Information for authorities issuing an ECS

1 The kinds of registers that exist in the Member State, containing information relevant to successions

The main registers in Romania which contain information of relevance to successions are as follows:

1. Cartea funciară (Land Registry)
2. Registrele de stare civilă (Civil Status Records)
3. Registrul național notarial al regimurilor matrimoniale (RNNRM, National Notarial Register of Matrimonial Regimes)
4. Registrul național notarial de evidență a liberalităților (RNNEL, National Notarial Register for Authentic Wills and Donations)
5. Registrul național notarial de evidență a opțiunilor succesorale (RNNOS, National Notarial Register of Succession Options)
6. Registrul național notarial de evidență a procurilor și a revocărilor acestora (RNNEPR, National Notarial Register of Proxies and of their Revocation)
7. Registrul național notarial de evidență a succesiunilor cu element de extraneitate (RNNES, National Notarial Register of Successions with Cross-border elements)
8. Registrul National de Publicitate Mobiliară (RNPM, National Register of Movable Property)
9. Registrul Comerțului (Commercial Register)

2 Information contained in each of the registers of the Member State, as listed under point 1

1. Cartea funciară (Land Registry)

The Land Registry describes immovable property and sets out the rights in rem associated with the property.

As provided for by law, entries in the Land Registry may also include other rights, legal facts or reports, and whether these are associated with the immovable property entered in the Land Registry.

Within the meaning of this heading, immovable property refers to one or more adjoining parcels of land, regardless of the category of use, with or without constructions, belonging to the same owner, situated on the territory of an administrative-territorial unit and which are identified by means of a single cadastral number.

The cadastre and the Land Registry form a compulsory uniform system of technical, economic and legal files of national importance, for all immovable property on national territory.

The Agenția Națională de Cadastru și Publicitate Imobiliară (A.N.C.P.I., National Agency for Cadastre and Land Registration) coordinates and controls the implementation of cadastral works and ensures that immovable properties are recorded in the Register of movable property nationwide.

The institution’s contact details are available at: https://www.ancpi.ro/.

2. Registrele de stare civilă (Civil Status Records)

The Civil Status Records are documents on the basis of which birth, marriage and death certificates are drawn up. In the archives, the Civil Status Records are ordered and arranged in administrative-territorial units, with all documents and deeds filed in chronological order.

3. Registrul național notarial al regimurilor matrimoniale (RNNRM, National Notarial Register of Matrimonial Regimes)

The National Notarial Register of Matrimonial Regimes (RNNRM) records, for effects in respect of third parties, the matrimonial regime chosen by spouses. Marriage certificates for marriages entered into as of 1 October 2011 must be registered, as well as marriage contracts and acts amending the matrimonial regime.

The contact details for the register are available at: https://cnarnn.infonotsystems.ro/ersan/

4. Registrul național notarial de evidență a liberalităților (RNNEL, National Notarial Register for Authentic Wills and Donations)

The following types of legal acts, concluded by public notaries or by specialised Romanian authorities or institutions must be entered in the National Notarial Register of Authentic Wills and Donations (RNNEL): wills, amendments and additions thereto (codicils); declarations of the revocation of wills; withdrawal of the revocation of wills; testamentary depositions concerning sums of money, values or securities deposited in specialised credit institutions and revocations of the latter, etc.

The contact details for the register are available at: https://cnarnn.infonotsystems.ro/ersan/

5. Registrul național notarial de evidență a opțiunilor succesorale (RNNOS, National Notarial Register of Succession Options)

The National Notarial Register of Succession Options records, for effects in respect of third parties, all notarial deeds concerning the acceptance and/or waiver of inheritance, prepared in authentic form, as follows: declarations of waiver of inheritance authenticated within the deadline for this option, from 1995 and to date; declarations of non-acceptance of inheritance (according to which the successors declare after the deadline for the option has passed that they did not understand that they had acquired the status of heir), from 2007 and to date; declarations of acceptance of inheritance under benefit of inventory, authenticated from 1995 until 31 March 2012; all declarations of pure and simple acceptance, authenticated from 2007 and to date.

The contact details for the register are available at: https://cnarnn.infonotsystems.ro/ersan/

6. Registrul național notarial de evidență a procurilor și a revocărilor acestora (RNNEPR, National Notarial Register of Proxies and of their Revocation)

In the context of successions disputed in notarial procedures, the National Notarial Register of Proxies and of their Revocation is important because it records all proxies/mandates given during notarial procedures concerning inheritance disputes, and also all explicit acts to revoke them. The acts to revoke proxies have been recorded since 2007 and, as of 2013, proxies of relevance to notarial activity have also been recorded.

The contact details for the register are available at: https://cnarnn.infonotsystems.ro/ersan/

7. Registrul național notarial de evidență a succesiunilor cu element de extraneitate (RNNES, National Notarial Register of Successions with Cross-border elements)

The National Notarial Register of Successions with Cross-Border Elements (RNNES) records succession cases as of 2007 relating to Romanian, foreign and stateless citizens whose last domicile is unknown or who are not situated on Romanian territory, and whose assets have remained in Romania, and also the solutions of European inheritance certificates, where appropriate.

The contact details for the register are available at: https://cnarnn.infonotsystems.ro/ersan/

8. Registrul National de Publicitate Mobiliară (RNPM, National Register of Movable Property)

The National Register of Movable Property is the legal system for registering movable property which applies to mortgages, trusts, specific notices, securitised products and mortgage bonds. The National Register of Movable Property is structured according to persons and property, with the function of recording priorities in the event of forced execution, the publication of legal deeds and operations provided for by law.

9. Registrul Comerțului (Commercial Register)

The Commercial Register is a public service of general interest for the registration and disclosure of authorised professionals who are sole traders, sole proprietorships and family businesses, and of professionals who are companies, European companies, cooperative companies, European cooperative companies, cooperative credit organisations, economic interest groups and European economic interest groups, having their registered offices in Romania, as well as for registration and disclosure of their branches and of the branches of legal persons listed above, whose registered office is located abroad.

The Commercial Register is structured according to the following register categories, namely:

• a register for recording firms, national companies, national firms, autonomous corporations, economic interest groups, European firms, European economic interest groups, other legal persons explicitly provided for by law, with their registered office in Romania, their branches and, where appropriate, branches of legal persons with their registered office abroad;
• a register for recording cooperative companies and European cooperative companies with their registered office in Romania, their branches and, where appropriate, branches of cooperative companies or European cooperative companies with their registered office abroad;
• a register for recording authorised natural persons, individual undertakings and family undertakings with their registered office and, where appropriate, work sites in Romania.

The contact details for the register are available on the institution’s website: https://www.onrc.ro/index.php/ro/

Some of the registers mentioned above operate at national level. This is the case, for example, of the National Notarial Register of Matrimonial Regimes (RNNRM) and the National Notarial Register of Authentic Wills and Donations (RNNEL). The civil status records are organised in administrative-territorial units.

Offices for cadastre and land registration, organised in each county and in the city of Bucharest, operate under the authority of the National Agency for Cadastre and Land Registration. At least one cadastre and land registration office or, where appropriate, one public relations office operates under the authority of the territorial offices in each judicial constituency, as units without legal personality.

According to Article 334(5) of the Civil Code, concerning the National Notarial Register of Matrimonial Regimes (RNNRM), any person may search the register and, in accordance with the law, request the issue of certified extracts without needing to justify an interest.

With regard to notarial activity, in order to fulfil their obligations, public notaries have free access to the land registration offices and also to the other institutions in order to obtain the documents and information needed to complete notarial procedures, and may request and obtain tax certificates in paper or electronic format from the competent tax authority of the local public administrative authority.

The National Notarial Register of Matrimonial Regimes (RNNRM), the National Notarial Register of Authentic Wills and Donations (RNNEL) and the National Notarial Register of Succession Options (RNNEOS) can provide information to the national authorities free of charge.

The information which must be entered in the RNNRM, RNNEL and RNNEOS national registers may be provided to the national authorities.

With regard to the RNNRM, RNNEL and RNNEOS, the provision of information from these records at national level could be refused if, for example, it is not possible to sufficiently identify from the request the person or document concerning which the information has been requested.

In accordance with Article 1046 of the Civil Code, for the purposes of informing the persons who can demonstrate the existence of a legitimate interest, wills which are authenticated are entered in the National Notarial Register of Authentic Wills and Donations (RNNEL). However, information on the existence of a will can be given only after the death of the testator.

The RNNEL records and verifies the following types of legal documents: wills, amendments and additions thereto (codicils); declarations of revocation of wills; withdrawal of the revocation of wills; testamentary depositions concerning sums of money, values or securities deposited in specialised credit institutions and revocations of the latter. In the case of wills, codicils and revocations of the latter, the legal act is not sent for entry in the register. The register contains information only about the existence of these acts, but not about their content. After verifying the existence of the testamentary deposition, the content of the will may be obtained from the public notary in whose archive the document is kept or, where appropriate, from the specialised Romanian authorities or institutions.

Interested persons may request verification of the existence of a will only on the basis of a death certificate. In the event of verifications carried out through a public notary, the requested information is sent to them via the portal, i.e. electronically.

Entries in the national registers and responses to queries are in Romanian.

Upon the request of the interested persons using the services of a public notary, the public notary may request data on the existence of testamentary depositions from the national register of files by means of an electronic application and at their own expense.

Transfer of the right of ownership is entered in the land register on the basis of the document establishing this transfer - for example, the authentic act transferring the right of ownership of immovable property, the certificate of inheritance or the court decision. The document must be drafted in compliance with the conditions provided for by law, and, as a rule, must correctly identify the names of the parties and refer to the personal numerical code or, where appropriate, the tax identification number (if one has been allocated), the tax registration code or the unique registration code, where appropriate, assigned to legal persons, and the immovable property must be individualised by means of a land registry number and a cadastral or topographical number, where appropriate.

3 The availability of information on bank accounts

In cases where, in a dispute over successoral proceedings, the Romanian public notary handling the inheritance dispute needs information on the existence of bank accounts opened in the name of the deceased person, they must contact the bank in question directly, on the basis of the information received from the successors, specifying that the information is required in the context of a probate file registered with the notary's office.

Article 61(1) of Law No 207/2015 of 20 July 2015 on the Code of Fiscal Procedure provided the legal basis for the issue of Order No 3746/2020 of 23 October 2020 by the President of the National Agency for Fiscal Administration on the organisation and operation of the Central electronic register for payment accounts and bank accounts identified by IBAN and for the approval of procedures concerning the obligation for credit institutions, payment institutions and electronic money institutions to provide information in accordance with Article 61 of Law No 207/2015 on the Code of Fiscal Procedure, which details the procedure concerning the obligation for credit institutions, payment institutions and electronic money institutions to provide information to central tax bodies, and the procedure of enrolment in the IT system made available by the Ministry of Public Finance.

The National Agency for Fiscal Administration organises and operationalises the Central electronic register for payment accounts and bank accounts identified by IBAN.

The registered office of the National Agency for Fiscal Administration (ANAF, Agenția Națională de Administrare Fiscală) is in Bucharest, Str. Apolodor No 17 Sector 5 tel. 04021-3199750, 04021-3199759, 04021-3199776.

According to Article 61(1)(4) of Law No 207/2015 on the Code of Fiscal Procedure, at the reasoned request of a local tax body or other central or local public authority, the central tax body shall provide information which enables them to fulfil their statutory duties.

According to Article 61(5)(1) of Law No 207/2015 on the Code of Fiscal Procedure, the authorities and institutions referred to in Article 1 of Law No 129/2019 on preventing and combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism, and amending certain legislative acts, as amended, have access to the information in the Central electronic register for payment accounts and bank accounts, namely:

• criminal prosecution bodies;
• public authorities and institutions entrusted with regulatory, information and control duties in the field, such as the financial intelligence unit of Romania, authorities with financial/fiscal control duties or authorities with fiscal control duties and the customs authority;
• State bodies specialised in intelligence work as provided for in Article 6(1) of Law No 51/1991 on Romanian national security, republished, as amended;
• autonomous administrative authorities and institutions with sectoral regulatory and supervisory powers and control over reporting bodies, such as the National Bank of Romania, the Financial Supervisory Authority and the National Gambling Office.

Data may therefore be sent from this register only to these categories of authorities and institutions.

According to Article 1(3) of Law No 129/2019, the National Office for the Prevention Combating of Money Laundering is the authority which coordinates the performance of risk assessments relating to money laundering and the financing of terrorism at national level. These are carried out in cooperation with the authorities and institutions referred to in the previous response, while ensuring the protection of personal data.

4 The availability of a register of intellectual property rights

According to Government Decision No 573/1998 on the organisation and functioning of the State Office for Inventions and Trade Marks, the State Office for Inventions and Trade Marks (OSIM, Oficiul de Stat pentru Invenții și Mărci) is the only authority in Romania granting protection of industrial property which registers and examines requests in the field of industrial property, issues titles of protection which confer on their holders exclusive rights on Romanian territory and is the depositary of national records of submitted applications and of national records of titles of protection granted for inventions, trademarks, geographical indications, designs and models, topographies of semiconductor products, utility models and supplementary protection certificates.

In addition to this, in the field of copyright, there is the Romanian Office for Copyright (ORDA, Oficiul Român pentru Drepturile de Autor), which is the sole regulatory authority, keeps records from national registers, and which supervises, authorises, arbitrates and establishes scientific and technical findings in the field of copyright and related rights, pursuant to Law No 8/1996 on copyright and related rights.

The contact details of the OISM are available on the Office website: https://osim.ro/.

The contact details of the ORDA are available on the Office website: https://orda.ro/contact/.

5 Other registers with information relevant to successions

Another register of relevance in matters of succession is the National Notarial Register of Creditors of Physical Persons and of Oppositions to the Fulfilment of the Division of Estates (RNNEC, Registrul național notarial de evidență a creditorilor persoanelor fizice și a opozițiilor la efectuarea partajului succesoral). It records, for effects in respect of third parties, claims made by creditors against a physical person. The fiscal obligations of deceased persons are entered in the records of the National Agency for Fiscal Administration (ANAF, Agenția Naționale pentru Administrare Fiscală) and of the Directorates for local fees and taxation.

6 The availability of information on closed wills and wills not subject to registration

According to current legal provisions, wills may be drafted in authentic or holographic form (a handwritten will, signed and dated by the testator).

Only authentic wills must be entered in the National Notarial Register of Authentic Wills and Donations (RNNEL, Registrul național notarial de evidență a liberalităților). There are no special conditions laid down by law for the storage or registration of holographic wills. These may be stored by the testator, the beneficiary of the will or by a third person, and may also be submitted to the repository of an authority.