Checklist – Real estate purchase contract

If you omit some, you could be out of pocket, or worse, you could lose large sums of money. It is therefore always advisable to have the purchase contract and subsequently the escrow agreement drawn up by a professional who will also check the following points.

So what to remember?

• Legal defects in the property(liens, pre-emption rights, easements, restrictions on ownership rights, seals…)
• Debts on the house, apartment (arrears to the repair fund)
• Actual defects in the property (technical condition, electricity, water, gas, internet, sewerage/septic system)
• Heritage protection of the property
• Property in a National Park or Protected Landscape Area
• Execution, insolvency of the seller

• Cooperative apartment – check the statutes of the cooperative (rights and obligations)
• SVJ – statutes
• Information about life in and around the house
• Financing and specific terms of any mortgage bank
• New construction – warranty period
• Property tax
• Change of permanent residence (seller’s deregistration or buyer’s registration)

Please note that the real estate acquisition tax has been abolished and the effective date in this respect is 31 March 2020. For more information, see the article Abolition of real estate acquisition tax.

In the contract then:

• Identification of the contracting parties
• Designation of the property
• Purchase price and method of payment
• Acceptance of the property – when, where, how, – handover protocol
• Rights and obligations of the seller, the buyer
• Contractual penalties
• Signatures
• Escrow agreement
• Application for deposit

We will check all these points and will be happy to help you with everything.

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