Buying a home on the secondary market has almost as many nuances as on the primary market. And there are also enough schemes to deceive the buyer. We asked practicing lawyers about documents, contracts, payment methods and other nuances of buying secondary real estate.
What documents to check, how to find out if the seller is decent, how not to become a victim of scammers and not to lose money – Tetyana Kordiyaka, head of the real estate practice of Bachynskyi and Partners JSC, and Galina Kalitovska, a junior lawyer, told Channel 24.
WHAT TO PAY ATTENTION TO WHEN BUYING HOUSING ON THE SECONDARY MARKET
It is necessary to check the documents confirming the ownership of the apartment, information about the owner of the house, payment of utilities. In any case, you should inspect the apartment, check the layout with the technical passport.
At the beginning, the parties agree on a certain advance or deposit and set a period during which the agreement must take place. The transfer of an advance or a deposit should be made only on the basis of a preliminary agreement, a deposit agreement, etc., which will clearly state the parties’ agreement on the term, cost, as well as the seller’s obligation to deregister the place of residence before the agreement, etc.
Usually, if the buyer refuses to conclude the main contract, the deposit is not returned to him, and if the seller changes his mind, he must return the deposit to the buyer in double amount.
WHAT DOCUMENTS MUST BE PROVIDED BY THE SELLER
Mandatory :
- title document for the apartment . It can be a notarized contract of sale, gift, certificate of ownership of an apartment, etc. Everything depends on the basis of acquiring the right of ownership;
- extract from the State Register of Property Rights to immovable property on the registration of the right of ownership. It can also be an information certificate, a registration certificate (depending on the year of acquisition, for example, in 2016, an information certificate was issued without a notary’s signature and seal, so if your seller bought an apartment in 2016, he will have such a certificate);
- technical passport for the apartment , in which you can see whether illegal redevelopments have been carried out;
- expert evaluation;
- consent to sell the wife’s or husband’s apartment , if the seller is married. It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that even in the case of divorce, the property that was acquired by the persons during the marriage is their joint property, so consent will also be required. For this, the second spouse must come to the agreement at a notary or make a notarized consent before the agreement at another notary (if he lives in another city or country).
- certificate of registered persons . It is ideal that no one is registered in the apartment at the time of sale. Such a certificate can be issued by the ZHEK or the condominium, depending on who is currently the balance keeper of the building. In Kyiv, for example, there is a Register of Territorial Communities, the notary before the agreement makes a request and receives an extract about the registered persons. Unfortunately, there is no such thing in Lviv, and in fact the condominium may not even know whether there are registered persons or not.
There may be additional documents. For example, if there is no information about the apartment in the electronic register, you need to take a special certificate from BTI to confirm the registration of ownership. This is a common practice in Lviv, as many apartments were privatized back in the 90s, when there was no electronic registry.
All these documents will also be required by a notary public.
HOW TO DRAW UP A SALES CONTRACT SO THAT THERE ARE NO SURPRISES
What must be stated in the contract:
- For the buyer, additional guarantees are the provision that no one is registered in the apartment, no redevelopment has taken place, there is no debt for utility bills, there are no hidden defects or defects, etc. If the seller is against any of these provisions, then you need to think about whether everything is really as you are told. There should also be a time limit for vacating the apartment from the owner’s belongings and his eviction, a list of remaining property (if any).
- Lawyers recommend not to indicate in the contract the lower value of the apartment in order to optimize taxes , but to indicate only the real sales price, because if there are any misunderstandings in the future or there are grounds for recognizing the contract as invalid, the actual amount that you will actually pay will not appear anywhere, and You can count on the return of only the amount specified in the contract.
Read also: Buying real estate: we check the reliability of the developer
- If the settlement takes place at the time of signing the contract, it should be noted that the full settlement has been carried out and that the seller has no claims against the buyer.
HOW DO THE CALCULATIONS ON THE SECONDARY MARKET TAKE PLACE
Both cash and non-cash settlement are used between individuals . In the case of non-cash settlement, funds are transferred to the seller’s account specified in the contract. Currently, banks must check the source of funds from all customers who want to carry out operations in the amount of more than 150,000 hryvnias , so the buyer will need to provide confirmation of the source of funds.
In practice, cash settlement continues to be used. Despite the legal ban on settlements between individuals in cash in the amount of more than 150,000 hryvnias per day, liability for violations is not established for individuals, and the notary is not obliged to check whether the parties have settled . Also, it is usually written in the contract that the settlement took place before the day of the conclusion of the contract.
You should immediately be alarmed if there were several resales of the apartment in a row, if it was just recently inherited. This may indicate the risk of claims by third parties.
Many believe that all this should be checked by a notary, although this is not entirely true. The notary verifies the right of ownership, necessary documents, arrests of the owner, but he is not obliged to verify court cases, arrears for communal services, previous owners. The buyer needs to do this himself or involve a lawyer .
The material was created in cooperation with Kanal 24. https://24tv.ua/zhitlo_na_vtorinnomu_rinku_yak_kupiti_nadiyno
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