Authorization of contract by a lawyer in Slovakia

The authorization includes not only recording contract on the transfer of real estate by a lawyer, but also assessment of the lawyer whether contract is not contrary to the law or whether it does not circumvent it and if it is not incompatible with good manners. The lawyer is obliged to establish the identity of the contracting parties, or their representatives, as well as assess whether the conclusion will not be the event establishing an occurrence of damage.

The lawyer should not let unnoticed even disproportionate provisions in the contract. He is also obliged to notify the parties to the terms of payment of the purchase price agreed in the contract if the property is transferred for remuneration. The participant not always understands the contract terms of payment and these are clear and understandable for him.

Immutability of the content of contract on the transfer of real estate guarantees clause of the authorization provided by a lawyer within the authorized contract and which also contains information on the number of letters of contract.

The lawyer performs authorization regardless of whether it is requested by the buyer or seller and whether he concludes the contract for the legal service with the buyer or seller.The lawyer performs authorization personally, representation is not permitted. If the lawyer provides legal services as a partner of the company, authorization shall be made to the account and on behalf of the company.

The lawyer authorizes contract which transfers property, regardless of whether it is a transfer for consideration or voluntary conveyance. It is possible to authorize not only sales contract itself but also deed of donation, pronominal contract or otherwise named real estate transfer contract.

On the other hand, the lawyer can not authorize a (i) contract that he did not produce himself, (ii) net deed which contains no text, (iii) or contract written in a language other than Slovak or Czech language, if it is not officially translated into the state language. The exception is if the lawyer understands the language in which the deed is drawn up.

One of the advantages of authorization is equipment of all steps necessary to transfer real estate directly at a lawyer, without the need to visit a notary or cadastre administration. The lawyer authorizes signatures of participants, resp. their representatives, thereby further validation of signatures by notary is no longer necessary, which represents a saving of notary fees.

The lawyer also draws up submission to the cadastre administration and ensures its delivery including relevant documents on legal transaction, if either party to the contract requests a lawyer. The lawyer who has a qualified electronic signature can send submission electronically, thus saving time waiting when submitting the paper proposal. Moreover, if the authorized contract with the proposal for entry is submitted electronically with the qualified electronic signature of the lawyer, there is also a saving of cadastral charges up to 50%.

Cadastre administration for contracts authorized by a lawyer judges only whether are fulfilled the procedural conditions for making a registration. For this reason, it decides to allow the registration within 20 days (instead of 30) from the date of receipt of application for registration in the Land Register. Another advantage is the professional recording of contract on the transfer of real estate, eliminating the case of denial of ownership in favor of the buyers. The buyer becomes the owner of the transferred real estate by final decision of cadastre administration on the authorization of transfer of ownership in his favor, by the actual signing of the sales contract or payment of the purchase price the buyer still does not become the owner of the property.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of the authorization is protection of the contracting parties against misuse of identity, whether on the part of the transferee or transferor.

For this purpose, the lawyer ascertains the identities of all parties to the contract, resp. their representatives. They must prove their identity with a valid proof of identity or their identity must be confirmed by two witnesses of identity. If the lawyer, despite this procedure, is not sure of the identity of the persons, carries out further investigations, in particular requires proof of documents from registration of identity documents, identifies the identity through other witnesses on whose identity he has no doubt, requests for statement the relevant community, or conducts a survey on the basis of other documentary evidence. If despite this procedure, the lawyer fails to discover the real identity of the parties and does not refuse legal services, he can not avoid responsibility for damage caused by misuse of identity.