SUPPLETORY QUALIFICATION LAW, DECREE NUMBER 49-79

Objective of the Law:

The lack of a document that allows valid registration in the Property Registry
causes the legal uncertainty of being stripped of it, and gives rise to the need to
regulate and legitimize precarious possession to convert it into domain possession.
Taking into account the recitals of the supplementary titling law, the object of this
law is merely instrumental or procedural normative that arises from the need to
adequately regulate possessory rights and positive prescription to provide greater
legal security in land ownership. It is also aimed at correcting the deficiencies of
the previous legislation; and it being a legal imperative for the State, as regulated
in Article 39 of the Political Constitution of the Republic of Guatemala, “to
guarantee private property as a right inherent to the human person… The State
guarantees the exercise of this right and must create the conditions that facilitate
the owner's use and enjoyment of his property, so that individual progress and
national development are achieved.
The purpose of the Supplementary Titling Law is to grant security regarding
the ownership of real estate, establishing for this purpose the procedure that must
be followed during the supplementary titling process and the effects that it, once
done, provokes. This procedure is followed before the courts of justice for the
acquisition of ownership of real estate or public and private property through
ownership by usucapion.

Organizational Structure found in the law:

 Owner of real estate who lacks a title that can be registered in the Property
Registry.
 Real estate: Any real estate that is not registered in the Property Registry.
(With the exception of:)
- Real estate greater than 45,125 Ha. (a cavalry);
 - Real estate property located in the Northern Transversal Strip and any of
the agricultural development zones referred to in Decree 60-70 of
Congress.
- Real estate located within State reserves;
- The excesses of rustic or urban properties
 First Instance Judge of the Civil branch: Fulfilling the requirements
established in Article 61 Civil and Commercial Procedure Code; 5 and 6 and
7 of the Supplementary Qualification Law.
 Proposal of expert measurer, who can be empirical or collegiate
professional.
- Proposal of two witnesses who are neighbors and owners of real estate
in the municipal jurisdiction where the property is located.
- Legal basis on which the request is based, citing the respective laws.
- Request in precise terms.
- Place and date.
- Signature of the applicant legalized by a Notary, or failing that, the
application must be ratified.
- Signature of the registered lawyer who sponsors it, as well as his seal. If
the applicant does not know how or cannot sign, he or she will do so for
the other person or the lawyer who assists him or her.
 Resolution: Once the Request has been submitted, the jurisdictional body
that is aware of the voluntary procedures for supplementary titling will issue
a Decree no later than the day after receiving the request, in accordance
with the provisions of article 141 of the Law of the Judicial Branch, in the
which the Application will be admitted or rejected for processing. If the
request for voluntary supplementary qualification procedures is rejected, the
applicant may file an Appeal.
 Notification: Once the first processing resolution is issued in which the
request is accepted or denied, the interested party will be informed through
Personal Notification, which will record the day, time and place in which it
was made, and must be signed by the person notified or in his/her refusal,
 the notifier will attest to this. Articles 66, 67, 71 of the Civil and Commercial
Procedure Code.
 Publication of edicts: In the event that the request is accepted for
processing. The judge will order edicts to be published in the Official
Gazette three times during a month, with summons to the neighbors and
people interested in the property, the names and surnames of the applicant
and the precise identification of the property. Article 7, paragraph a) of the
Supplementary Qualification Law.
 Attorney General's Office: The judge will receive the testimonial information
from the witnesses proposed in the request, who must be neighbors and
owners of real estate in the jurisdiction where the real estate to be owned is
located. Article 7 Section c) of the Supplementary Qualification Law.

 Municipality: The judge will order the municipality of the place where the
property is located to submit, within a peremptory period of fifteen days, a
report detailing the following information: actual existence of the property
and its precise identification.
 Municipal mayor: Who must carry out a visual inspection that will record: the
extension, boundaries and adjoining areas; buildings and crops; rustic or
urban nature; the name or address of the property; village, canton, place or
area of the jurisdiction where it is located.

Direct and indirect beneficiaries:

As direct beneficiaries, they are the people who own property (landowners
who favor the oppression of the working and peasant class are considered) who do
not receive rights from any person either because the property owned was not
subject to a pre-existing right or because the law transforms it to the benefit of the
new purchaser. With the purpose of not only benefiting the repatriated in the legal
establishment of their lands through supplementary title, but also for any
Guatemalan to legalize the possession of the same, making use of the right to
private property, as a right inherent to the human person, pursuant to Article 39 of
the Political Constitution of the Republic, which establishes: “Private property is
guaranteed as a right inherent to the human person. Every person can freely
dispose of his or her property in accordance with the law. The State guarantees the
exercise of this right and must create the conditions that facilitate the owner's use
and enjoyment of their property. All Guatemalans of origin or naturalized, as well
as legal persons civilly capable of acquiring by any other title, may acquire
ownership of real estate by usucapion, with the exception in the case of naturalized
Guatemalans or companies whose members do not have the legal status. of
Guatemalans of origin, to acquire ownership by usucaption of real estate located in
the fifteen kilometer wide strip along the borders.
As indirect beneficiaries, the scope of individual progress for the benefit of
all Guatemalans, in order to obtain their maximum benefit for the benefit of national
development. The registration of real estate by means of a supplementary title is
convenient for the legal security of land ownership, giving shape to a legal system
that makes this registration operational.
Financing:
Directorate of State Assets of the Ministry of Finance, the Property Registry,
and the Ministry of Public Finance includes the proposal of Decree number 49-79
of the Congress of the Republic, Law of Supplementary Titling; to supervise the
development of the law and its application. Likewise, the State undertakes to use
the heritage in the universality of goods, rights and financial resources that the
State has to cover its powers and fundamentally pursues a) the common good, b)
social justice, c) the general interest, d ) social benefit, e) the recognition of an area
of power, f) individual freedom and g) being a guarantee with respect to third
parties.

Most important institutions within the law:

 Supplementary Titling: Since the time of colonization and even before this,
this legal institution has evolved to become one of transcendental
importance in Guatemalan legislation, especially if one takes into account
the way in which the majority of Guatemalans possess land, especially in
 rural areas. It is the procedure through which the legitimate holders of land
who lack registration in the General Property Registry in Guatemala, fulfill
the requirements demanded in the substantive civil order for possession and
the specific requirements of the Supplementary Titling Law. If the
importance of the institution of the supplementary degree is taken into
consideration, and it is analyzed that in the Civil Code of the country, it is not
considered as an independent legal institution, since it is within the
usucapión, which was created to legalize assets that are owned, but that
lack registration in the Property Registry; It will be understood the position of
many authors who consider usucapion the ideal way for those who possess
real estate in a legitimate, continuous, peaceful, public manner, in good
faith, as owner and for more than ten years, to legally obtain the ownership
of the property they possess.
 Possession: As the author Cabanellas Guillermo points out: “De facto and
legal power over a material thing, constituted by a material element or
animus, the belief and purpose of having the thing as one's own, and a
physical element or habeas, the possession or effective disposal of a
material asset; With this he shows that it is not enough to be holding
something, or that it is not enough to have something, but that it is
necessary to want to hold it and have it; to feel the right to exercise it, is a
situation of one who actually exercises prerogatives unrelated to a right and
behaves like its true owner.” As is known, possession is that legal institution
by which a person, without being the legitimate owner of a property, can, by
meeting certain requirements established by law, be its owner. In
Guatemala, possession is an institution of great importance, because, in
many communities in the interior of the country, the population is mostly of
Mayan descent, by custom or culture the land is owned, and that land is
transferred to the heirs. possession, which causes legal uncertainty for
these
 Property: The importance of this civil institution is recognized with
constitutional rank, since at the level of the Political Constitution of the
 Republic of Guatemala, the right to private property is recognized as
belonging to human beings. For Peniche, Edgardo, property is: “The right
that a person has over a thing to enjoy and dispose of it with the modalities
and limitations established by law. Property is a real right that one has over
a thing, whose ownership corresponds to a single or several individuals
without limitations and with the restrictions provided by law.
 General Property Registry: The purpose of which is the registration or
annotation of acts and contracts related to ownership and other real rights
over real estate, given that the registered owner has specific actions aimed
at protecting his or her right and benefits from a series of presumptions
strengthening his position. Where a document or resolution of authority is
issued that allows access to the registry to prove ownership and other real
rights.

Criminal types (crimes):

 Ideological falsehood: Article 13 of the Law on Supplementary Titling:
Anyone who attempts, through supplementary titling proceedings, to title a
property whose titling is prohibited by law, or which is already registered in
the Property Registry, will incur the crime of ideological falsehood
established by the Penal Code. The same crime will be incurred by anyone
who has contributed to the titling proceedings with elements of judgment or
statements that do not adhere to the truth or that are misleading. In addition
to the sanction provided by the Penal Code, a fine of one hundred to one
thousand quetzales will be imposed on the person responsible.
ARTICLE 322 OF THE CRIMINAL CODE OF GUATEMALA: Whoever, in
connection with the granting, authorization or formalization of a public document,
inserts or causes to be inserted false statements concerning a fact that the
document must prove, so that damage may result, will be punished with
imprisonment. from two to six years.
 Perjury:
ARTICLE 459 OF THE CRIMINAL CODE OF GUATEMALA. Whoever, before
competent authority, swears to tell the truth and fails to do so with malice, commits
perjury. The person responsible for this crime will be punished with imprisonment
of six months to three years and a fine of fifty to one thousand quetzales.

Other important aspects:

 Effects of the Supplementary Qualification Law:
- It is a means to legalize the possession exercised over real estate.
- The certification of the order by the jurisdictional body that approves the
proceedings has registration effects.
- The registration of this car in the Property Registry becomes the means
of acquiring the property, through the passage of time stipulated in the
law.
- After that legal time has elapsed, which begins immediately from the
moment of registration in the respective Registry, it acquires the quality
of an indisputable property title, enforceable against all.
 Legal regulation:
The antecedent of the legal regulation of the supplementary qualification is found in
Decree 232 of the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala dated May 3, 1946 and
its reforms; At the same time, there is Decree 31-78 of the Congress of the
Republic of Guatemala, which as of that date suspended the procedures for
supplementary titles. The specific law is contained in Decree number 49-79 of the
Congress of the Republic of Guatemala, Law of Supplementary Titling, which was
issued on July 26, 1979 and its reforms, this law repealed with its entry into force,
the Decree 232 of the Congress of the Republic. The Civil Code, Decree Law 106
regulates in article 634: “The supplementary titling procedures must be subject to
the procedure established by the respective law and the resolution approving them
is the title to acquire the property”