Property registration in Uzbekistan made easier

The World Bank’s report “Doing Business 2015” ranked Uzbekistan 143 out of 189 countries on the ease of registering property. Such low ranking was largely due to long time frames (55 days) and numerous procedures (13 steps) required for the sale of non-residential real estate between the two entities.However, the situation has improved notably with implementation of interagency cooperation in Uzbekistan, that allows parties to save time and costs of accessing and gathering necessary documentation and information.

Active development of interagency cooperation between public authorities and organizations in the provision of public services began after 1 January 2015 with the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers dated 31.12.2014 № 377 "On measures to improve the provision of public services to business entities".

As a result, officials of state agencies are no longer allowed to request documents and information from entrepreneurs if these documents are already available in other state bodies and can be accessed by them independently. Thus, the system of interagency cooperation simplified the provision of notarial services to entrepreneurs as well. Pursuant to this resolution, from 11 March 2015 (order registered with the Ministry of Justice for №2090 from 30.03.2010), notary officials are prohibited from demanding documents which they can obtain on their own from through the means of inter-agency cooperation. Accordingly, the new legislation eliminates the need for businesses to provide the following documents, when performing notarial acts related to the sale of non-residential real estate:

- certificates stating that there are no outstanding utility and maintenance bills (including electricity, sewage, gas and telephone)

- document certifying that the building is not subject to demolition or reconstruction

- certificate from the State Committee for Land resources Geodesy and state Cadaster

-tax clearance documents

- certificate issued by the local citizens self-governance body

Consequently, instead of the 13 steps outlined in the World Bank’s "Doing Business 2015" report, entrepreneurs will only have to pass three steps in order to complete the sale of non-residential real estate:

The buyer registers its rights to the purchased property in the local cadastre office

1- First, the seller obtains certificate of an established form from the local cadastre office.

2- The seller, together with the buyer, make an appointment with the notary, and visit at the appointed time to register of the deal (transaction). Notaries should normally receive all necessary documents from other state agencies during one day.

3- Finally, the buyer registers the rights to the purchased property in the local cadastre office

The direct flow of documents and information (including in electronic form)between notaries and state agencies not only simplifies, but also speeds up the completion of sale deals and registration of rights to property. Due to these positive developments, it can be expected that Uzbekistan’s position in the next World Bank’s report “Doing Business 2016” will improve in the category of Registering Property.To make the data comparable across economies, several assumptions are used in the Doing Business report. In this case, the commercial property being sold consists of land and a building (warehouse), and based on the Doing Business methodology, in addition to decreased number of steps, the amount of time required to complete the deal will also decrease from 55 to 17 days. Similarly, theexpensesassociatedwiththeprocedureswillgodownfrom 1.3% to 0.5% of the property value, which is assumed to be equivalent to 50 times income per capita.

A joint project of the UNDP and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan (CCI) "Business Forum of Uzbekistan phase-3" (BFU-3) took active participation in the development of proposals and recommendations on simplifying property registration processes. The project continues to support the Government’s efforts in creating an enabling business environment and cooperates with relevant organizations to contribute to improving the business sector and entrepreneurship in Uzbekistan.