In order to perform almost any operation with any Latvian property, an individual must come into contact with a number of government agencies related to real estate registration and transactions. These agencies have two primary functions - maintaining a registry of various information (mostly of legal nature) about properties, and ensuring that operations with said properties are in accordance with the law. Another group of agencies are non-governmental professional associations, which were established with the aim of helping individual members of the Latvian real estate market.