The area in the property tax record doesn't match the land: why, and how to correct it

The property tax record (caderneta predial) says 2,400 m². The old deed says 3,000. And those who know the land swear it is much bigger. This is one of the situations we come across most often with emigrant families' land.

Why the areas don't match

• They were declared "by eye". Many areas in the tax records come from declarations made decades ago, without any measurement.
• The records were made at different times. The Tax Office, the Land Registry and the cadastre were never updated together.
• The boundaries may have changed. Informal swaps, encroachments, walls being moved or tracks being widened need analysis: they are not necessarily regularised as simple measurement errors.
• The boundaries can no longer be seen. Abandoned land loses its boundary stones and walls, and with them the memory of where it ended.

When the difference becomes a problem

While the land is left idle, the difference can go unnoticed for years. It becomes a problem when the family needs to do something with it.

When dividing an inheritance. If the heirs divide the land on the basis of wrong areas, one may end up with much more than the others without anyone noticing, and the arguments come later.

When selling. The buyer, the bank or whoever prepares the sale may raise questions about conflicting areas. In the acts covered by the BUPi regime, the identification required through a georeferenced graphic representation (RGG), or the cadastral status and any applicable exemptions, is checked, which helps to detect these differences.

With the neighbours. When a neighbour identifies their land in BUPi and the outline cuts into the family's land, the difference is no longer just a number: it becomes a boundary dispute.

How the area is corrected

The first step is to identify the perimeter being measured and compare it with the titles, the cadastral information and the evidence on the ground. A survey measures the area of that perimeter, but it does not, on its own, settle a dispute over who owns a strip of land.

Then the route depends on what is wrong:

The solution has to bring together the tax register, the Land Registry and the cadastre or BUPi. There are legal exemptions from harmonising areas: not every difference requires every record to be changed. The tolerances allowed by the registry do not permit anyone to take over someone else's land, nor do they remove the need to analyse an actual change of boundaries.

We put the areas right, on paper and on the ground

At MGPS International this is one of our core services. Our team brings together a Portuguese solicitor (solicitador, a regulated legal profession in Portugal) and a cadastral technician, who is also a qualified BUPi technician. So we deal with everything in the same process:

• we check on site the perimeter indicated and how it matches the titles and other available information;
• we prepare the graphic representation in BUPi or the appropriate cadastral procedure;
• we handle the corrections at the Tax Office and the Land Registry;
• we resolve overlaps with neighbours, by agreement wherever possible.

Much of this work is done without the family having to come to Portugal.

Do the numbers for your land not add up? Use the initial assessment and send us the caderneta or whatever documents you have. We will tell you what is wrong and what it will cost to correct.

This article is for general information only and is not legal advice for any specific case.