Your lawyer will ask you to give him or her a power of
attorney. This is normal, and allows you lawyer to carry out all
aspects of searching and negotiating on your behalf. Whilst it is
possible to carry out most, if not all of the purchase procedures
yourself, it is very much easier to have your lawyer do it for you since
most of it is in Greek.
You or your lawyer will negotiate the price which you are
prepared to pay for the property or land, and which the seller is prepared
to sell for. A Land Valuer may be required to establish the correct
market value of the property.
The seller will provide you with a copy of the title deed
and a plan of the area with the property clearly defined. If the
seller is unable to provide these, they are available from Land Registry.
If you are taking out a bank loan to purchase a property, they will
require a land valuation. This can be carried out while your lawyer
performs the search for encumbrances with Land Registry as described
earlier.
If there are no encumbrances on the property, then a contract can be
drawn up. This may be done by the seller's legal team if they are
land developers, or by your own lawyer. If the seller's lawyer or
legal team drafts the contract, then your lawyer must inspect it
thoroughly before you sign it.
Once the contract is signed, have your lawyer deposit the contract of
sale with the Land Registry, and if the property is already complete, you
can move in subject to the terms of the contract.
If the property has a title deed, your lawyer can arrange for transfer
of title. If it is a new property, then chances are that there will
be no title deed yet. If the property is part of a complex, then no
title deeds can be produced until the entire complex is complete.
At one time, developers used to hold off on issuing title deeds so that
they could raise money by mortgaging complexes so that they could finance
other complexes. This is happening less and less now. Now that
we are in the EU, laws are changing and the developers are being
encouraged to get title deeds out as soon as possible after the completion
of a property.
