Checking an apartment in the European Union before buying: which documents to request before the deposit
Checking an apartment in the European Union before buying: which documents to request before the deposit
Author: Sergey Valentinovich Kononov, head of Alliance Consulting · Published: 04.09.2026 · Updated: 04.09.2026
An apartment in the European Union can be checked in full without leaving Ukraine: everything that protects the buyer is in the documents, not in the walls.
A viewing answers the question "do I like it" — and today a video viewing answers it. Below — what exactly is requested before the deposit, in what order, and what to do if the money has already been paid.
Which documents are checked before buying an apartment abroad
Seven documents are checked, and all seven are read before the deposit is paid. The check runs in three directions at once: the property, the seller and the transaction itself. A viewing covers none of them.
What is requested:
• a land register extract: who the owner is and since when;
• entries on encumbrances: mortgage, pledge, seizure;
• court disputes — concerning the seller, not the property;
• the permit putting the building into operation;
• the cadastral number and floor area;
• statements of debts for utilities and owners' association fees;
• the right to sell: spouse, shares, heirs.
The documents are read twice: at the written opinion stage, when the property is just being chosen, and again before signing. The register is alive, and an entry can appear between these two points.
What the seller should show before the deposit
Before any money, three documents are usually shown: the land register extract, the title document and the occupancy permit. This costs the seller nothing and puts them at no risk. A refusal to show them does not in itself prove a problem, but it means you are paying blind.
What matters is who exactly requests the document. A scan sent to you shows the state as of the date of the scan, while the register shows the state as of today. Between these dates, entries appear on the property that will not be in the set you were sent. What is sent to you is information for the conversation. What you request yourself is a check.
How to check whether the building has been put into operation
It is checked by a document, not by the fact that people live there. The occupancy permit is a separate paper with a date and a number. People living in the building, lights on and a working elevator do not replace it and do not prove that it exists.
A building formally accepted into operation and a building occupied in practice are different legal situations, and they affect registration of ownership differently. For our properties the building has already been completed, so we show the document rather than name an expected completion date. The difference between "completed" and "will be completed" is the difference between ownership and a promise.
How to check the seller: the right to sell, shares, heirs
The seller is checked separately from the property. A person can be the owner and still not have the right to sell alone. A court dispute is filed against the person and only later reaches the apartment — that is why entries are searched by the seller's name, not by the apartment's address.
What is examined:
• the basis of ownership: how and when the property came to the seller;
• marital status and whether the spouse's consent is required;
• whether there are shares and other owners;
• inheritance grounds and possible claims;
• open court proceedings in the seller's name.
A claim by an heir or a former spouse does not come out of nowhere: it is visible in advance, in these same documents. After ownership is registered, the proceedings go on with your participation and at your expense.
Do the apartment's debts pass to the new owner
Some debts do pass — those tied to the property rather than to the person. These are utility arrears and owners' association fees. They follow the apartment, and the new owner finds them on their own account.
That is why the check includes requesting statements of account status: separately for utilities, separately for the association. This is the most boring item on the list, it is skipped more often than the others, and it regularly turns out to be the most unpleasant discovery after the deal.
A debt found in time is not a reason to walk away from the property. It is a reason to renegotiate the price or have the seller settle the debt before signing. A debt found after the deal becomes your expense.
What a power of attorney for buying property abroad says
A power of attorney is a document with a ceiling, not permission "for everything". It sets out the specific property, the maximum price, the period of validity and the exact list of powers. The representative cannot buy a different property, pay more than the stated amount or act after the term expires.
The order here is the reverse of what is usually done: the power of attorney is drawn up after the written opinion, not before it. First it becomes clear what is being bought and on what terms — and only then are the powers granted.
There are three ways to carry out the deal, and we name them openly: in person, by power of attorney and through a management company. The chosen way is recorded in the written opinion before the deal.
What to do if the deposit has already been paid but there was no check
The situation can be fixed, and there is a workable sequence of steps. The check is done after the fact — it is what determines whether there are grounds to demand the money back and what to rely on.
The sequence:
1. The property documents are pulled — the same seven, as a full set.
2. What was signed is read, along with the terms on which the money was paid.
3. The finding is compared with the refund terms.
From there, there are usually three options: a refund, if there are grounds; negotiating the price, if the finding lowers the property's value; walking away from the property and recording the loss, when adding to it costs more than stopping. In all three cases, the document comes first and the conversation with the seller second: a conversation without the document in hand ends with nothing.
For the future, the rule is simple. The condition for returning the deposit if encumbrances are found is written into the agreement itself and before the money is transferred, not at the moment of a dispute.
Order matters more than speed on this route. The opinion comes before the deposit, the deposit before the contract, the repeat extract before the signature. A deal assembled out of order gets rebuilt, and that is the most expensive rework of all that we see.
For a sense of the amounts: a comparable two-room apartment in the European Union costs €200,000–300,000. Our property is about €100,000 with a down payment of 30%, that is, around €30,000. The balance is paid in installments over 36 months interest-free, and ownership passes immediately. It is exactly these €30,000 that the documents listed above protect.
From there the route follows the usual order — a company, rent, fully legal income, an employment contract, a card.
Citizenship is a separate track, and what opens it is not how long you have owned the apartment but a lawful ground in the documents: confirmed roots. If the ground exists, there is no need to wait years — the package is put together and filed right away, in parallel with the structure.
From then on the timeline is held by the authority: in Romanian cases the law allows 2 years for the case to be reviewed from the date the application is registered, with an extension of up to 6 months in justified cases. Whether there is a ground in your documents is shown by the assessment.
"The right to Romanian citizenship is confirmed by documents — and we carry that right all the way to a passport. The authority makes the decision: no one can guarantee the result, but the file can be put together so that it raises no questions. The timelines, the amount and the working procedure are in the contract."
Three things can be checked before the first conversation. All matters in Romania are handled remotely by our management company. The work is done officially under a contract that sets out the timelines, the amount and the working procedure. The company's licenses are publicly available on the website.
The decision on a banking transaction is made by the bank, and the company gives no guarantee that the check will be passed. A bank in Romania is a reporting entity: information on transactions goes to the National Office for Prevention and Combating of Money Laundering (ONPCSB); the law also names notaries and lawyers involved in transactions as reporting entities. The company does not advise on other jurisdictions.
Can an apartment in the European Union be checked without traveling in person?
Yes: all seven documents are requested remotely, and matters in Romania are handled by the management company under a power of attorney with a set ceiling on its powers. A video viewing covers the viewing — the buyer's protection is in the documents, not in the walls. The chosen way of carrying out the deal is recorded in the written opinion before the deposit.
Why request the land register extract a second time before signing?
The register is alive: an entry on a mortgage, a seizure or a new owner can appear after the first check. That is why the extract is read twice — at the written opinion stage and again before the signature. A repeat request costs less than a dispute over an entry that appeared in between.
How do documents sent by the seller differ from those requested independently?
In date and completeness. A set sent to you shows the state on the day it was put together; your own request to the register shows the state as of today, including entries that appeared later. That is why the check is built on independent requests, and what is sent to you serves as the starting point of the conversation.
The entry point to the route is a free compliance assessment with a written opinion. It is mandatory before the deposit: it is carried out before any decisions and commits you to nothing. As a result, you receive a recommended bank, a list of documents for the source of funds, an assessment of the origin of funds, the timelines and the structure of the purchase. And a straight answer: whether this structure suits you.
Sergey Valentinovich Kononov — head of the consulting company Alliance Consulting (Constanța, Năvodari).
More than 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.