Legal check of an apartment before purchase

What I check

The apartment

• Registry extracts (EGRN) on the property and on transfers of title: owners, grounds, encumbrances, seizures, bans. Since 2023 owners' names appear in an extract only with their consent, so the seller orders it or opens access.
• The chain of title: how often it was sold, gifts between relatives, inheritance, privatisation.
• Who is registered there: the Moscow single housing document, people who waived privatisation, children.
• Alterations: I compare the BTI floor plan with what the photos and viewing show.
• Utility debts and capital repair contributions. Utility debt stays with the seller, capital repair debt passes to the buyer.

The seller and previous owners

• Bankruptcy in the federal register (EFRSB), including out-of-court bankruptcy. A deal can be challenged if the seller goes bankrupt within three years after it, so I check not only the seller but also the person they bought from.
• Commercial court cases (kad.arbitr) and general court cases: disputes over the flat, debt claims, divorces and division of property.
• Enforcement proceedings with the bailiffs (FSSP).
• The passport against the Interior Ministry's invalid passports list.
• Inheritance cases in the notary chamber register: if the flat was inherited, whether the case is closed and whether there are other heirs.
• The power of attorney, if a representative sells: against the notary register.
• Family: whether the seller was married when they bought the flat, whether spouse consent is needed, whether maternity capital was used and children's shares allocated.

About psychiatric and drug clinic certificates. They only show whether a person is on a register, not whether the seller understood what they signed. If there is doubt about capacity, I suggest other protection: a notarised deal or an examination on the day of signing.

What you receive

A written report on the apartment:

• the risks found, each rated: removable, priced in, or a reason to walk away;
• which documents to request from the seller and what to check in them;
• which clauses to put in the contract to close the remaining risks;
• my conclusion: buy, buy with conditions, or do not buy.

The report is yours. You can take it to your agent or your bank.

Steps and timing

• Review, free. You send the address or listing. Within a day I tell you what open registers show and whether there is any reason not to go to a viewing.
• Contract. I quote the fixed fee for the full check and we put it in a contract with Weylex LLC (ООО «Вейлекс», INN 9715397784).
• Full check. I request the seller's documents through you or the agent and check registers and courts. From 1 business day after receiving the documents, depending on the apartment's history.
• Report. In writing, with a walkthrough by phone or messenger.

If the check comes back clean, I can go on to handle the deal. That is a separate service, transaction support.

Fee

The review based on open data is free. The full check is a fixed fee that depends on the apartment: number of past owners, inheritance, children, mortgage. I quote it after the review, before work starts, and it does not change along the way.