The seller and the buyer agree: 30% now, the rest in six months, and the flat will be re-registered once it is paid in full. They sign a "preliminary agreement" at an estate agent's or at home, and the seller writes a receipt. Six months later the price has gone up, or the seller has changed their mind, died, divorced, had the property attached, or simply sold the flat to someone else. The buyer turns up with the paper — and finds out they cannot claim the flat.

A preliminary agreement without a notary is void

A preliminary agreement is made in the form required for the main one. An agreement for the sale of housing must be notarised. So a preliminary agreement for a flat can only be notarised too.

Without notarisation the agreement is void: it creates no rights from the moment it is signed, and no court decision is needed for that.

Scroll the diagram sideways →

Advance or deposit: what you will get back

The seller must return money handed over under a void agreement. But only the amount you actually paid — without a "double deposit".

A deposit that the seller returns twice over secures a monetary obligation. A preliminary agreement contains no such obligation, only a duty to sign the main agreement. So courts as a rule treat such a sum as an advance: it is returned once, however many times the paper calls it a "deposit".

A receipt: what it proves

A receipt proves that the seller received the money. You will need it to get the sum back. It gives neither ownership nor the right to claim the flat.

For a receipt to work in court, it must contain:

• full names, dates of birth, passport details and tax numbers (RNOKPP) of both parties;
• the amount in figures and words, and the currency;
• what the money was paid for: the address of the flat and the registration number of the property;
• the date and place it was written;
• the seller's handwritten signature — or better, the whole text in their handwriting.

Scroll the diagram sideways →

How to pay in instalments without the risk: a loan secured by a mortgage

To a buyer who pays before re-registration, we recommend signing not a "preliminary agreement" but a loan agreement secured by a mortgage over the same flat.

Scroll the diagram sideways →

The loan. The buyer hands the money to the seller as a loan — notarised, with a schedule and a repayment date.

The mortgage. As security, the seller mortgages the flat to the buyer. The notary registers the encumbrance in the State Register of Property Rights and imposes a ban on disposal: the seller can no longer sell, give away or resell the flat without the mortgagee's consent.

The finish. After full payment, the parties sign the sale agreement at the same notary, the loan is set off against the price, and the mortgage is lifted the same day. If the seller backs out, your money is secured by the flat: you can enforce against the mortgaged property instead of chasing the seller with a receipt for years.

The other way round: the flat is handed over now and paid for later

Then it is the seller who takes the risk. For this there is a sale agreement with payment by instalments: ownership passes to the buyer at once, but until it is paid in full the flat is pledged to the seller. This agreement is notarised too.

What to do

In short

A preliminary agreement for a flat without a notary is void, and a notarised one only obliges the parties to sign the main agreement — it will not get you the flat. Courts as a rule return a "deposit" under such an agreement once, as an advance. A receipt proves the money was handed over, and nothing more. If you pay before re-registration, sign a loan secured by a mortgage over that flat and pay through a bank. If the money has already been paid and the seller has backed out, do not delay: the limitation period is three years, but the flat may change hands much sooner.