Einsicht in das Grundbuch beantragen

The land register informs about the legal situation of a property. Under certain conditions, you can inspect the land register.

For example, you will receive information in the land register about:

• who is the owner of a piece of land,
• whether and which rights third parties have to a property, for example mortgages or easements or
• whether there are reservations or certain restrictions on disposal. A prior notice secures a claim to transfer of ownership from a purchase contract or other agreement.

For example, before purchasing a property, any rights of third parties to the seller's property can be determined by inspecting the land register in order to avoid that a property with value-reducing encumbrances is taken over that are not known to the buyer, for example a lifelong right of residence of a third party. However, since there is a notarisation requirement for real estate transfers in most cases, the land register is usually inspected by the notary public who is entrusted with the real estate transaction and informs the parties to the contract in this regard.

If you only want to inspect the land register once or occasionally, you can apply for inspection at the Land Registry. You can

• inspect free of charge on site at the land registry office or the land register inspection office of a municipality,
• have an excerpt from the land register sent for a fee
• at a notary public for a fee.

In principle, there is no direct online access to the land register for citizens. Authorities, notaries, courts and publicly appointed surveyors can, under certain conditions, obtain unrestricted online access to the land register (unrestricted retrieval procedure).

Persons or bodies where a large number of land register inspections or with particular urgency are typically to be expected can be admitted to the limited retrieval procedure, in which a legitimate interest must be insured for each online retrieval. Such persons or bodies may be, for example:

• Lawyers seeking enforcement
• Insurances
• Banks or
• Utilities

• Passport or identity card
• if the property is not your property: documents showing your legitimate interest (e.g. declaration of consent from the owner)

General admission requirements:

• You must have a legitimate interest in inspecting the land register.
• The legitimate interest in inspection must be explained to the Land Registry. In individual cases, the Land Registry may require prima facie evidence or proof of interest.  
• The property owner and all rights holders entered in the land register, for example creditors of a land charge, have a legitimate interest. In addition, an economic or public interest may also be sufficient, for example, property owners who want to obtain information about the neighbouring owner, a tenant to determine whether the landlord is the owner or an heir.

Prerequisites for frequent inspection for professional reasons for certain occupational groups:

If you have to inspect the land register particularly frequently for professional reasons, you must meet the following requirements:

• the adequacy of the form of online data transmission, taking into account the legitimate interests of the beneficiaries concerned because of the large number of transfers or because of their particular urgency,
• compliance with the principles of proper data processing on the part of the recipients,
• that the technical possibilities of setting up and handling the procedure are given on the part of the land registry office and that a disruption of the business operations of the land registry office is not to be expected, and
• it must be possible to verify the retrieval on the basis of logging.

• The inspection of the land register at the Land Registry: free of charge
• Issue of a printout from the land register by the land registry: 10,00 EUR
• Issue of an official printout: 20,00 EUR
• Reprint from the land register by notary: 10,00 EUR
• certified print: 15.00 EUR plus expenses of the notary, in particular the retrieval fee in the amount of: 8.00 EUR (per land register sheet)

If you only want to inspect the land register once, you can apply for this at the land registry office or a notary. The form of the application (verbally, in writing or electronically by e-mail) can be requested from the respective office.
If you want to inspect it several times, you can apply for access to the land register portal. Please note that the available retrieval procedures (limited or unrestricted) are only open to certain (governmental) bodies and persons, but not to individual citizens. Submit the application as follows:

• Open the land register portal in the Justice Portal of the Federation and the Länder
• Select the state where the property is located
• Select "Admission" and follow the instructions on the page that opens to gain access to the portal
• As soon as you have the access data, click again on the corresponding state and select "Access"
• Enter your credentials
• Log in with your access data
• You can now:
  • consult a specific land register page,
  • print out the contents of the land register,
  • search for an unknown land register page based on information about parcel or owner,
  • determine the date on which the last land register entry was made,
  • determine whether applications for registration relating to a specific land register page have not yet been completed at the Land Registry Office

After receiving the access data, you can inspect it immediately.

To protect the owner, you may only inspect the land register if you can prove a legitimate interest. Creditors, for example, can inspect if they wish to enforce.
Would you like to buy a plot of land and inspect it for this reason? The owner must agree to this. Have it confirmed in writing that you are allowed to inspect the land register.

• Land register inspection Granting
• Granting of access to the land register
• A prerequisite for the inspection of the land register of a property is the presentation of a legitimate interest (this exists, for example, as an owner or registered creditor)
• for one-time or occasional inspection: on site at the land registry office, the land register inspection office of a municipality or a notary
• Request for inspection depending on the federal state individually
• can be requested directly from the responsible land registry office
• Cost:
  • Inspection at the Land Registry free of charge
  • simple copies: 10,00 EUR
• for frequent users: Inspection online in the land register portal after completion of a registration procedure
• Access to the land register portal for a fee
• Application for access individually depending on the federal state
• Responsible: locally competent land registry office (usually the local district court) and notaries

Contact the land registry office of the district court where the land register is kept.

Online services available: No