In accordance with the directives of His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Nayef bin Abdulaziz to refrain from accepting ordinary checks in real estate transactions and to use only certified payment methods, which must be presented during the transfer of title at a notary public’s office or in court,   the Ministry of Justice has issued an urgent circular to notaries and courts throughout the Kingdom regarding the use of registered payment methods when executing sales and purchases of land and other real estate.

The decision aims to streamline administrative procedures for inquiries regarding real estate holdings. The Ministry of Justice has launched the Electronic Archiving Project for Real Estate Assets, which aims to preserve real estate deeds with judicial authorities and protect them from damage or loss, and to convert the related data into revised, corrected, certified, and indexed databases, thereby enabling faster access to information and facilitating the process of searching for properties. This project is of great importance to the administrative operations of notary offices and relevant judicial authorities.

This step comes at a time when the Ministry has launched a number of initiatives expected to help bring judicial services provided by the Ministry closer to and make them more accessible to clients and beneficiaries of its services, as part of the Ministry’s efforts to expedite litigation timelines and ensure the swift delivery of rights to their rightful owners, in line with the strategy it has outlined under the slogan “Efficient Justice with Quality and Excellence,” which includes a number of initiatives and development projects in the areas of administrative organization and development, the review and improvement of regulations, efforts to enhance the performance of human resources, facilitating and serving the public, raising awareness of legal rights, and advancing the Ministry’s technical capabilities to deliver judicial services to beneficiaries using modern technology.