Any transaction in the form of purchase and sale involves monetary settlement. Furniture, a fur coat, greens at the grandmother's market - a certain number of notes flows from one purse to another. And there is always a risk of receiving for your hard-earned goods of the wrong quality that they were counting on, or even to be left without it if the seller is a fraudster. Even with a small purchase price, the loss of a few banknotes can cause a deep frustration, but what about millions? For example, when buying an apartment or a house? This is where you should check a hundred times before proceeding with the final calculation.
New building or resale?
The likelihood of acquiring housing "with luggage" - communal debts, unregistered owners of shares and other similar nuances that can subsequently interfere with normal living in personal square meters - is possible when buying property that previously belonged to someone else, the so-called secondary fund housing. When deciding on such a deal, one should know for sure what to look for when buying an apartment or house from the previous owner or his representative. The risk of receiving an unpromising lawsuit instead of housing and ultimately being left without their own angle and without money when buying a secondary property is quite high.
A more reliable option is to purchase an apartment in a new building. Especially if the house has already been commissioned and is at the stage of settlement. In this case, the list of housing documentation required for verification is much shorter. But here, it will not be amiss to get advice on buying an apartment from a developer from an experienced lawyer, since their pitfalls are inherent in any transaction. And in the case of real estate, when it comes to quite significant amounts, you need to be very careful.
The dangers of a clean apartment
Today, the cheapest way to acquire real estate is to participate in shared construction. In this case, you can save up to 30% of the real cost of the apartment. But the risk, after years at the site of the pit to find overgrown wasteland, is also quite high. How to buy an apartment with shared construction - it is better to find out before meeting with the developer, so as not to sign an agreement that will not give any guarantees at the stage of receiving keys to housing. However, even the most reliable document certified by a notary does not protect against losses in certain cases. The developer may go broke, not get permission to build a house at the appointed time, and money by the time all signatures and seals are collected will depreciate. Funds of shareholders sometimes disappear in an unknown direction. When deciding to purchase housing before its construction, buyers should remember that in most cases, if the developer has unforeseen problems, the maximum you can count on is to receive the status of a deceived equity holder, but not the housing itself.
When the house under construction has already been erected under the roof, the likelihood of a quick move into your own housing is much higher than if you purchased it at the stage of digging the pit. Everyone has the right to decide where to buy an apartment, but the desire to save is not always justified. Often becoming a real estate investor for the construction of a residential building is akin to buying a pig in a poke. Money is given, but no goods.
With the option, the house was built and put into operation with the approved technical documentation, you should personally make sure that it is written on paper with what is in reality. Compare the layout before your eyes with the design, the number of square meters of total and usable area, the rights of the developer to sell a specific area. It will not be superfluous to check whether someone is already registered in the new apartment. Twice selling the same housing to different people is far from a new type of fraud.
Pedigree secondary housing
No one is safe from this development of events with the acquisition of their own housing. Checking the legal cleanliness of the apartment can take a lot of time, but you should not neglect it. Tracking the list of previous property owners, the length of their stay at the specified address, marital status, the presence of children and other close relatives is difficult, but possible. In this regard, you can get relevant information and real assistance in several state institutions: the cadastral service, passport office, etc. Full details are necessary so that at the stage of completion of the transaction or after the move in it doesn’t suddenly appear that not all square meters in the apartment belonged to the seller. Part of the living space, and sometimes separate rooms, may be in the possession of other persons. They can demand their rights to these meters at any time. And their claims are more protected by law, in contrast to the desire of the buyer to completely own paid meters.
What to look for when buying an apartment is also technical documentation. Often, residents carry out repairs with the redevelopment of the kitchen, corridor, rooms. Demolish the load-bearing walls, combine a bathroom or, conversely, share a single room. With legal problems, when the right of ownership is at stake, the penalties on the part of BTI in case of detection of a redesign of the layout cannot be compared. But they can bring a lot of trouble. In any case, they will undoubtedly lead to additional cash expenses. Fine, correction of violations in the form of unplanned major repairs - the most likely development of events.
The hidden past of the secondary
In addition to the information that the seller would like to hide before the completion of the transaction, there are many pitfalls, which are often difficult to guess. What to look for when buying an apartment, in addition to the listed nuances? For example, a possible violation of the law during the privatization of acquired real estate.
In the 90s of the last century, a law came into force according to which each square meter was used for each person registered on a certain living space. It applies to all, including young children, former spouses, who remained registered within the same apartment, a temporarily absent relative, for example, a long-term prisoner. Not all family members were indicated in the privatization documentation. But, after a while, they could complain that they had been cheated at the time.
The next nuance is a contract of gift or annuity. Typically, such operations are rarely informed of warring relatives. The truth may come up, after some time, after the purchase of the disputed housing. But the most common surprise that you may encounter when buying real estate is an apartment with a debt for utility bills. Here the problem can be detected before signing the contract, and it is important for the buyer to agree with the seller how to resolve it. As a rule, it is extinguished by reducing the cost of housing. But each case is individual.
The most reliable information
Not all reliable pedigree of this or that real estate is contained in official documents. There are no hidden relatives, potential applicants for housing in them. In addition, utility bills can be paid not by homeowners, but by completely different people to whom it was promised. The scheme is this: elderly apartment owners sign an agreement with distant relatives or social workers that after their death the area will go to them, but they must pay for the communal apartment now. They regularly transfer money to the management company, according to the contract, and consider housing almost their own. Not considering such an arrangement, direct heirs after the death of the elderly try to get rid of an unreliable gift. Registration of the sale of the apartment is taking place, but there are already two applicants for it.
There is the most reliable way to find out about all the possible pitfalls that can overshadow the joy of buying a home - get information about its previous owners from neighbors on the porch or lovers of gossip in the yard. If the apartment has been owned by the same owners for quite some time, no secrets about it can be kept from those living nearby. The information received from them cannot be found in any documents when buying an apartment. Suddenly someone in the seller’s family is a mentally ill person or a disabled person who cannot independently dispose of his property, and the guardian does not consider it necessary to respect his rights. If the new housing is worse than the previous one, the deal can be canceled at the request of the guardianship authorities. Therefore, information from neighbors is also not worth neglecting.
The best realtor is the buyer himself
It is important to remember the following - no remuneration to the intermediary will make him more vigilant when checking documents for the purchase of housing, except for the items specified in the contract. Therefore, when applying for assistance to realtors, it is necessary to clearly state their responsibility to their employer, if suddenly something goes wrong and the deal is disrupted. Buying an apartment through an agency is another rather risky undertaking. In addition, very expensive. The realtor does not collect information about the past of the former owners, does not try to protect his client in the future. He only compares the housing data with those available to official structures. And only after registration of the deed of purchase and payment of real estate, as well as remuneration to the agent, potential applicants for the purchased apartment may appear. In the absolute plus will be one realtor. And previous and new owners will plunge into a series of litigations.
Buying an apartment without intermediaries is also fraught with unforeseen difficulties, if you do not have sufficient grasp, information about all the possible surprises associated with paperwork, transfer of money and other details of the transaction. But among these visible shortcomings, there is one significant advantage: no one will so zealously defend their interests as the one who buys for himself, the one who pays. It is enough to enlist the support of an experienced adviser who can tell about all the tricks of the operation, and the purchased apartment will be checked in the most thorough way.
Fraudsters do not sleep
Selling your apartment is not one of the most common methods of real estate fraud. Experienced scammers have fake documents for the housing itself, the power of attorney by which they are entitled to conduct a transaction often look better than real ones. In the field of sale, leasing of real estate are highly professional scammers who are well aware of all the subtleties of the legal system on this issue. Just a power of attorney is the first thing that should alert the buyer. Why the owner does not sell his home himself, how can he be contacted, if only so that he personally confirms the authority of the intermediary. In any case, checking the documents when buying an apartment, starting with a power of attorney, cannot be avoided by a notary. He must confirm the authenticity of the document, verify its validity. It is best to go to the notary public who executed this power of attorney.
The next scam trick is a fake passport. Homeowners on a long business trip or on vacation, and their area is managed by outsiders who have obtained samples of genuine documents for it or even the originals themselves. There are many criminal schemes by which fraudsters can act. Do not forget about black realtors. So, when planning a purchase of housing, it is better to consult a lawyer and keep a close relationship with him throughout the transaction. He is able to give practical advice on the issue of when it is better to buy an apartment, focusing on the current demand of the real estate market.
Microscope Documentation
No matter how attractive the conditions of the transaction and the favorable price, you should not hurry to pay. First you need to collect second copies or copies of all documents on the housing, its owners and go with all the papers to a notary. If real estate includes underage family members among the owners, the lawyer will tell you how to correctly register a clause on them in the contract. In addition, he will recommend which authorities should be visited, what certificates to obtain so that the rights of young children are not violated, and no one subsequently could recognize the registration of the sale of an apartment as invalid.
Useful legal advice will help with the implementation of the deed of purchase, if the owners are spouses with different shares of ownership of the property, or the apartment is owned only by one of them, and the second is only registered in it. How, in this case, to draw up documents correctly and which receipts to receive - again, you can’t do without a notary public. Even if the buyer himself is a pro in legal matters, every paper certifying the authenticity of the transaction must be carefully checked so that there are no errors in writing the address, information of the seller and buyer, date, amount and other significant details.
The struggle for value
What to look for when buying an apartment, in addition to the points already listed, is the amount of money on the deed drawn up according to the documents and really handed over to you. It is more profitable for the seller to indicate in the income statement (and the sale of housing falls under this provision) the lower cost of the transaction, since he will have to make tax payments on it. The main thing is that the indicated amount should not be lower than the market by 20-30%, as this may cause suspicion of the inspection bodies. If the moment of collusion between the seller and the buyer is proved, then the latter may become involved in the administrative case of fraud.
It is beneficial for the seller to indicate a lower amount, and he may ask the buyer for this service.
It is not worth agreeing for many reasons:
- Firstly, such a concession really violates the current legislation and is fraught with consequences.
- Secondly, the buyer has the right to return about 13% of the amount spent on the purchase of housing. The corresponding opportunity is regulated by the Tax Code.
- Thirdly, if subsequently the transaction is challenged by one of the parties and declared invalid, the seller has the right to return to the buyer only the amount indicated in the documents. The victim will not be able to prove the opposite with a certain figure in the contract.
Smart calculation
And the last big danger that both the seller and the buyer can expect is the final calculation. Difficulties of choice remained behind (to purchase primary or secondary housing), the dates were determined when it was better to buy an apartment, the ordeals of collecting and checking all documents were completed, the accumulation of the necessary amount or obtaining a loan from the bank. And everything can collapse at the last moment, if you do not play it safe with the transfer of money. It can be done by transferring the required number of bills into the hands of the seller, or by transferring to a bank account, which is safer. If we are talking about a large amount, then cash is usually afraid to contact. However, if one of the parties prefers this particular method of settlement, money can be transferred by renting a bank cell, from which the one who presents certain documents is entitled to take it out when buying an apartment. Their list is checked by a specialist institution. He guarantees their authenticity. All the nuances of this type of payment, as well as cashless, can be found in the bank.
What else is important to remember at the stage of the final payment of the cost of the apartment is not to confuse the size of the deposit and advance, since they have different purposes and options for returning if the transaction does not take place for some reason. The advance amount is taken into account in the final calculation, but no deposit. He either returns to the buyer, if the purchase was successful, or remains with the seller, if the operation failed because of his reason. In any case, the deposit upon the failure of the transaction remains with the affected party.