Lawyers Greece - Property / Real Estate
Generally, there are no restrictions in purchasing property in Greece, apart from certain specified by law areas, for which a special license is required for non E.U. citizens or companies. For the legal or physical E.U entities all restrictions have been lifted long ago for the whole Greek territory, so that the E.U. citizens and companies can purchase property in Greece under the same terms and conditions as the Greek citizens and companies.
1. Costs of acquiring and maintaining property in Greece
• The cost of purchasing property in Greece should be estimated 6% to 7% of the purchase price approximately, depending on the contract’s price and the professionals involved.
• Of which 3,1% approximately is transfer tax.
• Annual property tax depends on the particular property (size, location, etc.).
2. Procedure
• Property contracts in Greece are notarial acts, namely drawn, signed and filed by Notaries, who in the Greek legal system are public servants and represent the state in all property contracts. Notaries maintain all original contracts in their archives and can provide authorized copies to the contracting parties.
• Each contract gets registered (transcribed) at the land registry of the area of the property.
• A topographic drawing is also required, stamped by a qualified professional, usually civil engineer or the qualified topographer, which imprints the property and secures the building conditions and the legality of the building(s), if any. Also a so called „energy efficiency certficate” is required for buildings above 50 sq. meters in area.
3. Lawyer’s tasks in specific
Vendee’s lawyer is the person to perform a full legal check in order to protect the client’s interests in this process. The standard check of the Lawyer includes:
i. Title check in order to secure that the ownership status of the vendor is solid and without any legal defects; to ensure that the continuity of the owners before the vendor has not been “broken” at any point in the past; that all contracts up to date were signed legally.
ii. Property current legal status check in order to secures that there are no incumbencies, mortgages, confiscations, claims, or any other real property rights registered on the property.
iii. In case the vendor is a legal entity, the Lawyer of the vendee has also to ensure that the status of the company is in perfect legal; that the director or the proxy or the legal representative of the company is authorized to sign and commit the company with his or her signature ; that the relevant decisions of the board of directors ensure the legality of the procedure.
The overall inspection of the procedure usually belongs to the duties of the lawyer, as he or she is the representative of the client, most of the times with authority to execute orders due to relevant power of attorneys.
