An apartment in installments from a developer in Romania: who is the owner until the last payment
An apartment in installments from a developer in Romania: who is the owner until the last payment
Ownership of an apartment bought in installments passes to the buyer on the day of the deal, not after the last payment. The notarial deed is signed, the entry in the carte funciară is made in your name, and the extract is issued to you. Until full payment, an encumbrance in favor of the seller is registered on the property — it is lifted when the installments are paid off. Installments from a developer are not a perk or a discount but a structure with its own rights and obligations, and you need to understand it before signing, not at the moment you need to sell the apartment. Below is who the owner is at each stage, how this scheme differs from a mortgage and from a preliminary contract, and what to do if the payments are over but the entry in the register remains.
Who becomes the owner of an apartment bought in installments?
You become the owner — on the day the notarial deed of sale is signed. The right passes by the deed itself, regardless of how much of the price has already been paid: the installments concern the payments, not who the property belongs to. The notary then sends the documents to the land register, and an entry in the carte funciară appears in your name — from that moment you are entitled to use the apartment, register your residence there, rent it out and pass it on by inheritance. A developer's typical scheme looks like this: a first payment of around 30 percent, the balance in equal payments over 3 years. There is no loan application, no credit scoring and no European-style income certificate here — the money is provided by the seller, not a bank, so the check concerns the origin of funds, not a credit history. There are 3 ways to take part in the deal: in person, by power of attorney or through a management company acting under your power of attorney.
What is the seller's privilege and how does it appear in the carte funciară?
In everyday speech it is called the seller's privilege; legally, today it is the seller's legal mortgage — an encumbrance in favor of whoever sold the property until the price is paid in full. The current Civil Code abandoned the former real estate privileges: under Article 2386 the seller receives precisely a legal mortgage on the property sold for the price due, and it is entered in the carte funciară. In the extract it is visible in the encumbrances section: the creditor is named — the developer or the seller — the basis is the sale contract, and the amount of the unpaid balance. The entry does not cancel your ownership and does not prevent you from living in the apartment, but it is visible to anyone who requests the extract: a bank, a buyer, a notary. It is checked separately whether the contract contains a ban on disposal until full payment — such a condition does occur and is shown in the same extract.
How do developer installments differ from a mortgage and from a preliminary contract?
There are 2 differences, and both are fundamental. With a bank mortgage, ownership also passes immediately, but the encumbrance is registered in favor of the bank, and the seller, as a rule, waives their legal mortgage so that the bank is first in line; the seller receives the money in full on the day of the deal, and you pay the bank under the loan agreement. With installments there is no bank as creditor: the obligation remains to the seller, and their legal mortgage serves as security. A preliminary contract is a fundamentally different story: there is no ownership at all, only the parties' obligation to conclude the deal in the future; there is no entry of your right in the register, and the sums paid are secured differently. The difference is felt the moment something does not go to plan: an owner with an encumbrance and the holder of a preliminary contract are in different positions. A review of mortgages for foreigners is in a separate article.
When is the encumbrance lifted and what needs to be done for that?
The encumbrance is lifted after the final payment has gone through — but not by itself. A rule applies here that surprises almost everyone: the right ends not with payment but with an entry. Under Article 885 of the Civil Code, real rights end only by removing the entry from the carte funciară — with the right holder's consent, executed before a notary, or by a court decision that has entered into force.
The whole structure from start to finish looks like this: Notarial deal — Entry in the carte funciară — Seller's legal mortgage — Payments on schedule — Final payment — Lifting of the encumbrance; the last step is done on the basis of the seller's notarized consent.
Who files the documents with the land register — the buyer, the seller or the notary — depends on the procedure agreed in the specific deal; we fix this point in the contract in advance rather than finding out after the fact. The practical conclusion is one: the closing documents and the application for removal are prepared together with the last payment, not put off.
What to do if the last payment has gone through but the encumbrance remains in the register?
The situation can be resolved calmly, but it requires action — it will not go away on its own. The usual story: the installments are paid off, the documents are filed away, and the question surfaces a year or three later — on a sale, when processing an inheritance or when the property needs to be offered to a bank as collateral.
You can check your position in one step: request a fresh carte funciară extract and look at the encumbrances section. Clean — no issue. The entry is still there — then there are 3 scenarios.
The first: the seller is still around and confirms full payment — they give notarized consent, the entry is removed, the matter is closed.
The second: the seller exists but is dragging their feet or disputing the amount — then the proof of payments is collected, and their consent is replaced by a court decision; the law expressly allows this.
The third, the most unpleasant: the seller no longer exists in its former form — the company has been liquidated, reorganized or has changed owners. Here the only path is through the court, and it is a real one, but it requires a full set of payment documents, which is why the receipts and bank confirmations for the installments are kept until the entry is removed, not until the last payment.
In all three scenarios, the first thing to do is to collect the evidence of payment — any conversation starts from it.
How does Alliance handle a deal with installments?
Alliance handles the deal from checking the terms to lifting the encumbrance; Armonia works with the property. The division of roles never changes: Armonia shows the properties, Alliance protects the money and builds the structure. With installments this means reviewing the contract before signing — the schedule, the consequences of late payment, whether there is a ban on disposal, the procedure for removing the entry; the bank route for payments and proof of the source of funds; monitoring every payment and the closing documents; support until the encumbrance is removed from the register. A Romanian notary is a public official: they check the property, the seller and the absence of third-party rights and are responsible for that check, but they do not manage your deal for years ahead — we do. The product is the same: full support for a real estate deal,
official, under a contract that sets out the timelines, the amount and the working procedure.
The company's licenses are publicly available on the website.
What is important to understand before signing?
You need to understand 3 things. The property is yours from the date of the deal — it is not an advance for a future apartment. The encumbrance in the register is a normal part of the structure, not a sign of a problem, but it lasts exactly until you act to remove it. And the consequences of late payment are set out in the contract with the seller itself: from penalties to the right to demand early payment or termination — the specifics are read in your document before signing, not after.
Start with a free compliance assessment — it is carried out before any decisions and commits you to nothing. In the written opinion you get the recommended bank, the list of documents for the source of funds, an assessment of their origin and the structure of the purchase. And a direct answer: whether this structure suits you. The assessment may end in a reasoned refusal — that is also a result of the work. Send the word АКТИВ — we will review your situation and your contract.
Can you sell the apartment while the installments have not been paid off?
As the owner you are entitled to sell, but the encumbrance follows the property, so the settlement is usually built around paying off the balance at the deal. If the contract contains a ban on disposal until full payment, the seller's consent will be needed — this is visible in the extract from the carte funciară.
What happens if you miss an installment payment?
The consequences are set out in the contract with the seller: from penalties to the right to demand early payment or termination of the deal. There is no universal rule here — the terms are read in your contract before signing.
Do you need to come to Romania for a deal with installments?
No: there are 3 ways to take part — in person, by power of attorney or through a management company acting under your power of attorney. The payment procedure and proof of the source of funds are prepared in advance, whichever option you choose.
Sergey Valentinovich Kononov is the head of the consulting company Alliance Consulting (Constanța, Năvodari). Over 30 years of management experience; the company has run a licensed practice in Romania for four years and supports clients from the first consultation to receiving their documents. The company's licenses and documents are publicly available on the website.