Buying an apartment that has been owned for less than 3 years: how to buy and sell real estate if it has not been owned for that long? My property

Don’t want any unpleasant surprises when purchasing an apartment that has been owned for less than 3 years? Check it before purchasing. We tell you what to pay attention to and how to reduce risks.

Most often, sellers who have owned an apartment for less than three years are in a hurry to sell it for completely objective reasons. For example, the owner got a job in another city and is ready to move the whole family. Or a second child is born in the family and you need to think about changing living space. Or the seller simply urgently needs money to solve his personal problems. There can be many options for the development of events. But why are buyers not so willing to make such deals?

What risks might you face?

The main risks accompanying transactions with real estate owned for less than 3 years are associated with the desire of many sellers to evade paying taxes. It refers to the income tax levied by the state on individuals (NDFL). The tax amount is 13% of the total cost of the apartment specified in the purchase and sale agreement, in accordance with the norms of Part 1 of Article 220 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

REFERENCE: Persons who have not received Russian citizenship pay up to 30% personal income tax.

Since only an amount exceeding 1 million rubles of the value of the object is used for the calculation, it is beneficial for the seller to include an underestimated value in the provisions of the deed of sale. As a result, the following risks may arise for the buyer:

He will not be able to receive the benefit he is entitled to in the form of a tax deduction for the purchase of an apartment from an amount not specified in the contract, which will lead him to lost benefits.
If the contract is terminated at the initiative of the seller, only part of the funds contributed to the contract will be returned to him, the remaining amount will remain in the illegal use of the unscrupulous counterparty.
He may be prosecuted for aiding and abetting a tax crime.

Also, a recently received inheritance may be disputed by co-heirs claiming the sold object. Buying an inherited apartment will entail the need to participate in lengthy legal proceedings. The same applies to donated real estate, since deeds of gift are most often contested by relatives whose rights are infringed by the donor.

Only after 3 years, according to the provisions of Article 196 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, these forms of entry into property acquire stability after the expiration of the limitation period. In addition to the dishonest attitude of the counterparty, you can fall into a trap set by experienced scammers. In this case, you can lose the entire amount paid for the transaction.

The apartment turned out to be a “pig in a poke”

According to the law, if an apartment has been owned for less than five years, and a person decides to sell it, he will have to pay a tax of 13% on the sale. Here the buyer has the right to think: what reason forces the seller to spend additional money and move out. Here it is wise to find out the real reason. For example, it turned out to be very cold or the neighbors upstairs are so noisy that they interfere with life. It is quite possible that the seller wants to quickly get rid of a property burden in this way.

Buying an apartment without a realtor. How to avoid running into scammers?

Fraudulent schemes

For the most part, fraudsters do not wait for the property to be owned for a long time; they operate with real estate immediately after its illegal acquisition, trying to sell the apartments and avoid liability for the illegal act.

They can also take advantage of the position of the seller, who fraudulently took possession of the difference between the actual payment for the cost of the apartment under the transaction and the purchase price specified in the contract. Or they may use more complex and cynical schemes aimed at illegally satisfying their selfish interests.

The most common rental of residential premises is in which copies are fraudulently taken from the owner's title document and a general power of attorney is issued. Often a completely fake documentation package is used.

As a rule, the landlords in this case are heirs who already have real estate for their own residence, but they do not want to sell the inherited apartment until three years have passed in order to save on taxes. Such a transaction takes place without the knowledge of the owner. It is initially void and does not come into force.

But the scammers have enough time to take the money of a gullible buyer and escape. Sales of apartments to several buyers are also frequent. For example, housing received into ownership is put up for auction. Copies of title documents are first made and certified by a notary. Fraudsters arrange the sale of one apartment with several buyers.

The first buyer participates in the transaction, in accordance with the law, since only one bill of sale can be submitted for registration. The rest hand over the money and enter into an invalid contract, which does not reach the registration chamber.

Most of those deceived pay an advance according to a preliminary agreement, without waiting for the transaction to occur. Such cases are especially common when an apartment was recently acquired as a free gift, which may also indicate fraud or criminal extortion. And also be inherited under a forged will.

Escrow accounts: How to buy an apartment under the new rules

But experts do not rule out that the transition to new conditions for financing construction will raise real estate prices. , Katya Frenkel specially for Rossiyskaya Gazeta

, head of the analytical department of FinIst, gave several ways to save on buying a home. Let’s take, for example, a property worth 5 million rubles to compare savings options.

Maternal capital

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This is no longer a secret to anyone. Most often, the funds from the certificate for maternal capital are used for real estate. The amount of 453,026 rubles can be obtained if a number of conditions are met at the birth (or adoption) of the second and each subsequent child in the family. It does not matter how the construction is carried out, independently or with the help of a contractor. When buying a home for 5 million rubles, with maternity capital, the price for housing can be almost 10 percent cheaper - 4,546,974 rubles.

Preferential mortgage

Alexey Sukhorukov/RIA Novosti

If maternity capital is a form of social support from the state, directly following from the federal budget of the Russian Federation, then this type of mortgage completely depends on the decision of regional authorities. Strictly speaking, this is not always a mortgage. There are regions where the down payment is compensated, there are regions where the interest rate is reduced, and so on.

At the same time, the criteria for receiving such assistance also vary. For example, in some regions the age of both parents should not be higher than 35 years, while in others it is sufficient that one of them is younger than 36. The total income of the family eligible for such assistance also varies greatly. Time of residence in the region, the age of children, registration of family members, recognition of a family in need of improved housing conditions, and so on may play a role.

This information is by no means secret and is in the public domain. Now there is talk about 6 percent for the “preferential mortgage” category. If you take out a mortgage on real estate for 10 years on normal terms (9.7 percent per annum), then the total cost of real estate, taking into account these percentages, will be 9,850,000 rubles for the entire period. With a preferential mortgage, real estate worth 5 million rubles will cost exactly 8 million rubles. Benefit - 1,850,000 rubles.

Tax deduction

Nina Zotina/RIA Novosti

It can be obtained by those who receive income taxed at a rate of 13 percent. It is on this basis that the fees will be refunded. Contrary to popular belief, a tax deduction can be obtained several times.

An important feature of this type of assistance from the state is the fact that there is a real opportunity to receive “real” money. The tax authorities will transfer them to the taxpayer on a bank card or by postal transfer, but the amount of the deduction cannot be higher than 2 million rubles, and 13 percent of this amount, personal income tax refund - 260,000 rubles. For real estate worth 5 million rubles, this is a saving of 5 percent.

Real estate auctions

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Many consider them to be a myth, or some idea from the game “Cash Flow”, or part of the plot of some foreign film, but these trades really exist, and they are completely legal. The downside here is the fact that you need to have quite a lot of money right away. Yes, here you can save a lot on the final cost of housing, but this money will have to be paid immediately. For example, if you follow the auctions, you can buy a good 2-room apartment in Moscow, in the Tsaritsyno district, for 5 million rubles. However, inexpensive real estate does not stand idle for a long time; here you need to act quickly and constantly monitor the offers of this market.

Resale

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You can not only save money, but also make money on construction without doing it directly. Moreover, this topic will become less risky. The idea here is “as simple as the world.” Buy real estate at the “excavation stage” and assign the right to claim before its completion.

Here, of course, you will have to take this issue much more seriously than an ordinary buyer needs, to “monitor” the market, compare prices, understand the intricacies of a realtor’s work, but it’s worth it.

By the way, the minus here is the same as in the previous case, except that significantly less funds will be required. For example, in the Botanical Garden area in Moscow you can buy a 1-room apartment at the excavation stage for our 5 million rubles. Finished housing already costs at least 8 million rubles in the same area.

Attention to details

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If the developer’s website is poor, meager and inconvenient to search, then its owners are in trouble with marketing, and therefore with sales. If something sells poorly, the seller is forced to reduce prices. Feel free to bargain for a reduction in prices for apartments in buildings that were built a long time ago, especially at the end of quarters, six months and a year - “the sales plan is on fire.” At such moments, sellers are especially generous with discounts.

However, even a beautifully designed website most likely hides low prices, offering higher ones to your attention. But after spending a little time, you can find apartments with the same layout, but cheaper on the same website.

By the way, the disadvantages of the apartment, because of which the seller is ready for a discount, can quite possibly be compensated for by this very discount. For example, if the discount is caused by noise from the elevator, then part of the discount received can be spent on sound insulation.

Take advantage of the competition

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At the end of quarters, six months and a year, having decided on the area where we will purchase housing, we study all the sellers. We remove everything that we don’t like and boldly go to the first one. We inform you what exactly we want to buy, receive an offer and move on to the next one with this offer. We are organizing a kind of auction. As a result, we get the best offer, because sellers will know for sure that you already have an option and the choice may not stop with them.

You can buy real estate cheaper, and savings sometimes reach 10 percent. The most important thing here is that you don’t need to immediately rush to offers that are profitable only at first glance - the more you dive into the nuances, the more you can save.

How to protect yourself?

First of all, you need to make sure that the seller is not a scammer. To do this, you need to request all title, cadastral and technical documentation for the apartment. In addition, request the seller’s civil passport and identify the passport’s compliance with the documentation.

ATTENTION: The seller must provide originals of title documentation and extracts from the Unified State Register.

Passport data must be carefully examined and the last name of the intended owner must be remembered. You also need to write out the cadastral number of the apartment. On the Rosreestr website you can identify an object by cadastral number and find out who it belongs to. Do the same by contacting the MFC with a request for an apartment.

Information about the owner of the apartment is publicly available and can be provided to third parties. If a certificate of inheritance or a deed of gift is presented as a document of title, then you need to verify their legal capacity as follows:

Such documents are issued and certified by a notary, which can be verified by submitting a request to the notary about the fact of a notarial act.
Information about them is entered into the state cadastre and can be obtained through the MFC.

The certificate of inheritance indicates the circle of heirs who inherited the apartment; each of them must present:

notarized consent to sale and power of attorney;
refusal of real estate in favor of the seller, certified by a notary.

In addition to these precautions, you need to ask for an extract from the Unified State Register, which contains information about the owner. This data must identify the individual who is the seller and correspond to the passport data. If the surname has changed during this period, documents are presented confirming the legality of the surname change.

For example, a marriage certificate. And most importantly, do not under any circumstances agree to replace the information in the purchase and sale agreement. The price of the object must exactly correspond to the amount that was paid by the buyer under the transaction, taking into account the payment of an advance or deposit (we talked about the difference between an advance and a deposit, how a deposit differs from them and what is better for each of the parties to the transaction). separate article).

If unlawful actions on the part of the seller are revealed, then even after transferring the contract for registration, it is permissible to suspend registration actions by submitting an application to the MFC until registration is completed.

Selling an apartment by proxy

In such transactions you should be careful in any case . And if any suspicions arise, refuse the purchase. It doesn’t matter how many years the owner has been using the apartment: less than three years or more. If the transaction is carried out through a third party, then you need to pay attention to the following points. First of all, be sure to ask for the seller’s contact information and at least have a video call with him. If communication with the owner is hindered in every possible way, this is a serious signal. Secondly, ask for a power of attorney and study it carefully. Better with a lawyer. A person who calls himself a trusted person may be a fraudster, and he will show you a false document.

What should you pay special attention to?

To ensure that the counterparty is not able to challenge the transaction on the basis of technical errors, it is imperative to check the entire text of the bill of sale. However, a number of provisions are significant, so closer attention should be paid to the points:

An introductory part, which provides information about the parties to the agreement, so that a third party not related to the transaction is not included.
The subject of the contract, which indicates the address of the apartment and all its characteristics in order to avoid substitution of the object.
The price of the object, taking into account the amount of the advance payment or deposit (if a preliminary agreement was concluded). You need to make sure that the price is not changed at the last moment.
Conditions for terminating the contract, where the provision “on the return of what was received under the transaction in the event of its termination” must be formulated.

IMPORTANT: A correctly drafted contract is the main guarantee of the protection of the property rights of the parties.

Step-by-step instructions: how to buy a home that has been owned for less than 3 years?

How to buy an apartment if it has been owned for less than three years? To carry out a transaction, you need to follow the specified algorithm step by step:

Find an object.
If it has been owned for less than three years, carefully check the documentation for the apartment and the owner’s passport.
Identify the property of the seller and verify that he is of legal age.
Make sure that the documentation required for the transaction is genuine.
When inheriting, determine the circle of heirs. If the apartment is not sold jointly, then those who refuse the sale must submit official notarized refusals.
After checking the documentation, draw up a preliminary agreement (at the discretion of the parties).
Within the period specified in the PDCP, conclude the main purchase and sale agreement, draw up and sign the transfer deed.
When concluding a bill of sale, check all provisions before signing it. Pay money when purchasing an apartment only in the amount specified in the contract.
Register the agreement by submitting it through the MFC or to a branch of Rosreestr (read more about registering a transaction through the MFC here).
Receive a registered agreement and an extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate, and begin to freely use the apartment for its intended purpose.

The buyer’s tasks at this stage are considered completed (we talked in detail about what the buyer should do after purchasing an apartment and how to resolve issues related to connecting housing and communal services, communications and much more here), but the seller will only have to pay personal income tax if the cost of the apartment is more than one million.

Will there be a tax deduction?

Let's start with perhaps the most common fear. Many buyers think that if they buy an apartment that has been owned for 3 years, they will not receive a tax deduction on its purchase. We hasten to debunk this myth. You can get your money back from personal income tax. The main thing is that the conditions are met:

the buyer is a citizen of the Russian Federation;
receives an official salary and pays taxes;
the transaction is not concluded between interdependent people, simply put, a husband does not buy from his wife, children from their parents, a subordinate does not buy from his boss, and vice versa;
the buyer does not pay for the apartment at the expense of maternity capital, budget money, and the employer does not pay for him.

In all other cases, the buyer has the right to a tax deduction, even if the seller has owned the apartment for less than three years. So you should be wary of other shortcomings.

Cases of challenging a transaction

A transaction can be challenged on a general basis in accordance with the provisions of Article 450 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation if one (several) of the provisions of the contract are not fulfilled by the counterparty.

The same applies if the rights of third parties who encroach on the ownership of the apartment are violated. It is also possible to recognize a contract as voidable on a number of grounds set out in Articles 166 and 167 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. These include violation of the law when concluding a contract:

with a minor;
with an incapacitated person;
in oppressive circumstances;
if the transaction is imaginary or made with other violations.

That is, all cases of violation of the law allow for the cancellation of the contract and bilateral, and in case of fraud - unilateral restitution.

REFERENCE: Restitution is the return to the parties of what was received in a transaction, bringing legal circumstances to the state that existed before the conclusion of the agreement.