The Cadastre shows our inherited property under someone else's name. Do we have to go to mediation before court?

When heirs meet this problem

Heirs often discover the problem only when they come to register their acceptance of the inheritance or to sell: the first registration made when the Cadastre was compiled shows the property under another person, a neighbour's plot overlaps it, or the property is shown as belonging to an «unknown owner». In practice the heirs usually need the entry corrected before they can register their acceptance or sell.

The court action and its deadline

Where a first registration is inaccurate, anyone with a legal interest can ask the competent first-instance court, by action, to recognise the right affected and to correct the registration in whole or in part. The law sets an exclusive deadline: it ends on 31 December of the year in which eight years are completed from the publication in the Government Gazette of the decision that started the Cadastre's operation in the area. Check that date for the specific area first, and whether a different rule applies to it. If the deadline passes without an action, the first registration becomes final and creates an irrebuttable presumption in favour of the registered person; the true owner is then left with a money claim for unjust enrichment.

Mediation before the hearing

• Who must be invited: before the hearing, the claimant invites all defendants, except persons of unknown residence, to an introductory mediation session, either in the action itself or in a separate document. Without it, the hearing of the action is inadmissible.
• Who mediates: cadastral mediation is conducted only by a mediator who holds the special cadastral mediation designation of the mediators' register.
• Documents: the cadastral sheet and an extract of the cadastral diagram, the action and the titles the parties rely on, any topographic diagrams of geometric changes, and any other document needed.
• Public bodies: if the defendant is the Greek State, a local authority or another public-law body, it takes part in the session through its representatives, and the mediator informs the parties in writing at least 30 days before the session.
• Non-attendance: a party that refuses or fails to attend a cadastral mediation session without good reason may face a court sanction of €500 to €1,000 from 1 March 2027.

If the parties agree

The mediation record is registered in the cadastral sheet and the inaccurate first registration is corrected in line with it. If the action also asks for geometric changes to the cadastral diagrams, the record must attach, on pain of nullity, the topographic diagram of geometric changes bearing an Electronic Diagram Code and proof of its electronic submission to Hellenic Cadastre. The technical and geometric data needed for registration are not covered by the confidentiality of the mediation.

Property recorded as «unknown owner»

For an action claiming ownership by extraordinary acquisitive prescription (twenty years' possession) of a property recorded as belonging to an «unknown owner», the claimant must first go to an introductory mediation session before a mediator who holds a law degree and the cadastral designation. The claimant registers the basic data sheet, signed by the mediator, in the Cadastre for a fixed fee; the invitation to the session must come at least 30 days after that registration, or the mediation record is void.

If the State takes part and does not claim rights over the property, the parties can sign a record in which the State states that it does not object to the correction. The mediator must see at least one item of evidence such as utility bills, leases or rent receipts, declarations to public authorities, a building permit, dated topographic diagrams, or a private sale or partition agreement with a certain date at least twenty years old; at least two sworn statements referring to twenty years' possession and describing the area, location and boundaries; and a property tax return (Ε9) for the property at least ten years old. The usucaption tax return must be filed before the record is registered.

What Law 5344/2026 changed

Article 186 of Law 5344/2026 (Government Gazette Α' 168/16.10.2026) replaced subparagraphs δ) and δα) of article 6(2) of Law 2664/1998. The obligation to hold a mediation session before the hearing already existed; the new text refers to the «introductory mediation session» of the new Code of Alternative Dispute Resolution and moves the details of the procedure into its articles 97 to 101, including the cadastral designation of mediators and the minimum €500 sanction for non-attendance. Under article 217 of the law, article 186 applies from 1 March 2027. Separately, from the same date certain inheritance disputes are among those for which the Code makes an introductory mediation session a condition of the court hearing.

Questions clients ask

Sources

• ν. 5344/2026, Κώδικας Εναλλακτικής Επίλυσης Διαφορών (ΦΕΚ Α' 168/16.10.2026), άρθρα 15, 18, 96 έως 101, 186, 217
• ν. 2664/1998 (Εθνικό Κτηματολόγιο), άρθρο 6
• ν. 2664/1998 (Εθνικό Κτηματολόγιο), άρθρο 7
• ν. 2664/1998 (Εθνικό Κτηματολόγιο), άρθρο 1