Government imposes cap on fee for mortgage registration

The expense of registering  a mortgage in Serbia was exorbitant until recently. The Decree on the Fees for the Use of Survey and Cadastral Data and Services of the Republic Geodetic Authority (“Official Gazette of RS”, no. 45/2002, 15/2010 and 9/2011) (“Decree”) set the registration fee as a percentage of the underlying secured principal of the loan, without setting any cap. This prompted our office to file a constitutional challenge of the relevant provision of the Decree in 2010.

The amendments to the Decree, which came into force on February 24, 2011 keep the fee at 0.2% of the underlying principal but at the same time impose a cap at 5000 value points, which is currently RSD 134,750.00 (app. EUR 1,300.00). The value of one point (currently RSD 26.95 or app. EUR 0,26) is subject to adjustment in line with the inflation rate.

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