Who Owns This Land? In Greece, It Can Take Guesswork
希臘土地所有權 一本爛賬
By Suzanne Daley

ATHENS – Not long ago Leonidas Hamodrakas, a lawyer in Athens, decided to pay closer attention to his family’s land holdings – some fields, a scattering of buildings and a massive stone tower – in Mani, a rural region in southern Greece.
雅典律師哈莫拉卡斯的家族在希臘南部鄉下摩尼區持有一些田地、幾棟分散的房子和一座大石塔，他不久前決定多關心一下這些地產。

But property ownership in Greece is often less than clear cut. So Mr. Hamodrakas put a padlock on his gate and waited to see what would happen. Soon enough, he heard from neighbors. Three of them claimed that they, too, had title to parts of the property.
可是在希臘，產權通常劃分並不清楚，因此他在大門上掛了把鎖，看看會如何。鄰居很快就找上了他，有三個鄰人宣稱擁有那塊地的部分產權。

In this age of satellite imagery, digital records and the instantaneous exchange of information, most of Greece’s land transaction records are still handwritten in ledgers, logged in by last names. No lot numbers. No clarity on boundaries or zoning. No obvious way to tell whether 2 people, or 10, have registered ownership of the same property.
已是衛星影像、數位紀錄和即時資訊交換的時代了，希臘多數土地移轉紀錄卻還是按所有人姓氏排列，用筆寫在冊子上。沒有地號，清楚的界限或分區，也沒有明確方法分辨同一塊地是否已有兩人或十人登記持有。

As Greece tries to claw its way out of an economic crisis of historic proportions, one that has left 60 percent of young people without jobs, many experts cite the lack of a proper land registry as one of the biggest impediments to progress. It scares off foreign investors; makes it hard for the state to privatize its assets, as it has promised to do in exchange for bailout money; and makes it virtually impossible to collect property taxes.
希臘正努力走出使六成年輕人失業的罕見經濟危機，許多專家把缺乏完善土地註冊辦法列為進步的最大障礙之一。它讓外資卻步；政府難以推動為交換紓困資金而允諾執行的國有土地私有化；徵收地產稅也幾無可能。

Greece has thrown hundreds of millions of dollars at the problem over the past two decades, but has little to show for it. At one point, in the early 1990s, Greece took more than $100 million from the European Union to build a registry. But after seeing what was accomplished, the European Union demanded its money back.
20年來希臘在這件事上花了數億美元，卻幾無建樹。1990年代初期希臘曾從歐盟取得1億多美元以建立土地註冊制，但歐盟看到成果不彰後要求希臘還錢。

Less than 7 percent of the country has been properly mapped, officials say. Experts say that even the Balkan states are far ahead of Greece when it comes to land registries attached to zoning maps – an approach developed by the Romans and used in much of the developed world since the 1800s.
希臘官員說，目前全希臘經適當測繪的土地不到7%。專家說，就土地註冊附上分區地圖而言，連巴爾幹半島國家都遠比希臘先進，這套辦法為羅馬人所創，1800年之後在已開發世界廣獲採用。

“If you calculated the total deeds that are registered,” said Dimitris Kaloudiotis, who recently became president of the national land registry authority, “the country would be twice as big as it is.”
最近才出任全國土地註冊局局長的卡勞帝提斯說：「如果把目前所有註冊的地契加總計算，這個國家會變成兩倍大。」

In the countryside, deeds reflect another era. Boundaries can be the “three olive trees near the well” or the spot “where you can hear a donkey on the path.”
在希臘鄉下，地契反映的是古早時代：界線可能是「井邊的三棵橄欖樹」，地點可能是「聽得到路上驢叫之處」。

“You had guys who had never been to school – who had 100 sheep – and they would throw a rock a certain distance and say: O.K., that’s mine,” said Mr. Hamodrakas, who in addition to his own problems has handled many landownership cases for clients.
哈莫拉卡斯除了有自己的土地所有權問題，也接了許多客戶的土地所有權案子，他說：「你會碰到那種擁有100隻羊但從未上過學的人，他們會把一塊石頭扔到某個距離之外，且說：『好，那塊地是我的。』」

His own dispute, he said, arises from the language related to a sale that took place long ago. “The papers say that my great-grandfather bought ‘the threshing floor and the land around it.’ ” But did that mean 15 meters around the threshing floor or 1,500?
他說，他跟鄰居的爭端源於很久之前一筆交易中的文字。「文件上說，我的曾祖父買了『那個打穀場及其周圍土地』。」但周圍究竟是15公尺，還是1500公尺呢？

In general, experts say, Greeks are remarkably at ease with a level of irregularity when it comes to real estate. Stelios Patsoumas, an architect in Athens, says that most houses there run afoul of regulations. The building laws are so tangled, contradictory and outdated that it is virtually impossible to build without violating one regulation or another. Recently, for instance, he said he was asked to build a summer camp for children. The law demanded that the toilet facilities be 45 meters away from the sleeping quarters, a relic from the days of outhouses.
專家說，希臘人大抵覺得在房地產方面稍有違法不足為奇。雅典建築師派特索馬斯說，當地多數房子都有於法不合之處。建築法規混亂、過時且彼此扞格，幾乎不可能在完全合法的情況下蓋房子。他舉例說，最近有人請他建造一個兒童夏令營，依法廁所要距住宿區45公尺－戶外廁所年代傳下的規定。

Most people involved in the real estate business say this state of affairs is rooted in the country’s tangled history. Greece has weathered a long series of occupations and wars, as well as waves of emigration or migration within the country toward the cities. This means that land was widely abandoned, at least for a time. One of the problems in determining who owns what is that in many cases, use of the land for 20 years entitles one to ownership.
地產業者大多表示，這個問題源於希臘糾結的歷史。希臘在漫長的歷史中曾幾經占領、戰爭，以及國內城市的一波波人口流入及流出，這表示土地曾被大規模棄置，至少是一度被棄置。在許多決定土地所有權的官司中，都會碰到一個問題：使用一塊土地20年的人就擁有所有權。

The goal now is to create a proper land registry by 2020, though officials call this optimistic. In the end, they said, Greece will spend about $1.5 billion on the effort.
現在希臘的目標是在2020年之前建立一套合宜的土地註冊制，但官員們說這估計太過樂觀，而希臘最終將為此花上15億美元。

The only parts of Greece that have had a land registry and zoning map are the Dodecanese Islands, because they were occupied by the Italians from 1912 to the end of World War II. Land use on the islands, which include Rhodes and Kos, is still guided by Italian law.
目前希臘唯一有土地註冊及分區地圖的地方，是多德卡尼斯群島，因為當地在1912年到二次世界大戰結束之間，由義大利人占領。這個群島包括羅得島及科斯島，兩島土地使用至今仍按義大利法規管理。

But there are problems even there. The zoning maps have never been updated. Lots include beachfront that has long since eroded and paths, once used by donkeys, that have long since disappeared. Nevertheless, residents say they are grateful.
然而就算是那裡，也還是有問題：分區地圖從未更新，包括海濱地區的土地早就侵蝕殆盡，過去驢子走的道路也早已湮滅。不過，居民說，他們可是謝天謝地。

“You have to understand,” said Afroditi Billiri, a lawyer who works on Kos and handles many land issues. “This is cutting edge compared to the rest of Greece.”
在科斯島執業、處理許多土地官司的律師比利瑞說：「你必須了解，跟希臘其他地方相比，這裡已是最先進的了。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/27/world/europe/greeces-tangled-land-ownership-is-a-hurdle-in-recovery.html

紐時中文版翻譯：
http://cn.nytimes.com/world/20130528/c28greece/zh-hant/

2013-06-11聯合報/G9版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS馮克芸譯 原文參見紐時週報八版上