The buyer of your German property offers to settle part of the price with gold or crypto-assets. He says the market value is easy to prove and you would only have to acknowledge receipt. In a real estate transaction, however, the question is not only what value you personally wish to accept. § 16a GwG contains special requirements for effecting the counter-performance.
Name the offered performance in full first
Our editorial recommendation: Record which performance is meant as counter-performance and to what extent, and what has already been agreed. A separate private exchange will not be treated as separate from the property transaction without review. Provide the actual proposal in full to the notary.
The article does not declare any specific type of crypto-asset or any investment suitable. It also does not examine price developments or custody. It is about the intended fulfilment in the specified German real estate transaction.
Know the special legal rule
§ 16a paragraph 1 GwG provides for purchase or exchange of domestic real estate that the owed counter-performance may only be effected with means other than cash, crypto-assets, gold, platinum or gemstones. The provision also covers specified acquisitions of company shares. [GWG_2017-16a]
For that reason a private receipt acknowledgement should not independently declare that the real estate purchase price has been discharged by such an excluded performance. What consequences already rendered performances have in the individual case and how a legally appropriate procedure can be established must be clarified individually.
Distinguish between the question of proof and the question of means of payment
The further paragraphs govern proofs and notarial examination together with special exceptions. These are not here reinterpreted as a general permission to pay smaller portions of the counter-performance with excluded means. [GWG_2017-16a] A limit to a specific evidential requirement is not automatically a general clearance of the form of payment.
The article does not provide any apportionment or substitute arrangement to circumvent the requirements. If several performances or later partial payments are planned, the notary needs the actual overall proposal.
An invented gold proposal
An interested party wants to buy a flat and hand over a partial amount in gold. He promises a precise list of weights and values. The seller does not let herself be persuaded to issue a receipt for the purchase price solely by arithmetical precision.
She submits the proposal to the notary and has the permissible actual manner of performance clarified. The gold is not presented as an ordinary transfer receipt by giving it a new file name. The example does not decide on an already completed transaction.
Do not relabel an executed transaction afterwards
If something has already been handed over or transferred, secure the actual contents and timing for the consultation. Do not invent an alleged earlier transfer or a different kind of performance. The professional review must proceed from the real facts.
Confirmations to the notary should also describe the actual status. The notary decides on the required examination and further steps on the basis of the transaction. An unauthorised general confirmation of discharge cannot replace this classification.
This is how an unusual payment offer can be dealt with objectively. The parties first examine the legally appropriate route, instead of agreeing only on market value and receipt and deriving from that an unexamined discharge of the purchase price.