What Acquiring Commercial Property Means Legally
Acquiring commercial property — the purchase of premises for a clinic, a dental practice or a consulting office — is a transaction regulated by the Georgian Civil Code, every element of which is defined by law. A contract by which one party undertakes to transfer title to immovable property to another, or to acquire it, requires written form — an oral agreement renders such a transaction unlawful. This is the first and foremost rule by which the law disciplines every participant of the immovable-property market.
The content of the sale contract is also prescribed: the seller is obliged to transfer to the buyer the right of ownership in the property, the documents connected with it, and to deliver the goods; the buyer is obliged to pay the agreed price and to accept the property purchased. If the price is not directly indicated in the contract, the parties may agree on the means of determining it — though in practice a precisely fixed price always serves the contract better.
Allocation of Costs — Who Pays What
The cost question is the most frequently disputed in immovable-property transactions, and the law sets a clear default: the seller of a land plot and other immovable property bears the costs of formalising the sale contract, of registration in the public registry and of submitting the documents necessary for it — unless otherwise provided in the contract by agreement of the parties. By default, therefore, the registration and formalisation costs lie on the seller, and changing this default must be expressly recorded in the contract.
For land plots one further rule exists: the seller must pay the costs incurred before the conclusion of the contract for the development of the plot and similar measures, regardless of the moment when the payment obligation arose. When buying a land plot for a clinic or a practice, this circumstance must be part of the budget planning.