Buying Property in Crete - Contract Preparation

The Notary, who will write the contract for the plot of land or house that you have bought, is appointed by you but does not act for either party, sitting in the middle as an independent facilitator. Notaries are lawyers who have passed additional exams to qualify as a Notary. The Greek word for Notary translates as "contract writer".

Before the Notary can write the Contract she needs lots of information which we are responsible for collecting. All the details that are required to write the contract are collated by us and handed in a file to the Notary. The Notary is also responsible for calculating the Objective Tax Value and thus the taxes and other expenses that relate to this value.

Property transfer contracts are very straightforward in Greece. The first section identifies all the parties including the Notary. The second section is a detailed description of the property and refers to the topographic plan that forms part of the contract. The third section deals with the title of the current owner(s) and the history of that title. Then the actual details of the transfer are recorded and all the Greek laws that everyone is compliant with. In all contracts are about ten to twelve pages long.

As well as the topographic plan, several other bits of paper are attached to the contract including receipts for property purchase tax, a certificate from the Greek Inland Revenue stating that the seller owes no taxes, a statement from the water authority that he owes no water bills and a statement from the municipality that local taxation is up to date. These are all referenced in the contract.

Once the contract is prepared it is passed to the lawyers for their checks and then the contract meeting can be organised.