jointly liable for the liabilities of the corresponding pool of mortgages. The system kept evolving thereafter, in particular in the early 1970s, when mortgage financing was simplified and standardized. The last major round of reform took place in 1989, among others authorizing commercial banks to own mortgage credit institutions. After 2001, the majority of mortgage bonds were issued without the joint liability of borrowers. Property registration and the granting of a loan A mortgage system depends on the effective registration of property units and rights in land. The cadastre, maintained by the National Survey and Cadastre, identifies each land parcel and property unit. The identification is used by other national information systems. The Land Registration Court handles registration of titles to land, mortgages and other charges. The mortgage banks grant a loan only on condition that the mortgage deed is registered, but without any other type of security. Also, a very detailed credit check isn't done on the borrower; the collateral of the loan is the property, rather than the borrower. The details of the process of setting up a mortgage loan are described in English. The Municipalities of Denmark maintain information systems, recording among others zoning, building construction details and taxable value, and the tax authorities maintain a mass appraisal system. Both latter systems are updated through compulsory abstracting of title deeds, collected through the municipalities. Foreclosure In the event of non-payment of its mortgage-related obligations by the mortgagor, the mortgage bank may put the property up for a forced sale. Forced sales are carried through by enforcement courts (Fogedretten), which are part of the ordinary system of courts. Mortgagees will be covered in order of priority and while uncovered mortgage loans will be deleted from the Land Register, the mortgagees will keep their (uncovered) claim against the borrower as a personal claim. It typically takes no more than six months from the time when the borrower defaults on the loan until a forced sale can be carried through. This is in contrast with France, say, where it can take several years to foreclose. The human costs of turning a family into the street are mitigated through social housing. Denmark has a total housing stock of 2.5 million housing units, of which 19 per cent belong to social housing associations. The associations are subsidised by the government and municipalities in terms of reduced interest and mortgage repayments and loan