Real Estate

For most people involved, buying a property eclipses all other transactions in terms of financial significance alone. Significant amounts of savings must be invested and additional loans taken out. For the seller, too, real estate is often the most significant item in their personal assets.

We draft and certify purchase agreements for land, residential and apartment buildings, condominiums, hereditary building rights, and commercial real estate of all kinds. The notary is responsible for the legal aspects of the property purchase; the agreement is drafted by the notary for both parties, seller and buyer, in a balanced manner and in accordance with current law. The notary does not assess the economic issues, in particular the appropriateness of the purchase price. The financing of the purchase price is also the responsibility of the buyer. You should discuss this with your bank in good time. We will then coordinate the due date of the purchase price and the handover date in the contract text.

At the notary's office, we will also take care of all the documents required for the execution of the purchase agreement and handle the correspondence with the land registry and the authorities.

To ensure that everything runs smoothly and that you can provide us with the information relevant to the preparation of your purchase agreement as easily as possible, we have summarized the information we require in a questionnaire below, which you can fill out directly on your screen.

There are often various reasons for wanting to transfer assets during one's lifetime. In addition to business succession, the transfer of real estate is also very important in practice. If the transfer takes place as a gift with a view to future succession, this is referred to as anticipated succession.

Transfers of real estate, inheritance and business shares, as well as promises of gifts, require notarization, as do waivers of inheritance and compulsory portions. Notaries are your expert assistants in this matter.

When deciding whether a gift should be made by transfer during the lifetime of the donor, by last will and testament, or possibly by a combination of both, the respective advantages and disadvantages must be carefully weighed. One argument against a transfer during the lifetime of the donor is that the object is withdrawn from the donor. Once a gift has been made, it can no longer be sold or otherwise transferred by the donor. Reclaiming the gift is only possible to a limited extent under the law, but can be agreed in the transfer agreement under certain conditions. On the other hand, transfer during one's lifetime also offers considerable advantages. Examples include:

• Transferring real estate from parents to children can make it easier for them to set up their own household or professional life.
• The donor can relieve themselves of the burden of managing the property, while at the same time ensuring that they can continue to use the object of the gift, e.g., a house property (right of residence, usufruct).
• The seller's care can be ensured within the framework of the transfer agreement (e.g., agreement on a life annuity or a so-called retirement allowance).
• The compulsory portion claims of the acquirer and third parties can be limited under certain conditions.
• Gift and inheritance tax allowances can be utilized multiple times by spreading the taxable transactions over time.

Good legal advice is necessary to find the right path in each individual case. Your notary will help you find a solution tailored to your needs! However, please do not forget the tax aspect: Notaries are not allowed to advise on tax matters, so it is always necessary to consult a tax advisor, especially in complex matters or when it comes to valuation issues.

In order to be able to respond to your personal concerns as effectively and quickly as possible, we have developed a questionnaire, which you will find below. Please take your time to fill it out and send it to us. It will facilitate the relevant consultations and also help us to prepare a draft contract. We look forward to assisting you with your project!

A land charge is a right in rem entered in the land register and usually serves as security for a cash loan. It is abstract—that is, it exists independently of the underlying claim and therefore does not automatically expire when the loan is repaid; this distinguishes it from a mortgage. Land charges can be created not only for credit institutions but also for private lenders. Due to their entry in the land register, they require the involvement of a notary. This applies to both the creation and the subsequent deletion of the land charge once the loan has been duly repaid. Particular attention should be paid to the so-called land charge certificate, a special document that can document the existence of a land charge in addition to the entry in the land register. It is rather rare nowadays, and for good reason: if it is lost, a time-consuming so-called summons procedure must be carried out in order to have the certificate declared invalid and thus ineffective; until then, the right cannot be deleted from the land register.