Hungarian Buyer Permission

[eucomis1]

Hi all,

We're on the point of selling one of our apartments. I'm hoping for some advice on what permissions hungarian nationalities require to buy privately in Croatia.

1. Application to Ministry for Justice for permission to buy.
Any information on what documents are required for the application would be welcome.
The reason I ask the above is that the contract is asking for all sorts of original documents to be handed over on signing the sales contract, which I think is just to save the buyers or their agents the trouble of running round getting their own copies.
Or if anybody knows what are the usual documents that have to be handed over in a sale (not just provided for inspection) that would be great.
Also, from this forum I'm hearing that the waiting time has reduced considerably (we're in Split area). Any recent experience?

2. Permission from the County of Split. I have been told that hungarian nationals also need an extra permission from the county of Split to buy. Does anybody have any info?

Another issue - the first sales contract draft had a condition that if the buyers were refused permission to buy, then we would have to refund their purchase price plus compensation i.e. we assume all the risk while they have the free use of an apartment for x number of years. I have been told this is standard croatian law. Obviously we will not sign for that. We have heard that usual way of getting round the possibility of refusal is that either the contract specifies that buyer has the right to nominate someone else to buy, or that they set up a company and transfer the right to buy to the company. Any info?

Thanks in advance.

[Aleksandra]

Regarding the second issue - usually there is a power of attorney given to buyer from the seller so that they can sell the property to the third party (which can be their company or someone third) if the permission is not granted. A clause can be built into the contract specifying this, for example, the clause in the purchase contract may read something alongside these lines:

"The sellers are made aware that their own legal obligation is that, should the permission from Ministry of Justice for the property defined in article x.xx be refused to the buyers, the sellers have to return to buyers the full purchase price of the property. To relieve the sellers of this legal obligation to buyers, the sellers oblige that, for the purpose of fulfilling legal rights to buyers, the sellers will immediately upon signing this contract sign the power of attorney where they entitle buyer in this contract, that at their own choice and will enter into contract with other third parties with regards to selling the property defined in article x.xx and to receive monies from third party as a result of such transaction and that in this way get back purchase price paid to seller.

If the buyers exercise their right to sell the property to third party under the power of attorney granted by the seller in article x.xx, the seller agrees that if the achieved selling price to the third party is higher than the purchase price stated article x.xx, the buyers have the full right to keep the difference in selling price. If the achieved selling price to the third party is lower than the purchase price defined in article x.xx, the buyers are forfeiting the right to ask the seller to make up the difference. "

[Aleksandra]

eucomis1 said:

2. Permission from the County of Split. I have been told that hungarian nationals also need an extra permission from the county of Split to buy. Does anybody have any info?

I have just checked Croatian government web site on permissions and the extra County permission for Hungarian citizens is not specific to County of Split. Basically, the Croatian regulations regarding permission for Hungarian citizens say that Hungarian citizens need extra permission of the County in which the property is located. if the County objects to the sale, permission will not be granted. In any case, if Hungarian citizen has 5 years residency permit, the permission will be always granted (subject to other usual exclusions, e.g. forests, farmland, etc). Hope this helps.

[eucomis1]

My apologies for the delay in replying. I was travelling and had no chance to login. Thank you for the information and research. That is very useful to know.

While I'm here I have another question. We bought our property as a company but the 'Izvadak iz zemljisne knijige' or what I refer to to as the ABC document from the Opcina had not yet been updated to show us as the owner on the 'B' section. We do however have a Plombe (condition) in the 'C' section showing that we did buy the property and on what date etc.
Even though every estate agent we've spoken to assures us that this is sufficient proof of ownership (and we have all builking, usage certs etc) our potential buyers are insisting that our name must be at the top 'B' section before they will sign a contract. First time we checked how long it would take at opcina we were told 6 months, next visit it had gone up to 1 year so we have no way of knowing how long this would take.
My question is, has anybody any experience with this? Is it a reasonable demand?