Updated: 15/08/2022
If you buy real estate it can occur that the seller gets a better offer after concluding your sale and purchase agreement, or it can be you who takes the better offer not knowing that the seller accepted someone else’s offer or sold her real estate to before you. Double sell is obviously against the law, but it isn’t much of a comfort to the buyer who paid deposit or purchase price but can’t acquire ownership. Taking this into consideration it is better to prevent difficulties than treating it subsequently.
There are two options: you are the earlier buyer and the next buyer’s agreement is concluded later than yours, or you are the latter buyer and your agreement is the one which has been concluded later. It is important to know that not only the agreement but the registration of ownership by the land registry is also needed in order to acquire real estate.
Both cases should be investigated. Let’s start with the one when you are the earlier buyer and the seller gets a better offer after signing your agreement:
In this case your agreement concluded before agreement of the next buyer who made a better offer. The guarantee that you will be the owner of the real estate is not based on that your agreement was concluded before the next buyer’s agreement, but it is based on that your request for ownership is submitted before the next buyer’s request. The reason of this is that the land registry registers the requests based on when those requests were submitted to the land registry not considering when the agreement has been concluded. Submission of request for ownership is performed by the lawyer who countersigns the sale & and purchase agreement.
In the second case when you are the latter buyer the situation is the following:
In this case your agreement is concluded after the previous buyer’s agreement. You have more control over identifying double sell, because the countersigning lawyer is obliged to download an updated title deed on the day of signing your sale & purchase agreement, before signing, and to check whether it contains a previous buyer’s ownership or a side note about a request of ownership. If such entries exists on the title deed, you must not undersign the sale & purchase agreement and must not pay deposit or purchase price. If you already paid deposit to the seller in this case you are entitled to claim double of the deposit back.
In this case section (2) paragraph 5:38. of the Civil Code protects your ownership which specifies that in order to acquire real estate not only the agreement but the registration of your ownership by the land registry is also needed in order to acquire real estate. This regulation objectively states that what is needed to acquire ownership so matters of good and bad faith or possession are irrelevant. This was also ruled in a case in front of the High Court (BH 2021.1.15.). According to that if you have a valid agreement and a registered ownership, a previous buyer whose ownership is unregistered legally cannot confront you and claim her ownership.
If you plan to buy real estate and you would prefer to have a professional agreement protecting you against double sell for further information or offer contact me below:
📞+36304572289
📧drszalai@drszalailegal.hu
After sending your data we contact you by phone or e-mail and give you a preliminary legal opinion and information on the common processes of similar cases and the foreseeable costs. First contact and consulation is not charged.