Mortgaged, seized or encumbered apartments: how to buy and sell

Seven defects that stop a flat from selling or halve its price

• A share in an apartment. Co-owners' pre-emption right, notary, guardianship if children are involved. Details on the share page.
• Pledged to a bank. It can be sold only with the bank's consent or by repaying the loan with the buyer's money. Get the order of payments wrong and the buyer is left with neither money nor flat.
• Seizure and registration ban. Bailiffs, courts, the tax office. No deal until the seizure is lifted, and lifting it takes know-how.
• Utility and capital repair debts. Utility debt stays with the old owner, capital repair contributions pass to the new one. Buyers confuse the two and walk away.
• Inheritance. A fresh certificate, heirs who «did not exist», a will against the law. Banks are reluctant to lend, buyers ask for a discount for their fear.
• Bankruptcy of the seller or their ex-spouse. The deal can be challenged in the bankruptcy case within three years. This is the main risk on the resale market, and almost nobody checks it.
• Bankruptcy auctions and banks' repossessed property. There is a discount, but also registered residents, challenges to the auction, no viewing and 30 days to pay. Details on the auction page.

A defect cannot always be removed. Sometimes the right answer is to sell with the defect, at a price that reflects the defect and not the buyer's fear. Buy-out companies keep the gap between those two numbers. I leave it with you.

For the buyer

A property with a defect is the only lawful way to buy in Moscow below market: an auction flat, a bank's repossessed flat, a share with a later buy-out of the rest, an inherited flat with a discount «for fear». The discount is real if the defect is valued correctly and removed before it becomes yours.

• I find properties at auctions, from banks and from owners nobody wants to deal with.
• I check before the deposit: registry, courts, bankruptcy, residents, auction rules, receiver's documents.
• I work out the real price: market minus the cost of removing the defect minus a margin for risk.
• I handle the deal: payment with the bank or platform, removal of the encumbrance, registration, lawful eviction if needed.

For the seller

If the flat is pledged, seized, in debt, or you are selling a share or an inheritance, an agent puts up a listing and waits. Buyers read «encumbrance» and leave.

I do it the other way round: first I remove the defect or package it into a scheme a buyer understands, then I sell. Bank consent, lifting a seizure, notifying co-owners, guardianship, repaying the debt from the buyer's money through a letter of credit: this is legal work, and a lawyer should do it.

What I check before the deposit

• Registry: encumbrances, seizures, bans, history of transfers.
• Bankruptcy registers, commercial courts, bailiffs: bankruptcy and debts of the owner and their spouse.
• Rights of spouses, minors, people who waived privatisation.
• For auctions: sale rules, valuation report, notices, registered persons.
• For a pledge: remaining debt, bank's consent, payment scheme.
• For inheritance: circle of heirs, deadlines, will, disputes.

The result is a written report: what the defect is, whether it can be removed, what removal costs and what a fair price is.

Steps

• Check and report, free. You send the address or lot link. I check the property and the owner against registers and courts and tell you in writing: the defect, whether it can be removed, the cost, the fair price.
• Contract. A contract with Weylex LLC (ООО «Вейлекс», INN 9715397784): what I do, timing and fee. No hidden percentages or «extras along the way».
• Removing the defect and the deal. Bank, bailiffs, court, notary, guardianship, auction platform, depending on the case. Then the deal: contract, safe payment, registration with Rosreestr, handover.

Court practice since 2009, including bankruptcy cases. If a defect cannot be removed, I say so at once.