What the Purchase Agreement for Residential Property Means
Acquiring a home in Georgia takes the legal form of a sale contract defined by Articles 477, 478, 490 and 497 of the Civil Code. By a contract of sale the seller is obliged to transfer to the buyer the ownership right in the property, to hand over the documents connected with it, and to deliver the item. The buyer, for their part, must pay the agreed price and accept the purchased property. These interlocking obligations form the legal skeleton of the transaction, and each party's rights at every stage — signing, performance, dispute — flow from them.
Article 477 also provides that, where the price is not directly indicated in the contract, the parties may agree on the means of determining it. The value of a home therefore does not have to be fixed as a concrete sum at signature: the parties may record it by agreed criteria. This matters because the price of an apartment often commits household or investment resources, and ambiguity about the agreed sum becomes the seed of a later dispute.
Core Obligations of the Seller and the Buyer
The seller's obligations comprise transferring the ownership right, handing over the related documents, and delivering the item. In practice the seller does not merely part with physical possession: the seller must also secure the documentary foundation by which the buyer holds and can prove the right against third parties. The duty to hand over documents stands out — without it, the buyer struggles to defend the acquired right.
The buyer's duties are to pay the agreed price and to accept the property. They mirror those of the seller: where a party fails to perform, the other side holds remedies set by other provisions of the Code, and choosing among them requires separate legal analysis.
How the Law Allocates Transaction Costs
Article 478 sets the default allocation of costs connected with the transfer of the sold item: weighing, measuring and packaging costs are borne by the seller, while the costs of receiving and dispatching the goods from the place of conclusion of the contract to another place are borne by the buyer — unless the contract provides otherwise. That reservation is decisive: the parties are free to distribute these costs differently.
In residential deals this rule deserves a deliberate reading: it attaches the technical costs of transfer to the appropriate party. Fees connected with state registration or other mandatory procedures form a separate subject governed by their own rules, and a precise picture of them requires a review of your transaction's terms.