| If you have not read
the previous section on how to make your decisions
on buying real estate in the Czech Republic, please do so
before reading this page.
Real Estate
buying assistance
Having made up your mind that you do want
to buy real estate in the Czech Republic, on what type of property
for which purposes and perhaps even where in the Czech Republic
to acquire, and possibly having seen the actual property and it's
prices... the next step is to start the buying procedure.
This would obviously be initiated AFTER
you have seen the actual property you intend buying, but even
before this, you are well advised (not only by us but by your
own common sense) that you might need some help.
The biggest hurdle in buying property in
a foreign country is the language problem.
Czech is not an anglo-saxon language and
is pretty diverse to other languages which may be similar to each
other.
Whereas a US citizen won't have any problems at all acquiring
property in the UK, and someone from Spain will find it easy in
Italy,
and a German investor will feel almost at home in Holland, someone
who does not speak and understand Czech will encounter language
difficulties in the Czech Republic.
Not necessarily in the actual dealing and
bargaining with the owner or the real estate agency representative,
but mostly in reading and understanding the paperwork.
Not to mention the legislations and laws
which may be a bit different to UK, USA, or other Western european
countries.
You would want to understand the small text
on anything you sign, especially if it involves your money - wouldn't
you ?
Sure, most real estate agency reps do speak
good english, (or german) and getting the general information
from them is pretty easy and with the use of spoken english, sign
language and a calculator, most of the dealings are easily accomplished.
But what you really want is someone who
is trustworthy and 'on your side' to sift through the final paperwork
with you.
The real estate agent wants to make a sale,
and although most of them are pretty honest, they are just salesmen
who want to make a deal as soon as possible to move onto the next
one.
So to be on the safe side, the least ...we
repeat THE LEAST help that you will want, is to get an independent
interpreter.
1 ]
Your own, unbiased, independent interpreter
Interpreters in the Czech Republic come
very cheap and to pay someone a few hundered Euros for their translation
services for three or four days comes like a bargain if it means
saving you losing a deposit, or making the wrong choice upon wrong,
missunderstood or incomplete information.
So don't rely only on the real estate agent's
language know-how or even on their side supplied interpreter.
Get your own.
If you're going to climb a mountain, you'd
want good equipment and probably a mountain guide if it's your
first time - especially if it's a dangerous mountain and you may
be risking your life.
So why would you want to risk your 'big' money without being equipped
with a good (cheap) independent interpreter ?
We ourselves at czech-real-estate.com offer
this service but we also list other independent available czech
interpreters in our services listings, and you can even find
your own by doing a search in google.
2 ]
Get a Lawyer or Attorney
There are more English speaking lawyers
in the Czech Republic than for example German speaking Lawyers
in the UK, and you'll need one at least for the contract and signing
procedure.
You will definitely need one if you are buying property via setting
up a company in the Czech Republic.
Why not get a lawyer for the whole deal
?
Including the choosing process with the real estate agency ?
Well, if you have the money, this may be
a good choice, but even Czech lawyers have a much higher price
tag than Czech interpreters and you don't need legal advice in
deciding which house you like.
So the lawyer would usually be brought in
after you have spent days with the real estate agent (and your
interpreter) visiting real estate property for sale and making
up your mind on what to buy.
The lawyer will be especially useful when
you start to get to see some paperwork and the 'small text'.
Also, not to be underestimated, the psychological
value of having a lawyer and the estate agency and property owner
being aware of this.
Even a sincere and honest real estate agency
operator will think twice about offering half confirmed facts
about a property and it's surroundings if they know that you will
have the backing of a real estate-versed Czech lawyer who will
make sure that any small text is clear to you.
No, we at czech-real-estate.com do not offer
direct legal assistance but in our Czech
legal services for real estate transactions listings you will
find legal service providers, versed in Real Estate contractual
dealing.
These speak English and / or German.
Again, you can do your own search on the
web or once in the Czech Republic, wherever you are, pick up the
phone book and look under 'pravo' or 'pravnicke sluzby'.
Lawyer = pravnik.
Whatever you do - do not depend only on
the legal beagles supplied by the real estate agency (agencies)
you may be dealing with.
Get your own.
Might cost you several more hundered Euro
for a couple of days of professional legal services - but will
be worth every Czech crown.
A typical cost for legal services can be:
An english
speaking Czech lawyer (in Prague) versed in:
Commercial law
Company and corporate law
Company foundation
Commercial contracts
Bankruptcy law
Stock and commercial instruments
Civil law
Real estate contracts - purchase
of real estate
mortgage, pledges
lease contracts
can charge around Czech Crowns 1,600 per
hour
Which is about Euro 60,00
But this is in Prague.
Outside of Prague you can safely halve this figure.
3 ]
Residence permit or opening up a company
and
maybe even more paperwork and small text
This is going to be the most easiest and
difficult bit to organize.
Difficult because it involves visiting various
Czech state offices and institutions and filling out forms written
in Czech.
Easy because the procedures are pretty standard
and straightforward ... IF YOU KNOW WHERE TO GO WITH WHAT.
So once again, you will need some help with
this.
For individual
private real estate buyers not intending to start a company
(mostly EU member state citizens) you can get most of this done
either with your Czech interpreter or even a good friend who speaks
Czech.
If you opt for buying real estate directly,
as a private citizen for your own use, all you need is a permanent
residency permit.
For investors
who want to go the company way, (which includes non EU
member state citizens) you will want to open up an s.r.o company.
And for this you will need professional
help and guidance.
For example - you can set up various types
of companies known as SROs, one type for business purposes - a
business sro
and another type solely for buying Real estate - a
real estate sro
In the next section below we mention real
estate intermediaries, who can also help you set up an sro company
but there are some other specialists who specifically do this
very professionally and can even get you set up with an off the
shelf company within 7 days for a cost of about Euro 2.000.
These are listed in our services section
listings under Ready
Made companies
4 ]
Get someone to do it all for you
This is the global solution for buying Real
Estate.
You may neither have the time nor inclination
in wanting to look for an interpreter, outsourcing a good lawyer,
nor even wanting to visit all the real estate that is offered
to you.
You certainly will not want to go about
setting up a company by yourself.
You may want someone to do most of the leg-work
for you, including visiting 20 different properties and then presenting
you the best choice of these, organizing an interpreter and legal
services - all in one single package.
This does not necessarily cost much more
than if you were to organize/do all these by yourself.
It doesn't cost more because what you will pay these people for
their services you save on having to travel around, stay at hotels
for a week, rent a car for a week, spend time in finding a lawyer
and interpreter not to mention having to learn Czech legislation
to start a company.
It probably balances out economically with
the plus side being less organizational headaches to you.
This type of 'organization' is done by very
experienced people who operate in this market segment and have
accumulated years of experience in dealing with foreign real estate
buyers.
These are known as real estate intermediaries.
Their main objective is to be on your side.
This because they make a living off their
good name and make their money;
part on what you pay them,
part on what they get from the agencies,
The best ones around are those run by expats,
meaning people who are not Czech themselves but have come to live
and work in the Czech Republic offering real estate intermediary
services.
In our services section real
estate intermediaries you will find some of these listed.
Becoming informed costs next
to nothing
Being missinformed can be expensive |
