Estonia

Registering Property in

Estonia

Listed below is a detailed summary of the steps, time and cost involved in registering property, assuming a standardized case of an entrepreneur who wants to purchase land and a building that is already registered and free of title dispute.

The information appearing on this page was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 183 economies. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2011.

  • Standard Property Transfer

  • Property Value: EUR 511,997.3
  • City: Tallinn

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 A notary prepares the Sale-purchase Agreement & the Agreement on Transfer of the Ownership of the Real Estate, and the parties sign it at the notary’s office

Pursuant to Estonian law, it is mandatory that all transactions related to the transfer of real estate are notarized by a notary public. The parties may prepare the sale and purchase agreement in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Estonia. However, the notary will review it and if the agreement is not in accordance with the law, then the notary will amend the agreement or ask parties of the agreement to modify the agreement in accordance with the law, since the notary is financially liable for any potential mistakes or law violations.

Copies of all documents related to the agreement (transaction data, power of attorneys, documents concerning acquisition of the property, copies of identity documents, etc) shall be delivered to the notary’s office 3-4 days before the conclusion if the agreement. All originals shall be submitted to the notary on the day of the conclusion of the agreement. In case a document has not been issued in the Republic of Estonia, the document shall be certified by an apostille or legalized and translated into Estonian prior to the conclusion of the agreement.

Since 2007 notaries use the E-Notary program which facilitates the preparation of notarial deeds. E-Notary offers contract templates and necessary data about parties to and object of a transaction come from different registers. By entering personal identification code or the name of a person into the box of details of the party, E-Notary finds the respective individual and completes, based on the data of the Population Register, the rest of the blank boxes - name etc. Upon the entry of registered immovable number, E-Notary finds and displays, based on the data of the electronic Land Register, other data related to the registered immovable – address, area etc. Once the contract is signed, the notary makes digital copy of the contract and the contract is thereof forwarded electronically to the Land Register.


 3-15 days Notary fee according to the Notary Fees Act No: 22 for a property transaction of EEK 7.781.279 EEK / 497.314,37 EUR is 11.809,27 EEK / 754,75 EUR. As this case is a bilateral transaction, therefore a notary fee for certifying a transaction shall be the do
2 Payment of the state fee (stamp duty) at a commercial bank

The state fee for making the changes in the Land Register must be paid prior to applying for registration.

Agency: Commercial Bank 		1 day State fee for a property transaction of EEK 7.781.279 EEK / 497.314,37 EUR is 11.599,92 EEK / 741,37 EUR (Appendix 2, State fees Act of January 1, 2007)
3 A notarized application is filed to the Land Register and corresponding entries are made to the Land Register

The notarized application to the Land Register is filed to transfer the ownership of the real estate to the buyer in the Land Register Book. As of June 1, 2007, this application can be filed online through the "e-notary" system which allows the notary to submit the application electronically without using any paper application. Computerization of property records at the Land Registry have been ongoing for a few years has finally been completed at the end of 2008. Land Register shall publish a register notice regarding a Real Estate, which has not yet been entered in the Land Register only before opening a register part for an immovable in the register.
The notice is published in the official publication Ametlikud Teadaanded and, if necessary, in any other manner available to the persons concerned. In case the Real Estate is already registered in the Land Register (as in this case), no publication is necessary.

The documentation shall include:
Notarized Sale Purchase Agreement and Agreement of the Transfer of the Ownership of Real Estate (obtained in Procedure 1).
Receipt of payment of state fee (obtained in Procedure 2)



Agency: Land Register 		8 days Already paid in Procedure 2
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