Property Buying - Advices? / Lawyer Fees

Hello.

Normally I think the buyer pays the realtor comission, notary fee and the "tabulation tax" (I assume that's the stamp duty you mentioned). While the seller pays the property sale tax and the land registry fee.

There shouldn't be any other fees, except if you take out a real estate loan from a bank, in which case you usually have to pay the evaluator and an a processing fee.

The entire process is usually pretty quick if no bank loan is involved and the seller has all the paper work in order, a week or two. If there is a bank loan, it can take a couple of months.

@Alex254 I wonder how you worked around the fact that foreigners can't own land in Romania and when buying an apartment, there is a small amount of land (building footprint) which is divided among all units owners and is associated with your apartment. I came across it when my Romanian husband and I wanted to jointly buys an apartment and have both of our names on the documents, but we were told, that I can't be an owner because of that land. Would be interesting to know if there is a way around it

@Alex254 Don't waste your money/time with a lawyer, the notary public prepares the contract (it'll be standard - just check your details have been filled in correctly, as well as the price, address, etc) and they'll also check the legal status of the property to make sure everything is in order and there are no outstanding debts or litigation. They'll do all that even if you pay a lawyer, so it's really not worth it.

For the costs, put the buying price (in Euro) into this calculator: https://notari.pro/calculator-taxe-notariale

It'll calculate what taxes you need to pay. As the buyer (cumparator) you'll pay a fee to the notary for their services (Onorariu vânzare) and something for registering the property (Intabulare). They both depend on the price of the property, but for a small garsoniere (say 50K Euro) it shouldn't be more than 1000 Euro, plus whatever you've agreed with the agent, which is usually paid by whoever engaged their services (i.e. the seller for listing or the buyer for searching), although most of the crooks in Bucharest will try to charge both parties 2-3%. The only other thing you might need to pay for is some translation services if you don't know Romanian, but that'll probably be at the discretion of the notary public and they often have a translator they use and can call to interpret or translate documents.

@Lana2155 Note:  I haven't checked into this myself but was told by someone else.  I have no way of knowing if it is true:

If you set up as a corporation (like an LLC or whatever the Romanian equivalent is), the corporation can buy the property/land.

I haven't delved into it, since my wife is Romanian (and I've got my residency card and have also been told that allows me to buy land...again, I haven't checked into it), and we've been buying property in her name or in my son's name.  Hey, I'm old, and both of them will outlive me I hope.

Maybe someone else here knows for sure.