— Good day! I bought apartments in New Gudauri. Can you help me with signing sale-purchase agreement? I think its terms contradict the common sense. With that call from a potential client from Poland our intriguing story has started. No, wait, to be exact the story has started two years ago with completely different circumstances, but I will tell you that story next time.

— Sure. Real estate deals are my specialty and passion! ????

And here it is – the agreement for a standard sale-purchase transaction, which gets registered by dozens at Public Register every day. Simple transaction with a breathtaking speed of completing (only few hours for registration with only one document!) that impresses many foreigners in Georgia. So, let’s have a closer look. And here comes the story about how it all started. Two years ago a group of friends, who have explored all the slopes of Italian, French and Swiss Alps, decided to give Caucasus a try. They went to Gudauri and fell in love with it. Mountains, unique slopes, affordable wine and Georgian hospitality have determined the decision – here one must own real estate!

New Gudauri seemed the best choice ⛷ ????. Resort ski-in/ski-out, beautiful pictures of the complex with developed infrastructure promised great skiing and après-ski competing with European resorts. Let’s roll! – my clients said, and signed preliminary sale-purchase agreements with Red-Co.

In accordance with the agreement, the building should have been completed in the summer of the same year. Red-Co promised to finish the fit-out works before December, and in December – fresh apartments in a newly-build complex ready for a profitable renting with the help of the same professional Red-Co team, who promised technical and commercial management of the site, including reception with European service standards!

And in the fall of the next year… Ski season 2018/2019, promised by the developer, lost. But ok, here comes the time to sign the sale-purchase agreement and register the ownership! My clients have taken a minute to read the contract, and decided not to take chances anymore and not to trust Georgian guaranties of “everything will be ok, this is Georgia”, but ask lawyers for help.????

And here comes my professional, pure legal part. Remember, everything started with preliminary sale-purchase agreement in the distant 2018? Let’s take a look at both– we thought, being naïve in our belief that the terms and conditions of the preliminary and main agreements should be identical. ????

And, of course, check the apartment status at the Public Register. And here begin our discoveries! It turned out that the apartment building is not officially put into operation, and my clients are offered to register their property in the building with status of “under construction”????????‍♀️ (I will have a separate article on specifics of registering an ownership rights in newly constructed buildings). The deeper we digged into that situation, the more information we found! Apartments are registered by the developer (and this is ok), but mortgaged to the Bank under a freshly-made agreement without mentioning my clients-skiers at the Public Register as owners, as was promised by Red-Co to register the apartments to the buyers.encumbrance on the object with an obligation to transfer

Take care of yourself and your investments, and wait for the story to be continued…????