Buying property in Montenegro

Christine · 2011-12-02 11:20:03

Hi,

can a foreigner buy property in Montenegro?

If so, is it complicated? What is the process of purchasing a property in Montenegro?

Any tips for buying property, such as a check-list of items to verify ?

Thanks in advance for participating!

Christine

Montenegro · 2011-12-05 21:26:00

Hi there,
The answers have been given in the french version here:
http://www.expat-blog.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=108076

You can find the google-translation here for the english language.

Nemanja · 2011-12-09 14:12:18

Hi Christine,

New low is in use for more than a year, and it is very precise about foreigners being able to own, officially, land in Montenegro. To officially own land means to register your ownership in Real Estate Authority ("Uprava za nekretnine"), which is Governmental Geodetic (Land Surveying) Authority in charge of land and estates register. For apartments there are no limitations.
You can always sign up contract, and pay tax on transaction, without registering in "Uprava za nekretnine" contract will always protect you as an owner! Much better is to be registered, obviously, it is much easier to resell you property or to start using it as an investment, so law says this: Foreigners can register ownership of land with already built house on it, which is registered in "Uprava za nekretnine" (house), if not you can always ask seller to do it, procedure is not expensive and lasts 1-3 mounts, if they push in municipality, can be done even in couple of days. Also is you own land with house, you can by and register parcel of land which has connection with your parcel. Third way is to by urban land, parcel of land covered with Detailed Urban Plan ("Detaljan urbanisticki plan DUP") and determined for construction. This way procedure is just a bit complicated, but 100% legal, with document from Office for Urbanization in Municipality, that land is in urban area covered with DUP you can register your ownership in Real estate authority (Uprava za nekretnine).
Procedure for purchasing is quite easy, especially after they accepted low of Notary services. Now they are only ones who could make and notarize purchase contract involving real estates. First step is to signup pre-contract when you decide what to buy, give some down payment (like 10%). When you transfer money on the account in Montenegro bank, you can sign up contract, after transfer money, and later on go with seller to signup receipt that he received money in full, those steps better make same day.
Most important is to make some checking about property you want to buy. To check ownership and permits for house or building you want to buy. Everything should be in property list (list nepokretnosti) published by Real estate authority (Uprava za nekretnine), but usually it is not, and even if there is some facts in it, they are maybe not up to date, so for this very important job my advice is to hire expert, consultant or lawyer, but one who is not connected with seller!

Have more questions, do not hesitate to ask...

Harmonie · 2011-12-09 14:27:25

Thanks for your contribution Nemanja! wink

Harmonie.

management23 · 2012-02-14 18:45:02

I have a friend who bought a house in montenegro in 2010 fair and square and now he has lost it. Some guy showed up with documentation that his family owned the property since 1975 (former republic of yugoslavia). The city says that that my friend got scammed and he did not purchase the property from the true owner. He had attorneys and did a closing when he bought the house. This is a pretty common issue in Montenegro. I read about issues similar to this on another website. [Moderated]. Hope this helps.

Last edited by management23 (2012-02-14 18:47:39)

Vladica · 2012-02-15 15:35:32

Merci Nemanja ,je suis fiere de toi...Mon compatriote,Merci
pour ta belle reponse

Vladica

Nemanja · 2012-02-15 17:34:25

to management23
I am interested where Fair and square took place? And also who was in charge to check paper and ownership of seller there.
Also if he is in contact with the guy who sold land to him maybe he can still try to do something, anyway you can send me more details about and I can see if there is still some chance for your friend!

Nemanja · 2012-02-17 12:56:58

Very important thing, I should mention in last post, is that applying this new low about Notary services in Montenegro will help a lot in preventing this problem. So it is like this:
For every municipality there are certain number of Notary who are competent for stamping contracts about real estates registered in that municipality. For Bar municipality there are just 3 of them, so now it is easy to check with them did somebody signed something about that property before you sign up contract. Other thing is that if you sign contract in any court in the world or at any other Notary in the world it will not be accepted in "Uprava za nekretnine" (Montenegro real estate register), so you will not be able to register your rights on that property, and according to new low, you will not have any rights on that property.
IMPORTANT: Real estate - Municipality - Official Notary from Municipality

LaPainting · 2012-08-07 17:20:20

Hi Nemanja.Purchased land in 2007 and still struggling.Dont know what we own and dont know where to turn.Help.....please.Used reg Advocate and asked him to ensure papers/titles were clean before payment made.1 family but 4 owners.Result -no crossing Agreement and papers not signed.New Advocate 2008- taken her 4 years to tell us part of land is Green Belt.Have lodged complaint-no good.Scammed by DATUM MONTENEGRO who promised to sort -they were paid as well.Now another new Lawyer from Law Society wants 3500 euro to tell me what my options are and what is/is not registered in our name!!! To sort it out will be 3 times that.Cant afford anymore and currently have to come up with another 2500 euro for this Company we have had to maintain for 5 years to comply with laws for foreigners with land..Accountant now demanding that we become citizens as Director we had has moved on.Phoned Kotor Council but when they hear English..they leave down the phone...can you or anybody help me...we have been treated so badly...help please..cant take much more of this and its keeping me awake at night..We did everything legally but were cheated because foreigners..we trusted people that were professional.not fair in any country..Even the chap that we bought the Green Belt Land from knows that we have been cheated and would help if he could...no English .Katherine x

Nemanja · 2012-08-08 09:05:25

Ia not completely sure what is the problem. I wrote you personal message to discuss more.
Anyway if the land is not urban and without house no foreigners can register it on their name, only option is to open company in Montenegro and to register land on company's name. Problem with company is that you need at least one employee, and sure need to pay deductions for him, which are minimum 110e per month, and also 70e per month for bookkeeping, and 70e final account, so it makes 2110 per year for keeping company in legal zone.
There are options to register on private name, but some job should be done, and sometimes it is impossible, anyway it varies from location to location, so to figure out some solution, most important is for me to know Municipality, Cadastral municipality and parcel number.....

LaPainting · 2012-08-08 14:07:50

Nemanja, i am so pleased to hear from you-i cannot explain how happy.The land is as you said not Urbanised and located in Orhovac, Kotor Council.We purchased the land in 2007 and as you said in was not in urbanisation.We were required to form a Company and this we did-using a friend we had made there as Director.The Company is called TOMUNA and Accountant Bencom in Herceg Novi-Mina Spaic.We were very aware of the problems with clean titles so we asked that the Advocate would double check everything and that no money or contracts be agreed until all titles were checked and Crossing Agreements signed.He gave us the o.k all was in order and our friend there signed on our behalf.It was then that things started to go wrong-we had spent in excess of 200000 Euro PLUS 4500 euro to Advocate, Court Cost/Land Tax etc to discover that all family members had not signed Crossing Agreement.He kept telling us that it was only a formality and he would sort it but finally in 2008 after daily/weekly e mails/calls and visits there he suggested we sort it out as he could not get all owners together to sign.We went out there and met a lady called [Moderated].A real cheat and we paid her money to sort it out.She disappeared with our money so on the recommendation of Bencom we appointed a new Advocate also in Herceg Novi.We paid her 1500 euro on account and it has taken her 4 years to tell us a few months ago that part of the land is Green Bely.The part i think we paid extra for as we need it to access the other part of the land.I will send you everything that i sent her.We dont know what is or is not registered in our name in KOTOR under the name TOMUNA.You will see from the enclosed what should be registered but please forgive me as i cannot read the language.We have paid for the Geometer x 3 times and cannot begin to explain to you the stress we are under.We have to pay this amount for the director and taxes plus the fees for the accountant every month and now the Accountant is demanding that we become citizens as the director we are using has another job.I cannot get her to explain to me what she is suggesting-it can take up to one year for her to answer an e mail and she will not come to the phone.I think she is suggesting that we just tolerate the fact that we have been cheated and cannot get her to explain what this e mail means...am sending this to you.

Dear Katherine,

At the beginning I would like to apologize for not replying to your mails. As you probably know, 4 months ago I’ve started new occupancy and I have really a lot of work to do as well as to attend some meetings when necessary, which is quite often.

You know that I managed to get in touch with your seller and he is willing to have this problem solved, too. However, the problem is that this land in urbanistic plan is shown as green area. According to present law, making this land parcelised in areas like this one, is not allowed.

I also got in touch with geometer who has done the job for you when you purchased the plot and got all origninal document from him.

So far, in my opinion (and seller agrees too) is that you make an anex to the main purchase contract as to define your ownership in ideal share of 540/1436, registered on your company. Than company would be registered as co-owner of the plot and in the future, perhaps some changes would be possible.

Kind regards,

Tamara

Nemanja, when we contacted her first it was to look at the whole lot-4 plots and i sent her everything i had on this.I have still got them if they were any good to you.I also have all the emails telling me that all was o.k and to pay the money.As i said i contacted the Irish Consular and they gave me a firm of Solicitors but they want 3500 euro to just tell me what my options are.I dont have the money as the Company fees of 2318 euro is due again as there is property tax as well.I dont mind coming out again but what do i do when i get there? who do i go to? I thin all the Advocates know each other and will not help and i sent complaint to the Comission for Lawyers but it has been returned unopened.They are not answering the phone...and like KOTOR Council i do not hold out much hope.Nemanja, what happens if i do not have a Director and cannot afford to keep this Company going.We have had to maintain it for past 5 years.I do not know who you are but am eternally grateful to you for your response.Kind Regards, Katherine p.s i cant send you e mail...can i have address again as something wrong.x

Last edited by LaPainting (2012-08-08 14:15:39)

Nemanja · 2012-08-08 23:25:36

You can find my email on my profile, nemanjaned[at]gmail.com. I will write you in inbox more about your problem tomorrow morning...

Lustica · 2012-11-06 22:38:56

I feel a bit like LePainting, and if someone could please spare five minutes to answer a couple of questions it would be massively appreciated.

Basically I brought some land in Lustica about five years ago. I am English and currently have a company to own the land
legally. I have been told that the land is urbanised and in the DUP, but that it is classed as forest 4th class - is this even possible to be both? I have also been told that it has outline permission for two objects on it.

I have been told that if I want to stop paying to have the company open I need to do the following and pay the following:

1. Use a lawyer to change the land from forest to urbanized unfertile land in Katastar Municipality of Kotor – 1000euros approximately.
2. Pay Profit tax of 9% when sell the land (selling amount minus
buying amount) – likely to be 0.00 euros as the land has not increased in value.
3. Pay Purchase tax/transfer tax? of 3%. approx – 3000euros
4. Close the company and transfer to a private person 500-1000euros.

Does anyone know whether I need to pay “profit tax” of 9% of the value and also “purchase tax/transfer tax” of 3%. I know other people in Montenegro that owned land and when this new law came in allowing foreigners to own land they only had to close their company and transfer to a private person. As such I am a bit confused why I am being told I need to pay this profit tax and purchase tax.

I am really struggling to pay these monthly costs and am getting to the point where I feel like just walking away from it all. If I could pay a reasonable amount of money to rename the land and close the company then it would be fine, but everyone gives me a different story so I end up not really believing any of it and wary that I will end up losing more money.

Nemanja · 2012-11-06 23:15:30

Hi there,

all this things are partly truth. It is possible to have DUP done and applied for your land, but still listed as forest in Cadastre ("Uprava za nekretnine" - land register) since they are not connected and if you want to change it you need to do it by yourself, or to authorize somebody else to do it. I am pretty much in this job, but I think it is not quite ok to speak about prices here so public, but I can say that 1000e is too much, couple of hundreds should cover it including taxes. Depends how many parcels you own, etc.
After you do this you need to transfer land to your own name. You can not transfer it so easy, you need to sell it to your self, Company needs to do it, and in this case you need to pay notary fee for making contract, since year ago they moved authorization from court to notary service about all job related real estates (depends of value, i can calculate it, or contact notary to ask how much he will charge) but let say couple of hundreds, and much bigger amount is 3% tax.
After that you need to get rid of the company. Cheapest way it bankruptcy, especially if you have some money you own to state. This is lawyers job, and it is around 1000e including taxes.
So bottom line is that you need like 2000e for paper work including taxes and to pay 3% tax.
This is way to do it with companies which are not 100% clear way kept, which are in debts, which are without land in it balances, which are not at the time in paying deductions to employees. For companies which are 100% by the book, there is much easier and cheaper way, to make liquidations of it, and to apply together with paper from urban department which is saying that land is urban, all together for 1500e including taxes and salaries for people included....
Most important is to check is it really urban land now, and it is not so hard to check, later also to calculate all expenses you need for your transaction, because anyway it will pay off in a year or two instead keeping company alive.
You can contact me in inbox or email better, with all papers you have, about land and company, so I can consult lawyer I cooperate with, and hopefully I will be able to help you more then to LaPainting, in which case after all investigation I had to say I am sorry but I cannot be done....
I expect you message

cheers

Last edited by Nemanja (2012-11-08 19:18:30)

Dan Atkinson · 2013-03-18 13:56:44

Hi Christine,

As a foreigner can buy property and own in their name direct without the need to form a country.

[moderated]

Best Wishes

Dan Atkinson

Dan Atkinson · 2013-03-19 11:00:47

I've been here for 8 years now and love the place. You can easily find me in Tivat.

This is part of the reason why i love Montenegro so much, its a country with a village feel. The people are nice and welcoming if you give out that vibe.

Dan

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Buying property in Montenegro

#1 2011-12-02 11:20:03

Buying property in Montenegro

#2 2011-12-05 21:26:00

Re: Buying property in Montenegro

#3 2011-12-09 14:12:18

Re: Buying property in Montenegro

#4 2011-12-09 14:27:25

Re: Buying property in Montenegro

#5 2012-02-14 18:45:02

Re: Buying property in Montenegro

#6 2012-02-15 15:35:32

Re: Buying property in Montenegro

#7 2012-02-15 17:34:25

Re: Buying property in Montenegro

#8 2012-02-17 12:56:58

Re: Buying property in Montenegro

#9 2012-08-07 17:20:20

Re: Buying property in Montenegro

#10 2012-08-08 09:05:25

Re: Buying property in Montenegro

#11 2012-08-08 14:07:50

Re: Buying property in Montenegro

#12 2012-08-08 23:25:36

Re: Buying property in Montenegro

#13 2012-11-06 22:38:56

Re: Buying property in Montenegro

#14 2012-11-06 23:15:30

Re: Buying property in Montenegro

#15 2013-03-18 13:56:44

Re: Buying property in Montenegro

#16 2013-03-19 11:00:47

Re: Buying property in Montenegro

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