ZERP - Christoph U. Schmid Peter Sparkes - Cross Border Transactions with Immovables

The first limits temporally (from 10 to 99 years) the ownership of the transferred land – the interesting idea behind 6 being to render ownership cheaper and thus more easily accessible; the second pursues a similar objective by combining the acquisition of a certain quota of the immovable (say 25%) with the lease of the remaining quota. [...] In most civilian states the notary does the land register search, and it is the du- ty of the notary to inform the buyer of the legal state of the property, including whether there is a mortgage; this is true for example in Germany, Poland and Spain. [...] For instance, the buyer needs to be aware of the consequences of service charge default – fines, civil sanctions, a temporary takeover of the apartment by the company, or the possibility of sale of the apartment – and also alerted if there is an arrears problem in the block generally. [...] Therefore, the foreign purchaser should check before the acquisition if there are some debts on the part of the seller that can lead to the creation of a mortgage or similar interest by operation of law for the benefit of the state. [...] Such information should include, for example, the necessity of a survey on the conditions of the 19 house; explain what kind of information can be gained from the register and what not; the possible existence of rights off the register and public law regula- tion capable of devaluating the property; the requirements and dangers of the purchase of new build property; the availability and rough cost.