The Registration of Land Ownership Transfer Due to Inheritance for Foreigners in West Sumatera

Abstract

The transfer of land ownership as an inheritance is a legal process causing land ownership transfer from the testator to his heirs. To achieve legal certainty in every transfer of land ownership because of inheritance, land ownership transfer should be registered at National Land Agency. Based on Indonesia laws, it is forbidden for foreigners to own land since only Indonesian citizens can have full land ownership rights. The aim of this research is to find out the legal protection and certainty related to the registration of land ownership transfer due to inheritance for foreign heirs in West Sumatra and also the control of the National Land Agency on the length of land ownership rights of foreign heirs which is estimated to only one year. The theories used are legal protection theory by Philipus Hadjon and legal certainty theory by Utrecht.  In conducting this study, the method used is qualitative descriptive with normative law study approach. The primary data involved in this study is composed of interviews with staff from several offices of the West Sumatran National Land Agency and notarists. While secondary data consists of legal literature. This study focuses on identifying, determining, and analyzing the inheritance rights, the regulations of land ownership registration, and the control of the National Land Agency on land ownership for foreign heirs. The results show that: 1) the different of nationality between the testator and the foreign heirs does not prevent them from inheriting land ownership rights; 2) foreign heirs are only entitled to have land rights for a period of one year after which the land ownership rights must be transferred to Indonesians; 3) the control of the National Land Agency on foreign heirs’ land ownership rights is only related to the formal condition of the land ownership transfer as the inheritance.