Such a serious purchase as real estate requires significant financial and emotional costs. And now, when the dream apartment has already been chosen and the decision to purchase it has been made, it is important to know all those aspects that will help you protect yourself from dishonest developers and further problems.
What to pay attention to when buying an apartment will be told by lawyer Yulia Bakhmatskaya
- Yulia, tell me, what data should one have when buying an apartment in a new building or in an object under construction, in order to maximally protect oneself from possible risks?- First of all, you need to conduct reconnaissance.
At this stage, it is important to gather information about the developer's relationship with investors upon handover of previous projects.
You can gather information from the Internet, from acquaintances' reviews, by reading forums. The information you obtain should answer two questions:
- were the handover conditions of the construction object violated previously by the developer (handover dates, object condition, amounts of hidden costs, maintenance of the building after handover),
- how «alive» and spotless is the developer's reputation (we recommend checking the developer company in court registries for the presence/absence of lawsuits).
On our part, we always check court registries up to the European Court of Human Rights for the presence of lawsuits involving the company – the developer, contractor, and related persons. Such lawsuits may come from dissatisfied buyers, municipal authorities, or angry neighbors. We also study the issue of the presence of arrest, prohibition of alienation, mortgages, and, of course, the right of use/ownership of the land under construction.
- Having obtained information that does not raise suspicions for us, we move on to the second stage. What does it consist of?
- Absolutely correct, the second stage is the verification and analysis of the developer company's documents and evaluation of the offer.
What should the company representative show? Documents that grant the right to build.
Key documents for the commencement of construction:
- Permit to perform construction works or Declaration of the commencement of construction works.
It is important to note that a similarly sounding Declaration of the commencement of preparatory works does not grant the right to build; based on such a declaration, the site may be prepared before planned construction – tree felling, site clearance, and waste removal. It is essential to distinguish preparatory works from construction works.
Since June 10, legislative changes have come into force – now the right to perform construction works on objects with medium and significant consequence classes arises after obtaining a permit, i.e., declarations of the commencement of construction works registered after 10.06.2017 will at least raise suspicions.
Each declaration or permit may be revoked, so we also check whether there are any orders canceling the permit. After all, it is easy to show an investor a copy of a permit/declaration that has already been canceled by an order of the State Architecture and Construction Control (GASCa), sign a contract, and yet construction never begins.
- Documents confirming rights to the land plot.
Among such documents there may be a great variety of grounds – the developer may have purchased the land, received it as a gift, inherited it, leased it (from a private individual, from the city, from the UKS), or have the right to build, etc. The most important here is to pay attention to such moments – the land's designated use, lease term, presence of co‐owners. The designated use must correspond to what is stated in‐‐
