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