446, DOI: 10.1080/00396265.2017.1308700

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00396265.2017.1308700

Published online: 05 Apr 2017.

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Cadastral system in the Russian Federation
after the modern transformation
Tatiana V. Ilyushina1, Tomasz Noszczyk∗ 2 and Józef Hernik2
The paper presents the notion and procedure of cadastral registration of land and real property
objects in the Russian Federation. Russia has gone through significant changes in cadastre over
the last dozen years. Introduction of the State Real Property Cadastre Act in 2007 was a corner
stone in this regard. Today, the cadastre encompasses all types of real property. The goal of
this paper is to present the modern cadastre in the Russian Federation, which has been
introduced to keep record of real property. Additionally, the cadastre collects information on the
number, surface area, quality and use of land and other real property objects. Data in the state
register are used to carry out administrative tasks, protect and use land in an effective manner,
plan agricultural management and also to ensure proper location and specialisation of
production. The study has shown that the cadastre implemented in Russia essentially achieves
its goals and completes the tasks it was given, but its organisation requires further development
and improvement.
Keywords: Cadastre, Land register, Real property, LADM, Land administration, Russia

Introduction system. Moreover, the land management process at the

Surveying and cadastre have been shaped and developed
in the territory of today’s Russia for a thousand years.
Already in the tenth century when the first Slavic settle-
ments occurred in the area, the first major purpose of
cadastre was to provide procedure for taking inventory
of land and other natural resources. The intention of the
cadastre system, to describe and value natural resources,
originated in the Grand Duchy of Moscow for tax pur-
poses (Ilyushina 2012).
Already the oldest legal code of Ancient Rus’, Russ-
kaya Pravda (Rus. Русская Правда, Russian Justice)
(dated back to various years from 1016) has the first
legal regulations on the use and register, ownership stan-
dards and protection of holding. Since the second half of
the seventeenth century, a special institution, Pomestnyj
Prikaz (Rus. Поместный Приказ, Chancellery of Estates)
merged all state, cadastral and legal activities. This insti-
tution generated and kept land registers and all docu-
ments about land owners that were produced as a result
of description and survey of land, resolution of land-
related disputes, application of taxes, etc. (German
1914). It was created because reliable information on
the quantitative, qualitative and economic assessment of
natural resources was necessary in order to support the
development of the country and to create a cadastral
1
Department of Cadastre and Land Law Fundamentals, Moscow State Uni-
versity of Geodesy and Cartography (MIIGAiK), 4 Gorokhovsky By-street,
105064 Moscow, Russian Federation
2
Department of Land Management and Landscape Architecture, Faculty of
Environmental Engineering and Land Surveying, University of Agriculture in
Krakow, Balicka Street 253c, 30-149 Kraków, Poland
∗
Corresponding author, email t.noszczyk@ur.krakow.pl
time gradually led to quantitative and qualitative change
in the potential of natural resources according to which
ownership (holding) and state resources were valuated
(estimated) (Ilyushina 2012). On the other hand, reliable
information about property is important to ensure safety
of the transaction market (Lerman and Shagaida 2007),
increase sense of security of the people (Noszczyk and
Hernik 2016) and protect titles they had right to (Navratil
and Frank 2004, Bandeira et al. 2010). Lieske and Gribb
(2012, p. 284) additionally claim that ‘cadastral data are
important in part because the land parcel is the physical
unit of decision making in land-use change’.
This important task of the state concerning having
reliable cadastral data remains vital and valid in today’s
Russia. The contemporary Russian cadastre is character-
ised by a revival of private ownership as regards land and
real property. Early 2000s brought actions to order issues
related to agricultural land; many acts were introduced
such as the Land Code or Federal Act on state real prop-
erty cadastre. Since 1998, the institution of register of real
property rights has been shaped and perfected. Still, issues
related to agricultural land remained an opaque domain,
and the real property trade system failed to meet require-
ments of the owners an tasks expected by the state. Cur-
rently, market participants are interested in openness,
quick access to reliable real property information and a
competent taxation system. Therefore, the reforms and
implementation of the federal programme for an auto-
mated system for keeping the state land cadastre and
state register of real property objects (2002–2008) and
its sub-programme for a real property cadastre system
(2006–2012) resulted in a modern real property cadastre.

© 2017 Survey Review Ltd

Received 17 November 2016; accepted 15 March 2017
DOI 10.1080/00396265.2017.1308700 Survey Review 2018 VOL 50 NO 362 437
Ilyushina et al. Cadastral system in the Russian Federation after the modern transformation
Currently, it is the Federal Service for State Regis-
tration, Cadastre and Cartography (Rus. РОСРЕЕСТР)
that keeps the cadastre. This executive body is responsible
for handling geodesy, cartography and register of prop-
erty titles (Petrushina and Ovchinnikova 2015, Shmidt
et al. 2015). It has about 6500 offices and hires over 60
thousand employees, and therefore has been considered
an authority keeping probably the largest cadastral sys-
tem in the world (Van Oosterom et al. 2012). The Ros-
reestr is organisationally subordinate to the Minister of
Economic Development of the Russian Federation (Rus.
Министерство экономического развития России). Its
tasks include keeping the state register of property titles
and transactions, state real property cadastre, state land
monitoring, geodesy and cartography documentation,
cadastral valuation and state geodesic supervision
(Banaszek 2011, Van Oosterom et al. 2012).
Real property cadastre has been introduced in the Rus-
sian Federation to keep record of real property (Ilyushina
2012). Since 2008, an effort had been made to merge exist-
ing systems for registration of real property titles and state
cadastre, and to include data on buildings and premises as
well (Banaszek 2011). Today, the cadastre encompasses
all types of real property. Until 1 January 2013, only
land was registered in the cadastre of the Russian Federa-
tion. After the State Cadastre Act was amended, also
buildings, structures, facilities and objects under construc-
tion have been included in the records (Federal Act 2007).
Cadastral register records properties as per their location,
which is determined based on documents presented to the
cadastral authority.
Goal and types of state register
The primary goal of developing a modern state real prop-
erty cadastre in Russia is to provide for and secure pri-
vate real property trade. Land register in the Russian
Federation is implemented using categories of land and
land use in accordance with applicable legislation and
well-established traditions. 24 December 2014, a new
classification of types of permissible land use was
implemented and approved by the Ministry of Economic
Development of the Russian Federation (Regulation
2014b). Before the implementation of this classification,
types of permissible land use were defined in accordance
with urban planning regulations, which were an integral
part of land use and development policy. The classifi-
cation includes names, descriptions and codes for each
land use type.
The purpose of land register as the primary function of
the real property cadastre is to provide necessary infor-
mation on the size, location, quantity, quality, value, lay-
out (arrangement) and use of land, and to include this
data in cadastral documentation (Regulation 2013b).
There are two types of land register today: basic and cur-
rent. The tasks of the basic register for a given area
include:
. generation and analysis of planning and cartographic
materials;
. measurements to obtain cadastral data;
. determination of surface area and quality of land use
types;
. determination of components and distribution of land
resources by land use type, land category, ownership
and administrative units.
438 Survey Review 2018 VOL 50 NO 362
The basic register is kept for specific land use type,
region and other units, including individual republics
and the whole country. It is carried out periodically in
the following cases:
. repeated measurements when the actual location of a
plot is different than the data in the public cadastral
map or in court disputes;
. after completion of tasks related to land quality
assessment;
. upon changes of land ownership and use.
Depending on the intended use and Land Code, there
are the following categories of land:
. agricultural land,
. built-up land,
. special purpose land (industrial, power, transport,
reserved for space activity, defence, security),
. particularly protected territories and objects (land and
objects with particular importance for environmental
protection, science, culture, recreation and health),
. forest fund,
. water fund,
. reserve – land owned by the state and municipalities,
not given to citizens or legal persons to be owned,
used or leased (Land Code 2001, Eliseev et al. 2014).
Federal Law on registration of real property by the
state of 13 July 2015 regulates relations resulting from
implementation of state registration of real property titles
and transactions subject to registration by the state,
cadastral registration of real property and maintenance
of a unified state register of real property (Federal Act
2015). Until 2017, there were two separate registry and
record systems in the cadastre system. There was (1) the
unified state register of titles, which was a part of the
state real property register and kept data on titles to real
property objects and (2) the state real property cadastre
with database on real property and their record. The sys-
tems were merged into a unified register and record sys-
tem as a result of the reform. Changes introduced 1
January 2017 resulted in the data on real property object
titles and technical data from the real property cadastre
being kept in the Unified State Register of Real Property
(USRRP). Owing to the reform of the whole system, the
Russian cadastre is interested also in using the inter-
national standard for land administration, ISO 19152
Land Administration Domain Model (LADM). LADM
was developed by the Technical Committee 211 of the
International Organization for Standardization. It was
approved finally on 1 November and officially published
on 1 December 2012 in standard ISO 19152 (ISO,
2012). The standard has been studied on numerous
occasions, also in Russia (see e.g. Spiering and Penkov
2011, Vandysheva et al. 2011, Van Oosterom et al.
2012, Bydlosz 2015, Lemmen et al. 2015, Paulsson and
Paasch 2015, Van Oosterom and Lemmen 2015), but it
is at the stage of consideration for the time being, as the
process of preparing it is vast and long-drawn-out.
The unified state register of real property is a collection
of reliable, systematised information on real property, real
property titles, their grounds and legal holders. The fol-
lowing are necessary in order to include buildings, struc-
tures and objects under construction in the register:
identification document of the applicant, declaration of
registration of the object in the state cadastre, and a tech-
nical layout of the building, structure, or object under
construction. In order to obtain a technical layout of
 Ilyushina et al.
the object, a relevant contract has to be concluded with a
cadastral engineer.
Russian Federation Federal State Statistics Service
(Rus. Росстат) has approved forms for statistical moni-
toring collection, and processing of data (Resolution
2007). The approved forms include information on exist-
ence and division of land by types and forms of ownership
of natural and legal persons involved in agricultural pro-
duction and information on the division of the total area
of urban and rural zones by types of use and forms of
ownership (Petrushina and Ovchinnikova 2015). Quali-
tative status of land is specified using categories, classes,
natural features (relief, humidity, share of bogs, erosion)
and the state of drained land after hydration and draining.
Register of land quality involves division into land and
cadastral zones, land classification, classification of soil
into groups and qualitative characteristics by ecological,
technological and urbanistic properties. The basic taxo-
nomic units of classification in the land fund are: zoned
types of land separated during division of the land fund
into individual areas, usability categories and land classes.
To ensure data reliability, an on-going graphic register
is kept, as well as a register of on-going changes. The cur-
rent land registration consists in finding changes in land
use after the basic registration, recording them in the
cadastral documentation, elimination of errors and find-
ing additional, complementary information (Regulation
2009, 2015).
State monitoring authorities have appropriate means to
remove any possible violation found when keeping the
register: unlawful, arbitrary occupation of land and
reduction of agricultural land surface area as a result of
change of intended use into less productive land. The cur-
rent land registration is carried out over the whole calen-
dar year. Changes of boundaries and land use quality
resulting from anthropogenic or natural causes are
registered.
Legal basis for real property cadastre
The legal basis of the state cadastral register includes
codes of the Russian Federation, federal acts of law, gov-
ernmental resolutions and numerous ordinances of the
Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian
Federation.
The primary act of law is the State Cadastre Act of 24
July 2007 (Federal Act 2007), the introduction of which
was an important moment for real property registration
in the Russian Federation. It specifies cadastral auth-
orities, basic notions, principles and order of keeping
the cadastre and supplying information. Note that until
1 January 2013, only land was registered in the cadastre
of the Russian Federation. After the State Cadastre Act
was amended, also buildings, structures, facilities and
objects under construction have been included in the
records. Moreover, in the spirit of the progressing reform
and improvement of the existing system, the 1 January
2017 amendment of the State Cadastre Act introduces
numerous changes, the most prominent of which is the
creation of the Unified State Register of Real Property
including data on real property object titles and technical
data from the real property cadastre (Federal Act 2007).
Before that, there were two systems in place: the unified
state register of titles and state real property cadastre.
Today, the two systems have been merged into one record
Cadastral system in the Russian Federation after the modern transformation
and registration system. There are also plans to
implement a simplified, reliable and quick procedure for
registering real property.
Regulations related to the cadastre can be found in
other normative acts as well. For example, the Land
Code (Rus. Земельный кодекc) regulates legal issues
related to land formation, establishment and limitation
of land titles, impoundment and confiscation of plots, fea-
tures of sale and purchase of land, etc. (Land Code 2001).
The Civil Code (Rus. Гражданский кодекc) defines the
notion of real property asset and real property sale,
restricts transactions, title to land when selling a building,
structure, or other property on the real property (Civil
Code 1994). Title and other rights in real property, limit-
ation of these rights, their establishment, change and
transformation are subject to registration by the state in
the unified state register. In order to change or abolish
one’s real property title, the interested party is obliged
to carry out a transaction, which is a purposeful and
informed action of natural or corporate persons aimed
to create, change or expire civil rights and obligations in
relation to a specific real property object. Rights subject
to transactions: sale, purchase, tenancy, exchange,
donation and lease (Civil Code 1994).
Currently, according to Article 130 of the Civil Code
‘immovable property, real property asset, or real proper-
ties’ in Russia are land and every object fixed to or in
the ground, i.e. objects that cannot be separated from
land without sustaining permanent damage, in particular
buildings, structures, objects under construction, residen-
tial and unoccupied premises, and parts of buildings
intended for location of means of transport. Moreover,
aircraft and sea ships subject to registration by the state
and other assets pursuant to separate regulation are con-
sidered real property as well (Civil Code 1994). All activi-
ties related to real property can be divided into three types
(Civil Code 1994):
(i) when the owner is changed (sale, inheritance, fulfil-
ment of obligations, privatisation, tenure, exchange,
and demolition of buildings);
(ii) composition of the owners is changed as a result of a
transaction (transformation of a state-owned company
into a joint stock company, severance of property,
change in the composition of entities upon liquidation
of an organisation, contribution in kind, equity con-
struction, seeking of mortgage);
(iii) other holders of rights are added after a transaction
(investment, construction and reconstruction, confi-
dential management of the property, lease, establish-
ment and abolition of easement, property insurance).
The Forest Code (Rus. Лесной кодекc) includes regu-
lations on the use of plots of land of the Forest Fund occu-
pied as agricultural land (Forest Code 2006). The Water
Code (Rus. Водный кодекс) contains information on
using water objects for various purposes and on land of
various categories (Water Code 2006). The Town-Plan-
ning Code (Rus. Градостроительный кодекс) specifies
all types of permissible use of plots and investment objects
(Town-Planning Code 2004), while the Housing Code
(Rus. Жилищный кодекс) contains regulations on hous-
ing rights and types, purposes, and intended use of resi-
dential premises (Housing Code 2004).
The goal of developing a modern state real property
cadastre in Russia should be achieved through the follow-
ing tasks: guarantee of owner’s rights, effective collection
Survey Review 2018 VOL 50 NO 362 439
Ilyushina et al. Cadastral system in the Russian Federation after the modern transformation

of property taxes, and rational use of real property. The next stage included the verification of applicant’s rights,
cadastre has, therefore, the following basic functions content and completeness of documents and their confor-
(Federal Act 2007): mity with the cadastral regulations (Regulation 2013a).
(i) record-keeping (state cadastral record of real prop- At this stage, a draft decision was made to include the
erty objects for registration of property title); real property object in the register. It was followed by a
(ii) fiscal (formation of taxation basis based on the decision, which could take two paths. In the first variant,
determination of the cadastral value of real property the information was included in the register of real prop-
objects through batch valuation of real property for erty objects, and a cadastral passport and a cadastral sur-
tax purposes); vey were prepared. The second variant involved
(iii) information (information-related security of the preparation of a notice that the case was suspended. In
citizens, business, public authorities, and managing the case of a favourable decision, the applicant was issued
reliable information on real property objects, their with a cadastral extract and cadastral passport for the
legal status and cadastral value). object (Fig. 2) (Sizov et al. 2013). Since 1 January 2017,
the state registration of real property title has been uni-
fied. Simultaneously, application forms related to state
Procedure for registration of real registration of real property title and relevant transaction,
property in state cadastre limitations (obligations), conversions of property titles for
unincorporated organisational units, corporate persons
The State Real Property Cadastre in Russia is a systema- and public authorities provided for in the Regulation of
tised database. It contains, among other, data on regis- the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian
tered real property assets, state register of boundaries Federation of 29.11.2013 No. 722 became invalid.
and surface of administrative units of the country, register The cadastral passport is a document that asserts a
of localities, data on territorial zones, on geodesic and right to hold or use a real property object. It contains
cartographic control networks of the state real property its complete characteristics with general and specific
cadastre, and cadastral division of the territory of the information (Table 1) (Regulation 2014a). The general
Russian Federation (Banaszek 2011). information includes: cadastral number, name, location,
Pursuant to Article 13 of the Act of 24 July 2007, the cadastral value, address, surface area, and intended use
state real property cadastre consists of: of the object. Additional information may include for
(i) a register of real property objects, which is a systema- example restrictions for the use of the real property. A
tised collection of text entries on real property objects; plot plan is attached to the cadastral passport and both
(ii) cadastral surveys, which are a set of complete and are issued after the object is registered. The included
systematised documents that were the basis for pro- data is necessary for sale, lease, mortgage, or other
vision of data to the state real property cadastre; record-related activities concerning the real property.
(iii) cadastral maps, which were generated based on a Cadastral passport for real property may be issued to
unified cartographic control network and which use both natural and legal persons. As the information in
graphics and text to present data on plots of land, the state real property cadastre currently is the infor-
buildings, structures and objects under construction. mation in the Unified State Register of Real Property,
The maps are kept in an electronic form and made starting 1 January 2017, an excerpt from the Unified
available to all interested parties on-line (Fig. 1) (Fed- State Register of Real Property is issued instead of the
eral Act 2007). cadastral passport.
The cadastral passport for a building, structure, or an
Until the changes in 2017, the diagram of cadastral object under construction contained: description of the
land registration procedure, began with a receipt of an real property object, cadastral number, location, degree
application, formation of a register survey, and introduc- of completeness of the object under construction,
tion of data into the database (Regulation 2011b). The intended use of the object, number of storeys, year of com-
missioning, cadastral value, and cadastral plot number.
An outline of location of the object on the plot was
Table 1 Comparison of a cadastral passport and a cadastral
extract (own work) attached to the cadastral passport. Since 1 January
2017, a unified form of the technical plan is used for build-
Cadastral passport Cadastral extract ings, structures, and premises. In the real property cadas-
tre, a cadastral number of the whole complex of structures
Content Contains information Contains information on is additionally used for buildings and structures if the
on a real property real property that is
object that is included included in an building (structure) is a part of such a complex.
in the cadastre in application and can be A cadastral extract may contain all the data in the
special forms found in the cadastre in cadastral passport, but may include more or less infor-
special forms mation as well, depending on the purpose and content
Can be Only for objects May contain data that of the relevant application and data available in the cadas-
issued for registered in the the plot of land or other tre (Table 1).
cadastre that have an real property object is
approved cadastral not registered or
A cadastral extract (certificate) may be necessary for
number ceased to exist example to: determine boundaries and surface area of a
Nature of the Obligatory for state Non-compulsory; used piece of real property, verify correctness of applied land
document registration of titles to mainly for information- tax, obtain information on the cadastral value of a plot,
the object and for sharing purposes and etc. A plot plan is attached to a cadastral extract with a
transactions related to to resolve conflicts description of location of boundaries, boundary markers
it
with coordinates, horizontal angles, and cadastral

440 Survey Review 2018 VOL 50 NO 362

 Ilyushina et al.
1 Example of a Russian public cadastral map with information on an object (source: http://pkk5.rosreestr.ru
numbers of adjacent plots. Another attachment to a
cadastral extract for a building, structure, or object
under construction is an outline of its location on the
plot with a list of coordinates of distinctive points. A
cadastral extract or passport for residential or unoccupied
premises may be obtained in territorial branches of the
Technical Inventory Bureau upon presentation of legal
documents for given premises. A cadastral extract or pass-
port for a plot of land are issued by territorial cadastral
authorities competent for the location of the real property
upon presentation of a certificate of registration of the
land by the state, lease contract, sale contract, or other
document.
For each plot registered by the state, a cadastral survey
is created. It contains a set of documents that confirm the
fact of existence or removal of the plot of land as an object
in the state real property register. Documents in the cadas-
tral survey are the basis for inclusion of information about
the land in the state register (Regulation 2010a). The
registration results in a cadastral object being assigned a
cadastral number (state register number). Any cadastral
survey is identified with the cadastral number of the
land. Upon a change of previous intended use of land
or when the rights to the land are renounced, the relevant
cadastral survey is closed. Cadastral survey contains a
description of documents, an application to register,
applicant’s documents confirming their ownership of the
real property, land development plan, extracts from the
state register of property titles, state real property cadastre
and the Technical Inventory Bureau (BTI) (Resolution
2014). Today, the BTI prepares technical plans encom-
passing all construction parameters of the object. Other
functions of the BTI are: collecting and ordering infor-
mation on every object, its condition, value and changes
introduced by the owner such as interior remodelling.
In order to assign cadastral numbers, a competent reg-
ister authority has divided the territory of the Russian
Cadastral system in the Russian Federation after the modern transformation
Federation into cadastral units (districts, regions, quar-
ters – Rus. округа, районы и кварталы). Upon the cre-
ation or modification of the cadastral division of
Russia the changes are entered into the state real prop-
erty cadastre (Regulation 2010a, Banaszek 2011). The
following documents are also submitted to the cadastral
register authority: a plan of boundaries (Ordinance
2008), technical layout of the building, structure, pre-
mises, or object under construction (Regulation 2010b,
2010c, 2011a, 2012), a map (plan) of the area generated
during comprehensive cadastral works, and numerous
copies of documents, designs and contracts regarding
the use, change and arrangement of land boundaries.
For example: a copy of a document establishing title to
the object (copy of a deed of ownership), a copy of a
document confirming soil category of the land or a
copy of a document confirming land use and an identity
card or power of attorney (if the application is filed by
applicant’s representative).
The boundary plan (Rus. Межевой план) consists of a
graphic and a text part. It is a whole package of docu-
ments necessary when handling matters related to title
to any plot of land. Boundary plans may be created
only by cadastral engineers. Without this plan it is
impossible to determine boundaries in disputes between
owners, divide or consolidate real property or resolve
land-related disputes. The graphic part of the boundary
plan consists of a map drawn to scale, plot layout with
adjacent lands and their owner data, and plot outline
with real property objects. Type of structure and number
of storeys are indicated there as well. The text part con-
tains personal data of the owner, deed of ownership for
the land, surface area, perimeter and length of plot
boundaries resulting from geodesic measurements, infor-
mation on existing buildings or water, power and gas
lines, information on direct access to a road or right-of-
way.
Survey Review 2018 VOL 50 NO 362 441
Ilyushina et al. Cadastral system in the Russian Federation after the modern transformation

2 Diagram of cadastral land register (own work based on Sizov et al. 2013, p. 155)

Article 7 of the State Real Property Cadastre Act of 24
July 2007 specifies a detailed set of data on the real prop-
erty object found in the cadastre:
(i) type of real property object (plot of land, building,
structure, premises, unfinished construction object);
(ii) cadastral number and date of registry;
(iii) description of real property boundaries for a plot of
land;
(iv) description of real property object’s location on a
plot of land;

Table 2 Information set in the state real property cadastre about characteristics of a given type of real property (own work
based on Petrushina and Ovchinnikova 2015, p. 76)

Type of real property object

Rooms Objects under

Information in the state real property cadastre Land Buildings Structures (premises) construction

1. Cadastral number and date it was registered + + + + +

2. Description of location of real property boundaries + − − − −
3. Description of location of real property object on a plot of land − + + − +
4. Cadastral number of a building or structure where the − − – + −
premises are located; storey number; description of location of
the premises on a storey or within building or structure
boundaries; or appropriate part of the building or structure if the
object of the real property is the premises
5. Surface area + + − + −

442 Survey Review 2018 VOL 50 NO 362

 Ilyushina et al.
(v) cadastral number of the building or structure where
the premises are located; storey number; description of
location of the premises on a storey or within building
or structure boundaries, or appropriate part of the
building or structure if the object of the real property
is the premises;
(vi) real property object surface area (Federal Act
2007).
Note, however, that the set of information may slightly
differ depending on the type of real property object, which
is summarised in Table 2.
The state real property cadastre includes additional,
complementary information on real property objects,
such as registry (cadastral, survey, or contractual) number
assigned before the implementation of the State Real
Property Cadastre Act of 24 July 2007 with the date it
was assigned; cadastral number of the flat where the
room being the real property object is located; address
of the real property object; information on cadastral
value of the real property object; intended use of the
plot; intended use of the building (utility or residential
building); intended use of premises (residential, utility);
type or residential premises (room, flat); intended use of
the structure; forwarding address and e-mail address for
contacting the owner of the real property or a holder of
title to the real property; year of commissioning; basic
technical characteristics of the real property object (Fed-
eral Act 2007, Banaszek 2011).
Today, the Russian Federation has introduced a ‘single
window’ (Rus. Единое окно) system in order to improve
the registration process and other functions of the cadas-
tre. It consists in provision of legal services, or rather gath-
ering documents necessary for registration of title by the
state and acting on behalf of the applicant before other
institutions. The task of the ‘single window’ procedure is
to receive from an applicant (natural or legal person) all
necessary declarations and documents simultaneously in
order to provide comprehensive state services and return
all the documents afterwards. ‘Single window’ is a method
for registering real property in the form of a public service.
The ‘single window’ principle is intended to simplify the
Table 3 Rights and obligation of the cadastral engineer (own work based on Federal Act 2007)
Rights
When engaged in relevant activities, a cadastral engineer may
(1) require that the client provides access to the object subject to
work,
(2) require that the client provides documents necessary to
complete the work,
(3) refuse to work if the client violated the contract and failed to
provide appropriate documentation or access to the relevant
object,
(4) refuse to lead a practice if circumstances occur that prevent
them from performing the duty of practice manager.
Cadastral system in the Russian Federation after the modern transformation
procedure of recording real property and then register
real property titles. It is, however, necessary to improve
the law as regards real property transactions, cadastre reg-
ister, and registration of real property titles in order to
support further development and advancement of
cooperation and document workflow among state insti-
tutions and services.
Cadastral engineer as the person
authorised to handle cadastral works
The State Real Property Cadastre Act enacted in 2007
introduced the notion of so-called cadastral engineer as
the person entitled to pursue activity related to the cadas-
tre. According to Article 29 of the Act, only a natural per-
son who is a member of, only one, cadastral engineer
organisation may be a cadastral engineer. Prerequisites
for acceptance of an applicant to such an organisation
are:
(1) being a Russian citizen,
(2) having a degree in such sciences as geodesy, carto-
graphy and geoinformatics, construction, or cadastre,
(3) having at least 2 year’s professional experience as an
assistant to cadastral engineer,
(4) passing an examination confirming professional
knowledge,
(5) no criminal record,
(6) maintenance of compulsory third party insurance
(Federal Act 2007).
Each professional organisation keeps a register of
cadastral engineers who are its members, and publishes
it on its official website. The cadastral supervision auth-
ority keeps a state register of professional organisations
for these engineers. It is worth noting that a cadastral
engineer may pursue cadastral activity as an independent
entrepreneur or an employee of a corporation pursuant to
an employment contract. Table 3 includes rights and obli-
gation of the cadastral engineer.
As a result of the recent reforms, cadastre-related
activity today involves forms of organisation of activity,
Obligations
A cadastral engineer is obliged to
(1) follow legal regulations and standards and professional code of
ethics,
(2) refuse to conclude a contract for work if the relevant real
property is not a real property within the meaning defined by the
Russian law,
(3) refuse to engage in activities when documents presented by the
client are unreliable and at variance with legal regulations,
(4) notify the client or their employer about any circumstances
preventing them from providing contracted services,
(5) present upon client’s request information on the professional
organisation the person engaged in the work is a member of,
(6) have a seal and a qualified electronic signature,
(7) store documents resulting from works and submit them in due
time to relevant cadastral authorities,
(8) improve their professional qualifications (once every three
years),
(9) inform their professional organisation about their employer and
the object they work on,
(10) comply with other obligations as per legal regulations.
Survey Review 2018 VOL 50 NO 362 443
Ilyushina et al. Cadastral system in the Russian Federation after the modern transformation
tasks of the cadastral engineer, bases for cadastral works,
managing the state register of cadastral engineer organis-
ations, comprehensive cadastral works and state
supervision.
Discussion and conclusions
Currently real property cadastre in the Russian Federa-
tion is a 2D system. Unfortunately, this method excludes
multi-storey objects, which affects their cadastral value.
This demonstrates a need to develop and implement a
3D real property cadastre, which could enhance the pos-
sibilities of the cadastral register. This issue is particularly
important owing to increasing complexity of infrastruc-
tural objects and built-up areas. In order, however, to
assess the possibility of introducing and implementing
the 3D cadastre, multiple aspects have to be studied first
such as statutory provisions and secondary legislation,
work organisation and procedures, and technology
necessary to this end. The cadastre law in the Russian
Federation is quite generic: it neither explicitly mentions
nor prohibits the 3D cadastre (Spiering and Penkov
2011, Vandysheva et al. 2011). Today, underground net-
works (such as pipelines or ducts) are not included in
the cadastral register. They should be included in the
3D cadastre in the future. Particularly in urban areas,
there is a tendency to use space above and below the
Earth’s surface (Drobež et al. 2017).
There are the following reasons to implement the 3D
cadastre for urban areas in Russia:
(1) planning-related – increased density, complexity
and diversity of types of development, stimulation of
development of the underground space;
(2) legal – according to the State Cadastre Act, 3D
buildings, structures and premises are subject to cadas-
tral registration;
(3) investment-related – it is necessary to reduce the
legal risk for investments in high-value underground
real property;
(4) fiscal – fair taxation of real property is needed;
(5) innovation and technology-related – implemen-
tation of GIS technology, which gives new possibilities
as regards the cadastre.
The following is undertaken to achieve this goal:
. analysis of international experience in implementing
the 3D cadastre in order to select the most effective
solution to be adopted to the Russian circumstances;
. analysis of statutory regulations as regards real prop-
erty in the context of 3D cadastre;
. development of a 3D cadastre model fit for conditions
in the Russian Federation;
. development of a prototype using 3D cadastre models;
. development of a technology for preparing data for the
3D cadastre using pilot objects, and qualification of
prototypes under conditions in place in a pilot region
(see e.g. Vandysheva et al. 2011, Van Oosterom et al.
2012);
. science seminars for Rosreestr experts and cadastral
engineers;
. preparation of legal and organisational proposals and
recommendation in order to create favourable con-
ditions for the 3D cadastre in Russia (see e.g. Spiering
and Penkov 2011, Vandysheva et al. 2011).
The contemporary USRRP contains: a register of real
property objects (real property cadastre), register of titles,
444 Survey Review 2018 VOL 50 NO 362
restrictions, and obligations towards real property (regis-
ter of real property titles), and register of boundaries.
USRRP is kept in an electronic form. The only exception
is cadastral survey documentation. Paper applications
and documents whose originals are not available in
other public authorities, local authorities, and archives
are stored as hard copies. The task of the state is to ensure
efficient management of the cadastre. The task of the
cadastral engineer is to perform tasks aimed to increase
the effectiveness, simplicity, speed and cost-effectiveness
of the process of keeping the cadastral register.
To conclude, establishing a formal system for regis-
tration of titles, efficient real property market and a real
property cadastre is a huge challenge for many countries,
in particular those undergoing transformation (see e.g.
Bogaerts et al. 2002, Silva and Stubkjær 2002, Steudler
et al. 2004, Steudler and Williamson 2005, Cashin and
McGrath 2006). On the other hand, real property cadas-
tre and spatial planning are important tools of land policy
in every country. The transformation and socioeconomic
changes after the fall of the USSR resulted in the need of
changes in this regard in Russia. Russian government has
commenced numerous changes and projects related to the
cadastre over the last dozen years. The merger of three ter-
ritorial authorities: the Federal Registration Service, the
Federal Agency for Cartography and the Federal Agency
for Real Estate Cadastre into one authority: the Rosreestr
has to be considered a positive change, which reduced
time necessary to register real property titles, among
other things. Another important change was the introduc-
tion of on-line services (such as issuing extracts or regis-
tration or real property in the state cadastre) (Banaszek
2011), and creation of a generally available (on-line)
cadastral map with information on various real property
objects. 1 January 2017, the Federal Act on registration
of real property by the state of 13 July 2015 was intro-
duced aimed to streamline the process of registration of
real property, and to create the Unified State Register of
Real Property and unified record and register system
(Federal Act 2015).
All these activities facilitate creation of the unified state
cadastral system. Today registration of a plot is a prere-
quisite for any necessary formalities related to land own-
ership. If a plot is not registered, no transaction involving
it can be completed. According to the law, registration of
a real property object is free, but a boundary plan is
necessary. Preparation of the plan and measurements
are very expensive procedures in Russia paid for by the
owner of the real property.
The cadastre implemented in Russia essentially
achieves its goals and completes tasks it was given, but
its organisation requires further development and
improvement, which was noted by Lipski (2014). Cur-
rently, cadastral procedures include mainly introduction
or removal of data of previously registered real property,
registration of changes in real property objects and
removal of any mistakes in the database and cadastral
records. There are some issues that hold back the develop-
ment of cadastre in Russia. One of them is the fact that
not all cadastre plots (parcels) owned by the Russian Fed-
eration are included in the cadastral record: survey of
some objects has not been completed. Boundaries of
some plots have not been legalised. Moreover, the needs
of the society for Rosreestr state services exceed what
the service provides as regards registration of titles and
 Ilyushina et al.
cadastral record. Every factor impeding management of
land resources is an obstacle in the process of land trade.
The record and register domain has to be reformed in
order to achieve the goals and complete tasks the real
property cadastre in Russia faces today. It is necessary
to improve state-provided services, the quality of real
property information, communication and information
exchange among various departments of the state. It
remains to be seen how effective the goals and changes
will be.
Acknowledgements
This research was financed by the Ministry of Science and
Higher Education of the Republic of Poland, projects No.
BM – 4386/KGPiAK/2016 and DS 3371/KGPiAK/2017.
This paper was produced under a scientific cooperation
agreement between the Moscow State University of Geo-
desy and Cartography (MIIGAiK) and the University of
Agriculture in Krakow. The authors would like to thank
the reviewers for all their most valuable and helpful
comments
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