Before the notary appointment
Once buyer and seller have agreed on the main terms, a notary can be commissioned to draft the contract and handle notarization. Typically the buyer takes this step.
The notary inspects the land register and reviews the entries it contains. They then draft the purchase contract and send it to the parties.
If one party is a consumer, meaning they are entering into the contract for private purposes, the Notarization Act requires the notary to observe a 14-day review period between sending the draft and the notarization itself.
Notarization
At the notarization appointment, open questions can be discussed with the notary and, if both sides agree, last adjustments can be made to the contract. If the object of the sale is a condominium apartment, the contract also references the declaration of division (Teilungserklärung) and the certificate of completeness (Abgeschlossenheitsbescheinigung).
The notary informs the parties of any potential rights of first refusal (for example after a first sale following the division of a building, or the municipal right of first refusal). Once no objections to the draft remain, the notary notarizes the contract: they read the entire contract aloud and have both parties sign.
The buyer does not have to attend the signing in person and can be represented instead. When a consumer is involved, the notary should encourage personal attendance, though this is not mandatory. If the buyer cannot attend, a so-called representative without power of attorney is a popular option. Compared to having the buyer's and seller's declarations notarized separately, this is cheaper because only a subsequent signature certification fee is incurred. More on that below.
After notarization
Immediately after notarization, the notary reports the sale to the tax office, which issues the property transfer tax assessment on this basis. Only after the transfer tax has been paid does the tax office issue the clearance certificate (Unbedenklichkeitsbescheinigung) to the notary. Without this certificate, the notary may not initiate the transfer of ownership.
If a municipal right of first refusal is possible, the notary also informs the municipality of the sale. A separate article covers the details of the municipal right of first refusal.
To execute the purchase contract, the notary arranges with the land registry office for a priority notice (Auflassungsvormerkung) to be entered in favor of the buyer. If the property is encumbered with land charges or other liens but the contract calls for an unencumbered transfer, the notary takes care of removing these liens. They have the encumbrances deleted from the land register once the corresponding release authorizations are presented. These authorizations may be issued on the condition that the notary settles the outstanding debt by forwarding part of the purchase price to the financing bank.
When the purchase price becomes due
The buyer only has to pay the purchase price once it becomes due. The notary sends the buyer a notice of due date as soon as all conditions specified in the contract are met. Typical conditions are registration of the priority notice, presentation of all required release authorizations and, for condominium apartments, usually the property manager's consent. Only once these conditions are fulfilled does the buyer pay the purchase price.
If the contract was concluded by a representative without power of attorney, subsequent approval by the represented party is required. This approval does not need to be notarized; a simple signature certification is sufficient.
Special rules apply to foreign buyers and sellers. The subsequent approval can be given abroad. In some cases, foreign documents require an apostille or even full legalization. The apostille is a simplified form of authentication of foreign documents through the authorities of the country in which they were issued. Legalization, by contrast, is considerably more complex. With legalization, the document is first authenticated as for an apostille (an additional pre-certification may be required), and this authentication is then confirmed by the German diplomatic mission on site. A list of which form of authentication is required for which country can be found, for example, at the German Notary Institute. Signature certifications can usually be performed at German missions abroad, in which case the otherwise required apostille or legalization is no longer needed. This can lead to substantial savings on fees.
Entry in the land register
The whole process ends with the buyer being entered as owner in the land register. At that point the acquisition is complete and the transfer of ownership is final. The notary then has the priority notice deleted from the land register, as it has fulfilled its protective purpose.
How long the process takes from contract draft to entry as owner is hard to estimate in any individual case, given the many factors and authorities involved. In simple cases, the entry may happen within a few months; in more complex situations, the final entry can take up to a year.
