Following is a excerpt from a document published by World Bank regarding procedure for foreigners acquiring properties in Croatia. Maybe it does not answer Your question completely, but I hope it helps.
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Property Titling – Croatia
Data as of: January 2004
City: Zagreb
Property value: $ 267,500 = HRK 1,637,100
Registration Requirements:
Procedure 1. Obtain a land register extract from the competent land register court
Time to complete: 1-21 days
Cost to complete: HRK 20 per page
Comments:
Obtaining a land register extract has become a crucial part during the preparation process for the
purchase of a real estate, since the land register extract - generally - enjoys public faith.
Due diligence requires that the buyer knows the status of the land register. Not knowing it can also
result in material adverse consequences with respect to statutory warranty claims.
Obtaining the land register extract usually takes between 1 day and 3 weeks, depending on
whether the person obtaining the extract is experienced in these activities or not and in whether
the land register is computerized or not. Under adverse circumstances, obtaining extracts can also
take longer, especially if the land register is not computerized at all (still the case with land
registers at the coast).
Procedure 2. The sale contract is verified by a public notary
Time to complete: 1-2 days
Cost to complete: HRK 47 per signature verified by public notary
Comments:
The contract of sale, that contains a clausula intabulandi (i.e. the declaration by the seller that the
purchaser may be entered in the land register), is prepared by the parties or by a lawyer and the
signatures are verified by a public notary, who in this way checks the identity of the buyer and the
seller.
It is common in practice that a lawyer is hired to do all the necessary preparations. If a lawyer
prepares the sale contract, it will cost about 1% of the property price
The documentation shall include:
Land register extract (obtained in Procedure 1)
Procedure 3. Submit the sale contract to the tax administration on the municipal level for
payment of land transfer taxes
Time to complete: 30 days
Cost to complete: No cost
Comments:
The buyer shall submit the sale agreement to the tax administration on the City/Municipality level
for payment of land transfer taxes.
The tax administration passes a decision on the amount of taxes payable within 30 days and sends
this decision to the address of the person who submitted the sale agreement. Along with this
decision of the tax administration, a payment slip is attached, with the exact amount of the tax
due, and with the exact bank account number indicated, on which the payment of the tax should
be exercised.
This procedure is no precondition for registering the sale agreement in the land register.
The notary public shall also report the sale agreement to the tax administration on the
City/Municipality level for payment of land transfer taxes.
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Both, the buyer and the notary have the legal obligation to deliver the contract of sale to the
taxation office within 30 days.
The party obligated to pay the taxes is the buyer who must pay the amount set by the decision of
the taxation office. However, if the buyer does not fulfill that duty it must pay and additional 20%
of the tax ordered by the taxation office. It is important to note that if the buyer does not pay the
tax, it will not stop its right to register the ownership
Procedure 4. Payment of transfer taxes, stamp duty and registration fees at a
commercial bank or post office
Time to complete: 1 day
Cost to complete: HRK 50 (stamp duty) + HRK 200 (registration fee) + 2.5% of property value
(land transfer tax)
Comments:
Before applying for registration the land transfer tax, stamp duty, and registration fee must be
paid.
The payment slip obtained for the payment of the land transfer tax in Procedure 3, as well as
registration fee and the stamp duty can be paid in the post offices or in the commercial banks, but
always only to the indicated bank account number (which is the account number of the State's
budget).
The stamp duty amounts to HRK 50 and the registration fee to HRK 200.
The land transfer tax is 2.5% of the property value
Procedure 5. Apply for registration at the Registry Office
Time to complete: 30-90 days (2-3 years in practice)
Cost to complete: Already paid in Procedure 4
Comments:
The request for the property registration must be submitted to the Registry by the parties.
It is not mandatory the participation of an attorney, but if one is involved, his fees will be about
0.5% of the property value
The Registry conducts the registration procedure and renders the decision issuing the property
title.
The process of recording the sale agreement with the competent land register court should take
between 30 and 90 days, when the proceedings are conducted by an experienced lawyer.
However, at certain land register courts (such as land registers that still process the data without
any computer-aided support, land registers that are in the phase of restructuring or moving, if
qualified personnel is missing or if the land register is understaffed), the recording process can
even take up to 2-3 years. The Registries are much behind these legal frames. Only the Registry in
Koprivnica is up to date condition, with only 10 unsolved cases in the last year. The Registries in
Rijeka, Zagreb, Split and Zadar are very slow (the Registry in Zagreb has about 100 000 unsolved
cases in the same year).
It should be highlighted that only the final decision, the one alowing the registration, produces the
legal effect.
However, regardless of the time when the final decision is rendered, the date of applying for
registration will be the date marked in the Registry as the moment of transering the ownership
title. From that moment the party is protected towards all applications submitted afterwords. This
rule is called the rule of priority: the buyer has the legal right to dispose with the property (to sell,
lease, bequeath, transfer by gift, mortgage the property). From that moment until the final
registration the buyer has "quasi ownership". Therefore, even before the registration is completed,
the first buyer - quasi owner can sell the property to another, second buyer. However there is a
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risk if the final registration of the first buyer - quasi owner is not allowed. In that case he will be
liable for damage towards the second buyer. In practice the other contractual party will probably
not be willing to enter into the legal transactions with the person who is not the legal owner of the
real-estate in question (or take the risk).
The documentation shall include:
Notarized sale agreement
Best regards,
Mario Mendes
Broker CO.
Osjecka 11
SPLIT
CROATIA
tel.:++385 21 547 004
mob.:++385 91 783 8139
www.croatiaproperty.org
