Egypt4u

Sales contracts come in various forms and some can be downloaded from the Internet. You can have them for cars, apartments, villa's, land, valuables etc. each form will be slightly different.

In Egypt, sales contracts can be bought from any stationery office and generally come on blue paper but can come in white also. The sample here cost 50 pstr to buy.

I will later attach one scan of an original, and one English translation of it by my husband, but only an Arabic one will be used in any Egyptian transaction. The English is purely to give an idea of the content.

This is an example of a sales contract procedure for buying an apartment.

Procedure:

View property and agree a price.

Inspect sellers original contract, and registration document. If you are in any doubt take the number from the contract documents and ask the registry to check authenticity. If they have court stamps and a green eagle stamp (blue if Notary Office) you can be assured they are legal from the court/notary.

Buy two sales contracts from the stationery shop. One for seller and one for buyer.

Fill in both copies exactly the same and have two but preferably 4 witnesses, 2 from each side to witness them.

If the seller has a registration document saying that he owns the land you then both go to the Notary Office and register the new buyer as the new owner.
The sellers original registration will then be terminated and a new one started which the new buyer will have as proof of ownership. The notary office will enter the new details and write on the sales contract a number. This number is the number to check with the registry should any disputes occur. No lawyer is needed if the registration document is available,

The fee for this will depend on the size of the apartment and the value and as an approximation in Cairo. A friend has built a 5 storey block and it cost 5,000le to register in 2008 total. So this should give you an idea of the cost.

Once this is done it is final and you own the property and have it registered in your name.

If the seller has no registration document , then you will be better at this point to hire a lawyer. It can be done without but will be quicker with one.

Both seller and buyer can go to the court to prove that the signatures on the contracts are genuine and that both parties are happy with the sale. The judge will then stamp the contracts and they will then be legal should any disputes occur later.

If you do not want the hassle of going round 10 offices to get various stamps you can ask the lawyer to do this part.
You must both give him POA, or the seller can go to the court on the court date set by the judge to confirm that this is his signature on the contract.
if you give both POA to the Lawyer it should take around 4 months to complete the process and this should cost 450le or thereabouts incl of all stamps, backsheesh, etc.



Keep in mind that the original blue contract from the stationery office will be the ones you have as your final contract. Lawyers do not magically have to charge you more for another 'special legal' contract. It cost's 50 pstr!
This is the same one all the stamps go on. So be beware if they make it sound more complicated than it actually is.

Here is a sample of an Arabic apartment sales contract

This is a translation of the above contract in English to give you an idea of the content.

BUT the sales contract you will be using will be in Arabic.





Sales Contract (Apartment)




on ( date ) , this contract has been signed by two parties :

1st Seller : …........................................................................................
2nd Buyer : ….......................................................................................

Firstly :
First Party ( seller ) has sold the flat to the second party according to a legal contract in the possession of the seller .
Mr …........................................ ( seller ) , and Mr …................................................ ( buyer )
Flat No. ( number ) , floor No. ( number ) , of building No. ( number ) , at ( Full address )
Which includes ( number of rooms ) , and size of ( full size in meters ) , and it has ( percentage of the flat ) compared to the size of the building's land .
The borders of the flat are :
Northern border …..... ( No. meters )
Eastern border …............ ( No. in meters )
Western border ….......... ( No. in meters )
Southern border …...... ( No. in meters )

The total size of the building is ( Size in meters square ) . And has four borders stated as :
Northern border …..... ( No. meters )
Eastern border …............ ( No. in meters )
Western border ….......... ( No. in meters )
Southern border …...... ( No. in meters )

Secondly :
This sale has been done with the approval of both parties for a sum cash of ( Price in Egyptian Pounds) , and has been fully paid by the buyer.

Thirdly : ( only applies if the seller built the building himself. )
The seller admits that the plot of land of which the building is standing on has been bought by him according to the registered contract No . ( number ) , Year ( year ) , Governorate …................. and the seller admits also that the ownership of the this flat has become his own, by building it on his own land as part of the building .

Fourthly :
The buyer admits that the ownership of the flat has become his own starting from this date according to this contract , and the borders of the flat has been described in this contract , and the buyer became legally the new owner who has all the rights to do whatever he likes with the flat according to the law.
He also has to pay any tax due from this date.
The buyer also admits that he has seen and checked the flat before signing the contract.

Fifthly :
The seller has to show all documents which prove the ownership of the flat , and the buyer has all the rights to annul this contract if anything was not found to be legal or not clear by the seller and he has the right to get a full refund in this case.

Sixthly :
The seller admits that the flat has no mortgage to be paid or any disputes over it.

Seventhly :
The buyer must not do any modifications to any of the floors or any part of the building without the approval of the rest of the residents of the building and an approval from the architect of the council and he ( the buyer ) has no right to change the painting colors of the floor or the outside of the building or the stairs . He also is not allowed to build any kind of bird houses on the roof.

Eighthly :
This contract and any future disputes can be checked with the court of ….. ( name of local courthouse ) .

Ninthly :
This contract has been signed and made into two original copies handed to both parties.

First party ( Seller's name and signature and id/passport number )
Second party ( buyer's name and signature and id/passport number )

witness no 1
witness no 2
witness no 3
witness no 4