Role of Private Surveyors in Cadastre: The Turkish Case

Land registration and cadastre are fundamental elements of numerous public and private services such as recording real property ownership, taxation, city planning, agricultural management and geographic information systems. There are various approaches in different jurisdictions in the world in terms of cadastral systems. In recent years, it has become clearer that collecting and managing geo-referenced spatial data is critical for diverse needs such as legal issues, economics, built and natural environment. It is acknowledged that having the whole cadastral records at hand can give authorities superior powers in many different areas and enable them provide sustainable development. By saying the whole cadastral records, it means that having all cadastral records of real estate in the country without any separation of public or private property. From the title registry perspective, there are two main types of registration systems in the world: deeds registration and title registration. The main difference between these systems is that the deeds registration recognizes legal documents as “chain of deeds”; while the title registration recognizes registration of the titles that are recorded by relevant authorities, and these records are protected and guaranteed by the state. There may be advantages in both systems; however title registration system seems to become more popular in recent years because of its obvious advantages in terms of cadastral data acquisition and maintenance. The obligation of registry in the title registration system provides an unescapable reason to record all kinds of parcels in a jurisdiction, whether they are public or private (Rajabifard, Williamson, Steudler, Binns, & King, 2007), and this establishes a powerful basis for proper land management system. Because of the increasing demand on cadastral information together with the developments in construction sector, urban and rural economies require differentiated needs. As the speed of implementation and accuracy concerns rise, the need for competent technical personnel increases too. Therefore, the answer of the question of who will provide these services becomes critical. Although it may be difficult to separate cadastre from land registry, this paper primarily focuses on technical services of cadastre and analyzes the role of private surveyors in the world and in the Turkish cadastral system.