You already live in an apartment of a non-profit building association (gemeinnützige Bauvereinigung). Now you want to buy or have already received an offer. This is a new decision: a previously suitable home does not answer the statutory basis for purchase nor the future owner’s encumbrance. This article accompanies the entire transition from the clarified method of acquisition to a responsible acceptance.
Start with the actual method of acquisition
§15c WGG distinguishes the statutory entitlement under its conditions and the method of acquisition based on a binding offer from the building association. [KAUFGRUNDLAGE] Request the written classification of your case. A non-binding intention to sell is not yet an offer situation to be processed under the same rules.
Have the entitlement prerequisites examined on the basis of your contract and property history. This includes appropriate historical documents; a contribution threshold read today must not be transferred unexamined to a different year of conclusion. The article deliberately does not name a flat euro amount valid for every contract.
For older tenancies transitional law is particularly important. § 39 para 37 deals with the application of the 2019 reform to relationships already existing and concluded thereafter. [UEBERGANG] You should therefore not determine your personal acquisition timetable solely with the today’s shorthand “after five years”.
Set the deadlines side by side
Our editorial recommendation: keep separate dates for a possible application, the expected offer, its acceptance and possible price objections. Note the actual basis for each date. An enquiry with the building association or a still pending bank review will not be recorded as an automatically granted extension.
For the statutory procedure § 15e provides in the described framework a written fixed-price offer within three months; an agreed longer period may not exceed six months. If an offer does not arrive the provision regulates a judicial route with a further request. [VERFAHRENSWEG] Do not set the offer yourself by inventing a purchase price if the response is missing.
Translate the offer into your entire obligation
Request the precise allocation of the offered consideration, creditable amounts, assumed obligations and money payable immediately. §15b also includes the assumption of the obligations and financings mentioned there. [UEBERNAHME] A small immediate cash requirement alone is therefore not a complete representation of what you will have to bear.
Clarify the concrete new financing offer and the actually intended assumptions with the bank. In addition record the ongoing owner’s burden and known building commitments. Planned renovations are then distinguished according to whether they have already been resolved, financed or are still an open expectation. A possible later re-letting or disposal requires an additional usage assessment; free market rent or unrestricted short-term profit-taking are not assumed here.
Decide price review and affordability separately
An offer can be too expensive for your household without that already establishing its legal unreasonableness. §15d governs objections due to manifest unreasonableness within six months of a written fixed-price offer and the judicial determination framework. [PREISEINWENDUNG]
If a corresponding review appears necessary, promptly submit the complete price and property documents to suitable advice. § 15e para 3a contains a special consequence for the declaration deadlines for timely objections. [VERFAHRENSWEG] You must not derive an unexamined extension of deadlines from this by means of any complaint.
Hypothetical case: the bank’s response and the purchase date do not yet align
A tenant receives an offer with an apparently manageable immediate payment. Only during the bank discussion does he recognise that substantial obligations are also to be assumed. At the same time he wants the price to be reviewed and believes a general enquiry keeps all deadlines open.
He now brings together the actual deadlines, the complete consideration and the financing status. Legal advice clarifies a possibly necessary price objection; the bank assesses the concrete money and obligation assumption. Only when the situation is understood does he decide on the appropriate declaration. The example makes neither a purchase recommendation nor a price objection.
Prepare the acceptance as a binding step
§15e describes the written declaration in the regulated procedure and the further status as an apartment ownership applicant after fulfilment of the specified payment obligations. [VERFAHRENSWEG] Acceptance should therefore not be given casually as a non-binding reservation. Clarify the subsequent legal execution with the contract drafting.
As a result record: purchase on a fully examined basis, further clarification within the secured deadlines or do not exercise the offer. What matters is your reasoned decision about the specific offer. Long duration of tenancy alone does not oblige you to any acquisition recommended here.