LAW & TAXES

TECHNICAL & LEGAL REQUIREMENTS TRANSACTION
PURCHASE ORDER YOUR PROPERTY IN CRETE
The investor chooses the property (house, apartment, land, etc.) on our website. Once the investor decides the kind of property they wish to buy, visits Crete (during the transaction period investor will have to visit Crete only two times).
Necessary documents: Passport
First visit
Candidate buyer/investor will visit the property he is interested in. After the visit we start all necessary procedures. We help the investor to issue a VAT number on the Greek tax office. Afterwards he signs a private agreement, which entitles a lawyer to open a bank account in the name of the investor. All these processes have a duration of 3 days.
Required controls
After the first visit, followed by a period of 25 days, the civil engineer and the lawyer make all the necessary technical and legal inspection on the property. Our company takes on the following actions: preparing the final contract, the required translations and the opening bank account. When the day for signing the final contract on the notary’s, buyer/investor is informed for their second visit to Greece.
Second visit
The investor, before coming to Greece, deposits the full amount into the bank account and comes to Greece for signing the final contract. After interbank money is paid to the seller and signing the final contract the conveyance of the property is done.
Immediately after the lawyer must submit the documents in the land registry, make all payments to those who was involved in this process and pay all taxes. All payments will be made over the value of the property and the investor will receive the detailed amount during the negotiations. This process takes 2 days.
1. Legal audit of the sold property
Once selected by the interested buyer the property that will be the subject of transaction, a legal review should take place by a lawyer in the relevant Land Registry/ Land Registry Office’s region of the property. Therefore: a) The seller’s acquisition titles will be reviewed and b)It will be established whether the current property is free of charges and claims (i.e. if there is a seizure or is registered mortgage or mortgage prenotation against the property, or if an appeal against the seller has been filed regarding the mentioned property). The continuity of acquisition titles must be reviewed for a minimum period of twenty years. Also, the proper registration of the mentioned acquisition titles in respective local cadastre/Land Registry must be reviewed. The lawyer's payment is tiered and depends on the value of the property. The buyer pays the lawyer to ensure that the property is 100% legally tested.
2. Civil engineer control
The intense building mainly in the large urban centers in Greece during the 1960s and afterwards, resulted in the construction of many buildings in various regions without provision of the respective city planning regulations. However, due to the intense structuring that resulted in massive population growth in large urban centers, laws were adopted relating to the settlement (if applicable) of any existing planning infringements in accordance with applicable laws (L. 3843/2010, 4014/2011 and 4178/2013). Consequently, the prerequisite inspection should be made by a civil engineer who will determine whether the property is buildable and whether the building meets civil structuring regulations, and finally if the property is due contribution in land and money, etc. The remuneration of the engineering depends on the type of work and pay the seller to check the property.

PROPERTY TRANSACTION
Preliminary contract
After the required inspection by the lawyer and the civil engineer and before drawing up the final legal purchase, the parties may proceed to the signing of a preliminary agreement according to which an amount of money will be given by the buyer to the seller as an advance (with the contribution of a Notary- Article 369AK). The impending transaction with the seller will be agreed upon.
With this preliminary agreement the following issues will be mainly defined:

• Property value
• The way of payment
• The conditions to be met for the signing of the final contract (e.g. settlement of town planning breaches or possible legal errors regarding acquisition titles, advance payment if such was agreed in the preliminary contract, etc.)
• The legal consequences of a possible failure to sign the final purchase contract, etc.

Final purchase contract
If all the necessary conditions met, the contracting parties may proceed from the beginning to sign the final contract at the Notary in order to transfer the ownership from the seller to the buyer after gathering all necessary documents from both parties.
The buyer must have acquired a Tax Identification Number (TIN) in Greece and mainly produce the following documents:

• Identity Card or Passport
• Payment of the competent Tax Office of  Real Estate Transfer Tax (RETT) or certification that no tax is owed due to exemption under the provisions for the acquisition of primary residence (according to current legislation the conveyance tax equals to 3% on the objective value of the property sold).

Tax Identification Number
A necessary condition for the signing of either preliminary or final contract is that the buyer must obtain a Tax Identification Number if one has not been acquired yet. Foreign residents abroad receive TIN by the competent Tax Office. The process is relatively simple and it is done at the Tax Office Registration Department which must be presented the following documents:

• Certified copy of passport (With the Hague apostille seal- if necessary).
• Officially translated proxy, if the application and acquisition of TIN will be carried out by an authorized person (with Hague apostille stamp- if necessary).
• Standardized M1 form (statement of TIN justification).
• Standard Form M7 (statement of taxpayer relations).
• In granting TIN to a foreign resident, a procedural representative must be designated, who will be informed about everything that concerns the TIN owner. The procedural representative’s personal information will be filled out in the M7 standard form.

The issuing TIN has no extra charge.
Final contract transcription
A prerequisite to bring about the ownership of the property under sale to the buyer is the transcription of the purchase contract, i.e. the entry in the competent Land Registry or Cadastre for which the buyer is charged 5.75 per mil (5.75 ‰) of the guiding value.
Broker Fee
The broker’s fee, as well as the conditions for the cooperation with the buyer, is agreed in writing. Broker’s fee is calculated based on the agreed purchase price and not on the guiding value.
Attachments for plots

• Evidence of tax clearance (has to mention the property that is transmitted and the reason why it is issued)
• Insurance clearance  from IKA
• Certificate of engineer in accordance with the provisions of N.4178/2013 article 3, paragraph  1a
• ENFIA Certificate article  Ν.4174/ for the year 2014 (by the accountant)
• Topographical at EGSA 87
• Acquisition title, property contract
• Authorization by the competent Region

Attachments for transaction (for urban properties) for the seller

• Evidence of tax clearance (has to mention the property that is transmitted and the reason why it is issued)
• Acquisition contract of the Property
• Building permit (if there is no acknowledgment of permission from DEI to when the building was electrified for the first time) in order to calculate the age
• Certificate of engineer with the provisions of  Ν.4178/2013 article 3 paragraph 1α
• Topographical at EGSA 87 and plans, if any
• ENFIA Certificate  Article  Ν.4174/2013 for the years 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
• Insurance awareness
• Certificate of Energy Performance (PEA) by the competent engineer
• Cadastre with cadastral sheet (if the property owned land area)