When you buy a home, you usually purchase a housing share or a property.
When you purchase a home in a block of flats or row house, you buy the shares of the housing company that give you the right of possession for a certain flat. All the shareholders own the building together. When you buy a detached house, you buy a property, in other words the house and the plot on which it stands.
The flat or the property is transferred to your possession immediately after the sales contract has been concluded. The seller and the buyer agree on the transfer date or the date on which the buyer can move into the flat. They may also make changes to the sales contract.
The documents of the flat or the property are transferred in connection with the sale. When the buyer pays the purchase price.
Yes. You must pay the asset transfer tax when buying a home. The asset transfer tax is 3% of the sales price of the property or the building or 1,5% of the price of the housing shares.
Pay and report the asset transfer tax to the Tax Administration on your own initiative.
The seller of the dwelling is liable for any such defects in the dwelling that the buyer has not been aware of or could not have noticed before the sale was concluded. The buyer must inform the seller of a defect in the dwelling within a reasonable time. In the case of a housing share, the buyer must inform the seller of the defects within two years at the latest. In the case of a property, the time limit is five years.
It the seller is a trader, the seller’s liability for defects is more extensive and the time limit for claiming defects is longer.