What Documents Exist in a Real Estate Buying Process in Croatia?
Igor Katušić, Monday, 18 November 2013
This article is part of a series of 8 articles about buying property in Croatia. The other articles in the series cover the following topics:
When starting the process of buying a real estate in Croatia, you will face the immense amount of documents of all types. From Land Registry Certificates; Sales Contract; mortgage documents if needed, and few more – all needed for you to become an owner of a property here in Croatia.
For a starter we need to distinguish your buyer’s status. If you are non-EU citizen then you’ll need to send few additional documents to the Ministry of Justice of Republic of Croatia to claim the ownership of the real estate. Everything else is the same, under the presumption that you are eligible to buy a real estate in Croatia from the aspect of your resident country.
We’ll discuss those additional documents later on. For now, let’s start with the obvious and usual documents that exist in a legal matter of a real estate purchase.
Basic Documents
For the identification purposes your passport will do, while in some cases you might be asked to acquire a PIN from the local Tax Administration Office.
Then, you need to visit the local Land Registry office and acquire the Land Registry Entry for the specific real estate. That’s your very first step, even before you speak with the seller.
That way you’ll ensure that no waste of time will occur if the real estate itself has some irregularities. Ultimately you’ll know who the real owner of the property is.
Next document is of course Sales Contract itself.
Sales Contract
Now, the Sales Contact is the central document of every purchase agreement, and same applies to the real estate affairs. In short, a real estate Sales Contract is a legal document through which buyer is guaranteeing the payment for the property, while seller is guaranteeing the right of the buyer to claim the ownership of the purchased real estate.
For the Sales Contract to be a valid document it must contain certain elements within; otherwise it won’t be applicable for any further procedures.
The key elements of every Real Estate Sales Contract:
· Names, residential addresses and citizenship of the parties involved in a deal – seller and the buyer, with the correlating ID types and numbers of those IDs, separately for the seller and for the buyer.
· A detailed description of a real estate, including the entries from the Land Registry Certificate of the property. This means that you have to: enter the official number of the Certificate (Ownership Certificate); exact name of the Land Registry County in which a real estate is, and describe the property additionally using the plain words. This last may seem irrelevant but in practice it showed itself as a very useful tool. Also, the exact address or a precise location of the property is essential.
· Agreed price stated in HRK (Croatian national currency – Croatian Kuna).
· The statement from the seller that he is giving the absolute rights to the buyer to claim the ownership of the property after the signing of the Contract. This is also known as the Intabulandi clause or a statement through which the seller agrees that buyer can initiate the process of registration of ownership in the Land Registry. It can be a part of the Sales Contract or as separate document attached to the Contract.
· The statement of both seller and buyer that the payment has been made in full and it’s verified with the signing of the Sales Contract.
· The statement from the seller that there are no restrictions connected with the property (previous mortgage, third party claims, etc…), and that he or she is the sole owner. · The statement from the seller and the buyer that the buyer is in possession of the property from the moment of the signing of the Contract and therefore is responsible for the expenses related to the real estate from that moment on.
Additional Documents for Non-EU Citizens
When in a situation where you would like to buy a real estate in Croatia and you’re not an EU citizen, but are the citizen of the country which has signed the Mutual Reciprocity Agreement with Croatia, you’ll need to assemble some additional documents. This is due to your obligation to file for the request of the approval for the ownership claim from the Ministry of Justice of Republic of Croatia.
Attached to your request, following documents are required:
· Legal basis for acquiring the property (purchase and sale agreement, donation of property, agreement on life time maintenance, inheritance documents and similar) in a form of the original issue or a certified copy;
· Evidence of the ownership from the vendor/alienator of an estate, or a Land Registry Certificate, in a form of the original issue or a certified copy, not older than six months; · Certificate from a local government's administrative body empowered for the urbanism and land use planning, based on the location of the estate and on a legal status of the estate (is estate situated within the boundaries of a construction area defined in the urban development plan?);
· Evidence of acquirer's citizenship (certified copy of the passport and similar) or evidence of the status of a legal representative (excerpt from the court’s register);
· If requestor is represented by a counsel, it is necessary to provide a license in a form of the original issue or a certified copy;
· If requestor does not have a counsel to represent him, and he is staying abroad, he is obligated to appoint a counsel for receiving the written documents with the residence in the Republic of Croatia.
This is basically all of the needed documents. Now, if you are about to get the mortgage loan from the bank here in Croatia, you’ll probably need the additional documents as the bank will sure request for those.
This article is part of a series of 8 articles about buying property in Croatia. The other articles in the series cover the following topics:
When starting the process of buying a real estate in Croatia, you will face the immense amount of documents of all types. From Land Registry Certificates; Sales Contract; mortgage documents if needed, and few more – all needed for you to become an owner of a property here in Croatia.
For a starter we need to distinguish your buyer’s status. If you are non-EU citizen then you’ll need to send few additional documents to the Ministry of Justice of Republic of Croatia to claim the ownership of the real estate. Everything else is the same, under the presumption that you are eligible to buy a real estate in Croatia from the aspect of your resident country.
We’ll discuss those additional documents later on. For now, let’s start with the obvious and usual documents that exist in a legal matter of a real estate purchase.
Basic Documents
For the identification purposes your passport will do, while in some cases you might be asked to acquire a PIN from the local Tax Administration Office.
Then, you need to visit the local Land Registry office and acquire the Land Registry Entry for the specific real estate. That’s your very first step, even before you speak with the seller.
That way you’ll ensure that no waste of time will occur if the real estate itself has some irregularities. Ultimately you’ll know who the real owner of the property is.
Next document is of course Sales Contract itself.
Sales Contract
Now, the Sales Contact is the central document of every purchase agreement, and same applies to the real estate affairs. In short, a real estate Sales Contract is a legal document through which buyer is guaranteeing the payment for the property, while seller is guaranteeing the right of the buyer to claim the ownership of the purchased real estate.
For the Sales Contract to be a valid document it must contain certain elements within; otherwise it won’t be applicable for any further procedures.
The key elements of every Real Estate Sales Contract:
· Names, residential addresses and citizenship of the parties involved in a deal – seller and the buyer, with the correlating ID types and numbers of those IDs, separately for the seller and for the buyer.
· A detailed description of a real estate, including the entries from the Land Registry Certificate of the property. This means that you have to: enter the official number of the Certificate (Ownership Certificate); exact name of the Land Registry County in which a real estate is, and describe the property additionally using the plain words. This last may seem irrelevant but in practice it showed itself as a very useful tool. Also, the exact address or a precise location of the property is essential.
· Agreed price stated in HRK (Croatian national currency – Croatian Kuna).
· The statement from the seller that he is giving the absolute rights to the buyer to claim the ownership of the property after the signing of the Contract. This is also known as the Intabulandi clause or a statement through which the seller agrees that buyer can initiate the process of registration of ownership in the Land Registry. It can be a part of the Sales Contract or as separate document attached to the Contract.
· The statement of both seller and buyer that the payment has been made in full and it’s verified with the signing of the Sales Contract.
· The statement from the seller that there are no restrictions connected with the property (previous mortgage, third party claims, etc…), and that he or she is the sole owner. · The statement from the seller and the buyer that the buyer is in possession of the property from the moment of the signing of the Contract and therefore is responsible for the expenses related to the real estate from that moment on.
Additional Documents for Non-EU Citizens
When in a situation where you would like to buy a real estate in Croatia and you’re not an EU citizen, but are the citizen of the country which has signed the Mutual Reciprocity Agreement with Croatia, you’ll need to assemble some additional documents. This is due to your obligation to file for the request of the approval for the ownership claim from the Ministry of Justice of Republic of Croatia.
Attached to your request, following documents are required:
· Legal basis for acquiring the property (purchase and sale agreement, donation of property, agreement on life time maintenance, inheritance documents and similar) in a form of the original issue or a certified copy;
· Evidence of the ownership from the vendor/alienator of an estate, or a Land Registry Certificate, in a form of the original issue or a certified copy, not older than six months; · Certificate from a local government's administrative body empowered for the urbanism and land use planning, based on the location of the estate and on a legal status of the estate (is estate situated within the boundaries of a construction area defined in the urban development plan?);
· Evidence of acquirer's citizenship (certified copy of the passport and similar) or evidence of the status of a legal representative (excerpt from the court’s register);
· If requestor is represented by a counsel, it is necessary to provide a license in a form of the original issue or a certified copy;
· If requestor does not have a counsel to represent him, and he is staying abroad, he is obligated to appoint a counsel for receiving the written documents with the residence in the Republic of Croatia.
This is basically all of the needed documents. Now, if you are about to get the mortgage loan from the bank here in Croatia, you’ll probably need the additional documents as the bank will sure request for those.
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