The property fits, the other party now wants a declaration. You are to make an offer while the selling party wants to agree later. At the same time your bank still lacks documents. The decisive question is not only whether the purchase is already fully concluded. Before the declaration you need clarity about your own binding nature, the method of conclusion and the remaining conditions.
Classify the declaration actually being requested
Our editorial recommendation: Present the full wording including attachments to the appropriate legal advice or the notary. Describe whether you only wish to continue negotiating, to offer a concrete transaction or already to conclude a mutual contract. A familiar headline does not replace this classification.
The contract on the obligation to transfer or to acquire land requires notarisation according to § 311b Absatz 1 Satz 1 BGB. [FORM] Therefore do not treat a simple standard form uncritically as an already effective land purchase. Conversely, nothing can be generally inferred from the formal requirement that all other declarations or instructions would be without cost and consequences. Reservation fees and notary mandates require their own examination.
Understand the proposed route to completion before your first appointment
§128 BGB allows for the successive notarisation of offer and acceptance. [GETRENNT] A joint appointment is therefore not the only way provided for by law. If declarations are separate, ask precisely which instrument you are to give now and what the other party may still declare later.
According to §145 BGB the offer generally binds the offering person, unless they have excluded the binding. [ANGEBOT] The fact that the other party has not yet accepted is therefore not a sufficient declaration of your own freedom. Have the specific binding and all asserted exceptions explained clearly before you make the offer.
Bring subject matter and conditions to the same state
Check whether the offered unit, items sold with it, price, payment method and intended handover fit together. Which promise has so far only been discussed orally? Which essential attachment is missing? A contract version of the other party not yet known is not a proper reference for your declaration.
Also state the actual financing status. The bank may be waiting for a document or may have given only a preliminary assessment. If you need a specific condition for your binding, its legal drafting must be clarified in advance. A private note in your task list and an intention expressed to the bank will not be treated as an effective contractual condition.
Have deadline and completion event declared together
For a specified acceptance period §148 BGB provides for acceptance within that period. [FRIST] That does not yet confirm the validity of every proposed deadline clause. Ask about its specific meaning and record the instrument state to be examined. This article does not set either a generally permissible binding duration or an individual final day.
For a contract not notarised simultaneously, §152 BGB generally names the notarial acceptance as the completion event, unless something else is stipulated. [ABSCHLUSS] Do not wait uncritically for a personal message as the supposedly only possible start of contractual binding. Have explained which event should be decisive according to the concrete content and how you will be reliably informed of the execution.
Hypothetical case: A later bank appointment meets a present offer
A buyer is to declare a notarial offer first. He thinks he can in any case decide anew at the next personal meeting. The bank has only scheduled its final property review afterwards. In the process discussed so far no suitable financing condition is clarified.
Before notarisation he discloses this timing gap. The notary explains the intended binding and the later acceptance; the necessary contractual drafting and its approval by the other party are clarified. The buyer does not confirm a financing status that has not yet been reached. He decides only on the basis of the actual content of the offer whether he wants to make the declaration in this form.
Decide on the whole package before the declaration
Before concluding you should be able to explain subject matter, your own binding, essential conditions and the route to completion. In case of a change the complete current version will be reassigned.