Documents for selling a house in Germany: which you need, where they come from, what they cost

You have decided to sell your house — and immediately run into the first awkward question: which papers do you actually need? There is no statutory list. There are three recipients with three different needs, a single document with a real deadline and around a dozen authorities that all take different lengths of time. This article is written for private owners who are selling a house or an owner-occupied flat and want to know what they have to obtain and what they do not.

We take it in order: first, who actually wants to see which document, then how to obtain each one with the office, fee and duration, after that the energy performance certificate with its deadline, the special cases of an owner-occupied flat and an inheritance — and finally, what happens if something is missing. Legal and tax questions around the purchase contract are left out; that is what your notary is there for, and your tax adviser for tax matters.

#Which documents do the buyer, the notary and the lending bank require?

The most widespread idea of selling a house goes like this: you collect a folder full of papers and put it on the notary’s desk. That is wrong in one essential point. The notary obtains a large share of the documents personally, and precisely those where being up to date and having evidential value matter. The Federal Chamber of Notaries (Bundesnotarkammer) describes it like this in its information sheet on buying property: to establish who the owner is and how the plot is encumbered, the notary checks the land register (Grundbuch); after the notarisation the notary obtains and checks “all documents required for the buyer’s legally secure acquisition free of encumbrances” — expressly named are the municipality’s waiver of a statutory right of pre-emption and the cancellation documents from the seller’s bank.6

This sorts the list differently from how most checklists do it — namely by recipient:

For you this means: the land register extract (Grundbuchauszug) is not something you owe the notary but a selling point. It proves to a prospective buyer that you are the owner, and it shows the lending bank which rights are entered in sections II and III. Where the energy performance certificate belongs in this sequence and why it sets the pace for the whole process is explained in the overview energy performance certificate for sale and letting.

A second point from the same information sheet is easy to overlook and expensive: all side agreements must go into the notarial deed. Agreements made outside the deed are generally ineffective and can even invalidate the entire purchase contract.6 The fitted kitchen that is sold along with the house and the garden shed that stays therefore belong in the contract — not in a side agreement by email.

#Where do I get the land register extract, cadastral map and building file — and what does it cost?

Three different offices, three different fee schedules, three different waiting times. Only for one of them is the fee the same nationwide.

Land register extract: land registry at the local court. The land register is not a public register. Only someone who demonstrates a legitimate interest gets to inspect it (§ 12 (1) sentence 1 of the Land Register Code, Grundbuchordnung).7 As the owner you always have one. A mere prospective buyer does not — the Munich local court expressly states that no one may inspect the register merely to find out the owner’s name in the first place. The fees are set out in the schedule of costs to the Court and Notary Fees Act (Gerichts- und Notarkostengesetz): 10 euros for the simple printout, 20 euros for the official one (numbers 17000 and 17001).5 Inspection itself is free of charge. In individual cases, processing can take up to four weeks.

Cadastral map: cadastral or surveying office. This is where nationwide uniformity ends. Name, fee and application route are state law, which is why no general figure is given here, but a documented example instead: in Berlin the cadastral map (Flurkarte) costs 16.00 euros per sheet, certification above DIN A3 an additional 2.00 euros, and a second copy half; it is issued by one of the twelve district surveying offices under the Surveying Fees Ordinance, usually within two weeks.11 In your federal state the amount may differ considerably. Many states also make the cadastral map available for viewing free of charge in their geoportals — that is often enough for the property brochure, but usually not for the bank.

Building file: lower building supervisory authority. Here the range is widest, and it shows why a flat-rate figure would be misleading. In Bavaria inspection costs 1 euro per file, but at least 10 euros; responsible are the district offices, independent cities, major district towns and delegated municipalities, and the legal basis is Article 66 of the Bavarian Building Code.12 In Hamburg the district offices charge 40 euros per file volume under the Building Fees Ordinance, with copies charged by effort on top.13 As the owner you are entitled to inspect; bring an identity document and, where applicable, a power of attorney. How long it takes depends on whether the file is digitised or stored in an external archive.

Register of building encumbrances: the same authority — where one exists. Building encumbrances (Baulasten) are state law, and not every state has them. Bavaria has no register of building encumbrances; corresponding obligations are entered there as an easement in the land register. The Federal Chamber of Notaries therefore also words it cautiously and advises enquiring about building encumbrances and contaminated sites “where available in the municipality”.6 Ask your municipality rather than assuming there is a nationwide register.

#When must the energy performance certificate be available, and which details belong in the advertisement?

The energy performance certificate (Energieausweis) is the only document on this list with a statutory deadline — and it falls earlier than most sellers assume. Under § 80 (4) sentence 1 of the Building Modernisation Act (Gebäudemodernisierungsgesetz, GModG), the seller or the estate agent must present an energy performance certificate or a copy of it to the prospective buyer at the viewing at the latest.1 If there is no viewing, it must be presented without delay. And sentence 5 turns this into a second, separate duty: without delay after the purchase contract is concluded, the certificate must be handed over to the buyer.

Presenting and handing over are therefore two acts at two points in time, and each is subject to a fine in its own right. Anyone who only pulls the certificate out of the folder at the notary appointment has already breached the first duty — even if everything is signed in the end. In practice this means: the certificate belongs at the start of the preparation, not at the end. The full depth on this — special cases, listed buildings, heritable building rights, the effect of the efficiency class on the price — is in energy performance certificate when selling a house.

As soon as a certificate exists, a property advertisement in commercial media must also contain five details (§ 87 (1) GModG):2 the type of certificate, the value of the final energy demand or final energy consumption, the main energy sources for heating and — for residential buildings — the year of construction and the energy efficiency class. All five are in the certificate itself; copying them is enough, making them up is not.

Which of the two certificate types you need is not always your choice. For residential buildings with fewer than five flats whose building application was filed before 1 November 1977, § 80 (3) sentence 2 GModG requires a demand certificate (Bedarfsausweis) — unless the building already met the requirement level of the Thermal Insulation Ordinance (Wärmeschutzverordnung) of 1977 on completion or was brought up to it later.1 How to tell and what distinguishes the two methods is set out, using exactly these cases, in the comparison consumption or demand certificate. Online, the consumption certificate (Verbrauchsausweis) costs 69.90 € with us, the demand certificate 119.90 €; an issued certificate is valid for ten years from issue (§ 79 (3) sentence 1 GModG).4

#What else do I need for an owner-occupied flat?

With a flat, a whole group of documents is added that you do not hold yourself but have to request — and one of them can block the sale.

The property manager’s consent is the most expensive mistake on this list. Under § 12 (1) of the Condominium Act (Wohnungseigentumsgesetz), it may be agreed that a flat owner needs the consent of other owners or of a third party — usually the property manager — to sell. If that has been agreed, the sale is “ineffective as long as the required consent has not been given” ((3) sentence 1).10 The purchase contract is then provisionally ineffective until the paper is available. Whether the restriction applies to your flat can be seen in the land register: restrictions on disposal must be expressly entered there. Reassuringly, consent may only be refused for good cause.

You can obtain the declaration of division and the division plan without the property management. Both are annexes to the approval of registration and are therefore held in the land registry file at the land registry. And § 12 (1) of the Land Register Code expressly extends the right of inspection to documents referred to in the land register to supplement an entry.7 So if a property manager stonewalls or is just changing, that is no reason to postpone the sale.

What you request from the property management are the minutes of the owners’ meetings of recent years, the collection of resolutions, the current budget plan, the latest annual statements and the asset report. The property manager must prepare the asset report after the end of each calendar year and make it available to every flat owner; it shows the level of the reserves — exactly the figure every serious buyer asks about. An owner, or a person authorised by them, must be given access to the collection of resolutions on request.

The energy performance certificate belongs to the building, not to your flat. An energy performance certificate is issued for a building (§ 79 (2) sentence 1 GModG).4 So first ask the property management whether a valid certificate already exists for the complex — then you can save yourself ordering one altogether. If not, the owners’ association has to pass a resolution, and the notice period for convening an owners’ meeting should be at least three weeks. This process, including the question of costs, is described in energy performance certificate for an owner-occupied flat.

#What applies to an inherited house or to several owners?

Anyone who inherits is not automatically entered in the land register. You can only sell once the land register shows you as the owner — and for that the land registry needs proof of succession.

It pays to look closely here, because the rule surprises many: the proof can be provided only by a certificate of inheritance or a European Certificate of Succession (§ 35 (1) sentence 1 of the Land Register Code). Sentence 2 allows one exception: if the succession is based on a disposition upon death contained in a public deed, that disposition and the record of its opening suffice.8 Publicly notarised means: a notarial will or a contract of inheritance. A handwritten will from the drawer does not count — then the route leads via a certificate of inheritance from the probate court, and that takes time.

And now the figure that hardly anyone knows and that is worth hard cash: for entering the heirs of the registered owner, no fee is charged if the application for entry is submitted to the land registry within two years of the inheritance — even if the heirs are only entered after the estate has been divided (schedule of costs to the GNotKG, number 14110, note 1).5 Anyone who lets this window pass pays the full registration fee based on the value of the property.

If the house belongs to several people — a community of heirs, a married couple, siblings — all owners must sign the purchase contract or be effectively represented. Anyone who cannot attend the appointment needs a power of attorney in the appropriate form or ratifies the contract afterwards; how that works in the individual case is clarified by the notary before the notarisation.

#How long does obtaining the documents take, and where do I start?

There is no reliable average duration across all federal states, but there are documented reference points — and they are enough to choose the right order. The rule is: first obtain what you cannot speed up.

In practical terms: you start the energy performance certificate, land register extract and cadastral map on the same day the decision to sell is made. The building file comes in as soon as you need floor plans or a reliable living space figure — and that is more often the case than owners think, because the living space (Wohnfläche) appears neither in the land register nor on the cadastral map. Under the Living Space Ordinance (Wohnflächenverordnung), cellars, storerooms outside the flat, laundry room, loft space, boiler room and garage expressly do not count towards the living space; anyone who includes them advertises a figure that becomes a problem in the purchase contract.

What the notary handles, by contrast, you do not need to prepare: the land register status, cancellation documents for land charges still entered and the municipality’s certificate on the right of pre-emption all go through the notary. Just allow for the time: the municipality has three months to exercise a right of pre-emption, and without proof that it has not been exercised or does not exist, the land registry may not even enter the buyer (§ 28 (1) sentence 2 BauGB).9

#What happens if a document is missing?

Not every gap weighs equally. There are three levels, and they are regularly confused.

Level one: it costs you a fine. This applies exclusively to the energy performance certificate. An administrative offence is committed by anyone who does not present it in time, does not hand it over after the contract is concluded, or omits the mandatory details from the property advertisement. In these cases the fine is up to ten thousand euros (§ 108 (1) nos. 18, 19 and 21 in conjunction with (2) no. 2 GModG).3 The figure of 15,000 euros circulating on many advice sites does not appear in the Act in that form.

Level two: the contract is on hold. This is the case with missing property manager’s consent under § 12 WEG — the purchase contract is ineffective until it is given.10 Similar, albeit with a different effect: without proof of inheritance no one is entered as owner, and without the certificate on the right of pre-emption the transfer of title stalls.

Level three: it costs trust and, in the end, money. Missing floor plans, an unclear living space, no evidence of the heating replacement — none of this is prohibited, but each of them prolongs the negotiation and gives the buyer an argument for a price reduction. Conversely: what you disclose and what the buyer knows when the contract is concluded cannot later be claimed as a defect. Complete documents are therefore not just a service but your own protection.

#Conclusion: the order matters more than completeness

There is no statutory list of documents for selling a house, but there is a statutory deadline — and it concerns the energy performance certificate, which must be available before the first viewing. Everything else falls into place according to who wants to see it and how long the responsible office takes.

Anyone who sets three things in motion on the day they decide to sell — energy performance certificate, land register extract, cadastral map — and, for an owner-occupied flat, calls the property management straight away, has done the part that cannot be speeded up. The rest comes together at the notary’s, and a good part of it comes from the notary.