Buying from a vendor still awaiting permission.

[Carol]

I am buying from a German with the valid purchasing contract from the previous
owner. The German seller has bought the house and is the legal owner of
the property, but she is not yet registered in the Land Registry due to the slow legal processes in Croatia .My agent tells me there is no legal obstacles or any title problems with
the house, and that I should complete the purchase.and that it is usual for properties to change hands in this manner and that, under Croatian
law, once the contracts and money have been exchanged the property is legally owned by the
purchaser.
The only problem will be a long wait for permission.
I would appreciate your thoughts.
The other question is that I am being asked to complete in Kuna-rather than euros.
Thankyou
Carol

[Jim]

Hi Carol
Are you just using the agents lawyer? I'd get the papers checked by a local lawyer as well. There might be a mortgage or something. its probably ok but I'd check.

Kuna are normal. Croatians just always quote big ticket items in Euro but you always pay in kuna. They used to do the same in DM

[Peter Ellis]

Hello Carol

This sounds plausible but may reflect a problem also. Do you know how long ago the German lady bought the property? Also, where is it? The registration process time does vary from one part of Croatia to another. Usually, places like Korcula and Peljesac are slower than places like Istria, where it is normally about 6 months.
However, if the property is being sold relatively quickly after being bought by someone, I would question closely why. Have they encountered a problem of some sort?
Structural? Legal? Neighbours? Certainly the longer times experienced by some people registering are also often because documentation is not matching up or an important document is still being demanded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that is not available. If this is the case, you could have a problem, too.
On the other hand, it could all be perfectly genuine.

Our legal department has a service where they will check out a property's documentation and provenance for 250Euro plus any disbursements. This sounds like an occasion when it could be money well spent.

As a general point, when people buy property in the UK and Ireland, both sides would normally protect their interests by having their own solicitors. Few seem to do so here in Croatia. I wonder why, since the proportion of properties with defective paperwork is higher here, with more need to be protected. We usually represent both parties ourselves, but we are very careful to be open about everything and want buyers and sellers to be satisfied and recommend us to others! So that we don't get into difficult situations, we tend to check property before we sell it and then we can do clean deals. We also usually do the presentations to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs afterwards on behalf of the buyer, so we are already looking out to make sure everything will be available.

However, consider a vendor who is short of money and owns a property with poor papers. He needs to sell and offers a lawyer who just draws up a contract. The contract might stand up. However, when you go to apply to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs you are asked for documents that you cannot produce. You can't get your money back as the guy has probably spent it and you are now in the same boat. You've a property that you cannot register or sell to someone else if they have a half way decent lawyer. There are far more of these situations around down here.
If you have any doubts, get yourself a lawyer.
Our legal department can do it if you want. We also declare our fee structure on our website so that clients don't get any surprises!
www.croatiapropertyservices.com/index.asp?cmd=feescale

Best regards

[Clare]

Hi Carol

I am making a program about people buying property abroad for Channel 4. We (Ricochet South) are looking at the common problems that face people when buying all over Europe and farther a field. So far we are looking into Cypress, France, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Italy and Croatia. Our aim is to try and advise the wider audience of how to avoid certain issues such as land laws, red tape, getting the deeds to the house, natural disasters, inheritance laws and huge unfinished renovation projects to name a few.

Each program looks at 6 stories (different property problems) and each week we are able to help with one of the property problems. So far we have negotiated between troublesome neighbours, helped get planning permission for illegal extensions, project managed unsatisfactory building work and in one case we have helped a home owner in Spain get given a new flat after theirs was destroyed by a compulsory purchase order. Obviously we can not help all the stories but overall we aim just inform people of the common misconceptions and pitfall overseas property buyers face.

Please email me at [e-mail] or ring me on 0044 1273 648340 and maybe we can talk about your property problems. Also please feel free to pass my details to anyone you think may help.

Many thanks
Clare Milward
0044 1273 648340
[e-mail]
www.ricochetsouth.co.uk – please take a look at our web site