How do you protect your home or land from registry fraud in Peru? Alerta Registral, locking the registry file, and what to do if a fake deed was already registered

Four tools, four moments

Sunarp (Peru’s public registry) has a directive against registry fraud, version 4, in force since 1 June 2025. It lists its measures: Alerta Registral, the inmovilización de partidas (locking a registry file), the block for suspected forgery, the note for suspected forgery of out-of-protocol notarial instruments, and the precautionary note requested by the notary. Ley 30313 adds the objection and cancellation procedures.

The resolution that approved the directive notes that the Constitutional Court, in case 00018-2015-PI/TC, set a duty of diligence for the true owner that includes, besides registering their right, using Alerta Registral.

Alerta Registral

You sign up at alertaregistral.sunarp.gob.pe with your email, your mobile number and the registry file numbers. It is free, does not expire, and you can cancel it at any time. It notifies you when a filing is submitted on the file and when someone requests information on it or looks it up through the “Conoce Aquí” service. In the Registry of Mandates and Powers it also notifies you when a filing linked to the name of the person who would grant the power is submitted. How to sign up and what to do when an alert arrives is covered in Sunarp copia literal and registry certificates.

Locking the registry file

This is a voluntary, temporary measure for files in the Property Registry. The registered owner or their authorized representative can ask for it. If the property belongs to a marital community of property or a de facto union, either partner can ask. A co-owner can ask for it over their share.

There are two kinds:

• By electronic notice. Filed in person at the registry office, with the filing request and Sunarp’s form, filled in and signed. The form includes a sworn statement that the property has not been transferred and has no unregistered voluntary charges with an earlier certain date. If the owner is a foreign national, the form must carry a notarized signature. Sunarp gives a review period of seven business days.
• As a registry entry. Filed with the notary’s copy of a public deed of lock and a sworn statement with a notarized signature. It is recorded in the “Other” section of the registry file.

In both, the term is whatever you state, up to ten years from filing. If you give no period or a longer one, the registrar records ten years. When it ends, it lapses automatically. To lift it earlier, the registry-entry lock needs another public deed.

What it costs: the official sources do not agree. The current directive and Sunarp’s 2023 and 2026 press releases say the lock pays no registry fees. A Sunarp guidance page last updated in April 2020, which cites the 2013 directive as its basis, gives a fee of S/ 42.00. Confirm at the registry office. For the registry-entry lock, the deed and the certified signature are paid separately to the notary.

What it does and does not do. If someone files on paper a sale, mortgage or other voluntary charge on a locked file, the registrar suspends the filing and checks with the notary. If the notary reports forgery or identity theft, the filing is rejected. If the notary confirms it is genuine, the filing goes ahead and, for a sale, the lock is lifted automatically when the sale is registered. The directive does not apply that check to court, arbitration or administrative decisions, to acts that are not sales or charges, or to filings submitted with a digital signature through Sunarp’s Digital Intermediation System.

The Ley 30313 objection: you do not file it

Ley 30313 says the registration procedure is non-contentious. It only accepts an objection from the notary, consul, judge, public official or arbitrator named as the document’s author, and only in cases of identity theft or forgery. It has to be filed while the filing’s entry is still in force: there is no objection against a deed already registered. If anyone else files an objection, the registrar rejects it outright.

What you do is report the forgery or identity theft to that notary, consul, judge, official or arbitrator so that they step in, and bring that report to the registrar’s attention.

If the fake deed has already been registered

1. Ask for the block for suspected forgery. File a written report at the document intake desk of the Registry Zone headquarters, with the facts and the evidence. The Zone Head’s office has up to three business days to review it and check with whoever is named as the document’s author. The block is noted on the registry file, suspends later filings linked to the challenged entry, and lasts 120 business days. Its purpose is to secure the priority of an interim measure ordered by a judge. You are not a party to that procedure: you cannot appeal what the Zone Head decides.
2. Ask the notary or authority to act. Only they can ask the Zone Head to cancel the entry for identity theft or forgery (Ley 30313, art. 4). If the document is notarial, the law requires the notary to request a precautionary note within five business days of learning of it. That note lasts one year.
3. Go to court. Annulment and the interim measure are sought in a court case. Ley 30313 leaves those actions to anyone with a legitimate interest in the annulment. The directive also tasks Sunarp’s legal office with starting legal action.

The risk of waiting. Article 2014 of the Civil Code, as worded by Ley 30313, protects someone who acquires in good faith and for value from a person the registry showed as entitled to transfer, even if that person’s right is later cancelled for reasons that did not appear in the entries or the archived filings. And Ley 30313 says cancelling an entry does not harm that third party.

Other protections you already have

Ley 30313 also made void any notarial act of sale or charge over property located outside the notary’s province, and requires notaries to check the identity of signatories against the RENIEC database (and Migraciones’ database for foreign nationals), including biometric fingerprint comparison where available. Before buying, check the registry file and the property’s physical and legal status: see Physical-legal title regularization. If you are giving someone power to sell for you, see Power of attorney in Peru.