The house includes networked devices, an app for garden control and perhaps an ongoing service for an alarm system. You want to sell the property. From the functioning use it is not straightforward to deduce which devices, accounts and services the buyer will receive. Our editorial recommendation for Austria and Germany is a clarification of inventory and scope before the sale. It does not describe the function of a specific product.
First define the offer you actually want
Record the devices and functions that, in your view, should remain in the house. Separate them from personal phones, home network devices or other items you wish to take with you. For the legal classification of components and movable items you need appropriate contractual advice; a self-chosen table heading does not decide that.
Also note which service you actually use today and what it is based on. Is there dedicated hardware, a personal account, an ongoing contract or support set up by a service provider? Record the available documents without writing passwords or access keys into the general sales list.
Read device inventory and contract inventory separately
A device that remains in the house does not, in this guidance, prove the continuation of a personal subscription. Likewise, an existing contract does not confirm arbitrary transferability. Ask the actually responsible contract or provider office about the conditions of the specific product and have legal consequences examined as appropriate.
Record the response with product reference and date. Unknown fees, terms or conditions for takeover will not be supplemented from memory. This article does not claim any generally free account change or any automatic termination upon house sale.
An invented alarm system example
The exposé for a house states there is an existing alarm system. The seller uses a personal ongoing service for this. In the first conversation the buyer side assumes this service is permanently included in the purchase price. That had not previously been expressly clarified.
The seller collects device documentation and contract documents. Afterwards it is determined concretely what is to be offered and which further contractual route would be available to the buyer side. The system is not made part of an unknown permanently free package by a private assurance.
Prepare the later transfer as a separate project
Once the scope of the offer is established, ask for the secure transfer procedure actually intended for it. Responsibility, new roles, personal data and required operating information are aligned with the manufacturer and provider documentation as appropriate. An uncoordinated reset of important technology is not recommended here.
The sale can also contain a clear open question that must be resolved before a specific step. It is important that it remains recognisable as such and does not disappear behind the general word “Smart Home”.
Reconcile description and understanding of costs
Finally check the exposé, conversation documents and the scope intended for contract drafting. Devices, usable function and services to be agreed separately should be clearly distinguishable. Future expenses are mentioned only with an actually confirmed basis.
This way the buying party can recognise what they receive with the property and what they must arrange themselves. You do not have to invent a product promise to describe existing technology attractively.