An extract for information is ordered on ANCPI's ePay website for 20 lei (2026). Owners get their own free of charge.
Part I: the property. Part II: the owners and on what basis. Part III: mortgages, seizures, proceedings and third-party rights.
A mortgage with no removal plan, a seizure, legal proceedings, a prohibition on sale, a promise of sale to someone else, an owner who is not the seller.
Anyone can order an extract for information. Only the notary orders one for authentication, valid for a few days.
The land register is run by ANCPI under Law 7/1996. An unregistered right counts for very little against third parties.
The land register extract in Romania: the short answer
The land register extract in Romania (Extras de Carte Funciară) is the document that shows who owns a property and what is registered against it. Anyone can order an extract for information on ANCPI's payment website, for 20 lei as of 2026, using the property number and the locality. The extract has three parts: the property description, the owners, and the encumbrances, and the third part is the one that decides whether the property is clean.
If there is one document I ask every investor to see before transferring a single euro, it is the extract. It is cheap, fast, and says more than any presentation.
What Cartea Funciară is, and why the extract comes first
Cartea Funciară is Romania's land register, run by ANCPI through county offices (OCPI), under the Cadastre and Real Estate Publicity Law 7/1996. In Romania, a property right that is not registered counts for very little against third parties.
So the rule is simple: no advance payment until you have a current extract and a lawyer of your own has read it. We wrote about registration in your name at the end of the deal in our article on registering the property.
Two types of extract
| Type | Who orders it | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Extract for information (pentru informare) | Anyone | Checking before a deal, monitoring a property |
| Extract for authentication (pentru autentificare) | Only the notary | The signing itself. Valid for just a few days |
You order the first. The notary orders the second ahead of signing, as we explain in our guide to the notary in Romania.
How to order an extract online: 4 steps
- Go to ANCPI's payment website (ePay) and open an account.
- Choose the product "Extras de carte funciară pentru informare".
- Enter the property details: county, locality, and the land register number or cadastral number. You get the number from the seller or the developer.
- Pay 20 lei by card, and receive the extract as a PDF, usually within a short time.
Owners can get an extract of their own property free of charge through ANCPI's dedicated platform for owners. And if the seller refuses to give you the property number? That is information in itself.
How to read the extract: the three parts
The extract comes in Romanian only. So ask your lawyer for a short summary of each of the three parts, in a language you read, and keep it with the extract in the deal file.
Part I: the property itself
Address, area, cadastral number, use and, for an apartment, the share of common parts and land. What to check: that the area and description match what you are being sold, and what exists on the ground.
Part II: the owners
Who the owner is, in what share, and on the basis of which document: a contract, an inheritance or a court decision. This part also shows whether the registration is final or provisional. What to check: that the registered owner is exactly the person selling to you, and that if there are several owners, they all sign.
Part III: the encumbrances
Mortgages, seizures, legal proceedings, prohibitions on sale, rights of use and leases. What to check: that this part is empty, or that every entry will be removed in an orderly way before or at signing.
6 entries that are red flags
- A bank mortgage (ipotecă) with no clear plan for its removal.
- A seizure or enforcement proceedings.
- A note of legal proceedings concerning the property.
- A prohibition on sale and encumbrance (interdicție de înstrăinare și grevare).
- A promise of sale in favour of someone else. Under Law 207/2025 this is exactly what exposes a double sale. We wrote about such a case in our article on the apartment sold twice.
- A registered owner who is not the seller, with no clear documentary explanation.
None of these necessarily ends the deal. Each of them is a reason to stop and ask your lawyer.
From the field: the brother in Toronto who appeared on the extract
Attorney Ilan Leibovitch recalls:
The extract is 20 lei of certainty. It does not tell you everything, but without it you know nothing.
A client, a senior tech executive, called on a Sunday morning: he had found a three-room apartment in a developing Bucharest neighbourhood. The seller, a woman in her seventies, had inherited it from her parents, wanted to close quickly, and the price was twenty percent below the market.
I asked for the land register extract. The property was registered to two people in equal shares: her, and apparently her brother. The brother had left for Canada twenty-two years earlier, and the family had not spoken to him in recent years. I explained to the client that a property with two owners cannot be sold without both signatures, and not on an old general power of attorney, but by actually signing this specific deal.
The sister found him within three days. He hired his own lawyer in Bucharest and asked for an independent valuation, which came back eight percent above the price offered to the client. After negotiations, the deal closed eight weeks later. Not at the original price, but at a price the client could live with.
Checking the extract took less than a working day. Without it, the deal would have moved ahead on an apartment half of which belonged to someone nobody had spoken to. That is why the owners’ section of the extract is read first, and compared with the identity of the seller.
What the extract does not show
The extract shows what is registered, not what is happening on the ground. A "clean" extract does not always mean a clean property. It does not show planning problems, building irregularities or local tax debts. That is why the check is twofold, legal and planning, as we set out in our due diligence guide.
One more thing: the extract is accurate as of the day it was issued. Something new can be registered between your check and your payment, so you order a fresh extract before every significant payment.
An extract for a property not yet built
Under Law 207/2025, even an apartment under construction has its own page in the register, and the preliminary contract is recorded there. In our project in Balotești, for example, every buyer can see the entry on their own unit. With any project, ask the developer: "What is the register page number of my unit?"
Frequently asked questions
How much does a land register extract cost in Romania?
An extract for information ordered online on ANCPI's ePay website costs 20 lei, as of 2026. Owners can get an extract of their own property free of charge through ANCPI's platform for owners.
Who can get an extract for a property in Romania?
Anyone can order an extract for information, including someone who is not the owner. An extract for authentication, used for signing, can only be ordered by the notary.
What do I need to order an extract?
The county, the locality and the property's land register number or cadastral number. You get the number from the seller, the developer or the property documents.
What does an empty Part III mean?
That no mortgage, seizure, legal proceedings or third-party right was registered against the property on the day the extract was issued. It is a good sign, but not a substitute for a planning check and a check of local debts.
How long is an extract valid?
The extract reflects the situation on the day it was issued. It has no legal "validity" for checking purposes, but the property's status can change, so you order a new extract before every significant payment and before signing.
The bottom line
The extract is 20 lei of certainty. It does not tell you everything, but without it you know nothing.
Order it yourself, let your lawyer read it, and order it again before every payment.
If you have an extract for a property in Romania and are not sure what you are looking at, with us or anywhere else, book a half-hour call with me. We will read it together, part by part.
Moti Azulay, Compass Group Romania
Sources and data: National Agency for Cadastre and Land Registration (ANCPI) · ePay ANCPI, online extract ordering · Romanian legislation portal: Law 7/1996 and Law 207/2025 · National Union of Romanian Notaries (UNNPR).
This article is for general information only and is not legal advice. Reading an extract for a deal should be done by an independent lawyer.
Now you know more.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult local professionals before any transaction.
