How to Check an Apartment Before Buying: a 10-point checklist

Checking an apartment is not one action but three separate ones: checking the title, checking the property itself and checking the seller. Skipping any of them leads to different, but equally expensive consequences.

Step one: the register of property rights

Start with an extract from the State Register of Property Rights. It shows the current owner, the grounds on which the right was acquired, the date of registration and any encumbrances.Three things must match: the owner's surname in the register and in the passport of the person selling, the address and the floor area of the property, and the absence of seizures, mortgages and bans on disposal.If the register shows a mortgage, a sale is possible only with the bank's written consent and with the loan repaid as part of the deal. That is a workable arrangement, but it needs separate preparation and is not done in a single day.

Step two: the grounds for acquiring title

Look at how the current owner acquired the apartment. A purchase agreement is the calmest option. Inheritance, a deed of gift and a court decision call for attention.Inheritance is risky because heirs who did not claim their rights in time may appear. The period for a challenge is long, so an apartment inherited less than a year ago is checked especially carefully and the circle of heirs is established.A court decision is verified in the Unified Register of Court Decisions: whether it has taken legal effect and whether it is being appealed.

Step three: who is registered at the address

A certificate of registered persons shows who is registered at the address. The main risk is minors and people who retain the right to use the home.If a child is among the owners or the registered persons, permission from the guardianship authority is required. Without it the deal will not go through, and if it does go through around that rule, it can be challenged.Separately, establish whether everyone registered has been deregistered before the deal, or when they undertake to do so. This condition is written into the contract with a deadline, otherwise eviction will have to go through the courts.

Step four: technical condition and alterations

The technical passport is compared with the actual layout. A moved wall, a kitchen merged with a room, a relocated bathroom, a glazed balcony with the under-window block removed: these are all alterations that must be legalised.Particular attention goes to moving wet zones and to any interference with load-bearing walls. The first is not always possible to legalise, the second almost never is.In the older stock of the city centre, check the type of floor slabs. Wooden slabs limit the renovation, the future resale and the attitude of banks to such a property.

Step five: debts and utility bills

Obtain certificates of no arrears from every provider: gas, electricity, water, heating, waste collection and building maintenance. The previous owner's debt does not pass to the new one automatically, but providers often try to recover it from the apartment, and sorting that out takes time.Ask separately about capital repair contributions and decisions of the residents' association. If the building has approved expensive works, it is the new owner who will pay.

Step six: the seller

Check the passport and the tax number and compare them with the register. If a representative is selling, check the power of attorney in the register of powers of attorney on the date of the deal, because it could have been revoked the day before.If the seller is married and the apartment was acquired during the marriage, notarised spousal consent is required. If they are divorced, check whether the property was divided.Haste should put you on guard, as should a refusal to show original documents, a request to understate the sum in the contract and reluctance to sign a preliminary agreement. Each of these signs alone is not yet a reason to walk away; two together already are. Related reading: how to buy an apartment on the resale market, documents for selling an apartment and apartments in Odesa.