In a discussion about your German property, an additional payment is proposed that should not appear in the notarial deed. Perhaps it is said that part will be handled “privately” later or treated collectively as fittings. Before you agree, the notary needs the complete real proposal. This article does not present an unknown side agreement as effective and does not offer a way to circumvent formalities.
Describe the full payment or performance openly
Our editorial recommendation: Record internally who expects which amount or which performance from whom and with what it is to be linked. If a specific item is actually meant, it should be identified concretely. If the amount so far is merely an arithmetic adjustment, this must not be concealed by an invented inventory list.
Provide the actual state of discussions in full to the responsible notarial and, if necessary, tax advice. Advisors can only examine a connection if it is known. Any existing written message belongs with its exact contents.
Do not replace the legal starting point with labels
§ 311b paragraph 1 BGB requires the notarisation of a contract that obliges to the transfer or acquisition of land ownership. [BGB-311b] Which further agreements in the concrete context are subject to formal requirements and what consequences an exclusion would have must be assessed separately under the law.
This article therefore does not say that every agreement on furniture must be treated the same in every case. Nor does it say that a privately written annex or the heading “fittings” resolves the formal and tax issues. What matters is the actual content of the overall transaction.
A fabricated purported simplification proposal
A buyer proposes a lower notarised amount and a further payment for “everything that stays in the house”. The seller has not yet decided which items are to remain. There is neither a precise list nor an objective basis for the additional amount.
The seller therefore does not create retrospective sham values. He informs the notary of the full proposal and has the actual scope of the purchase and the permissible structuring route clarified. Only then is an appropriate description prepared. The example does not calculate any tax saving.
Do not trigger a payment on an unresolved basis
If money has already been offered or requested, ask the responsible adviser for the appropriate course of action based on the actual situation. The article recommends neither accepting an unchecked private additional payment nor an automatic refund without case-by-case review.
Even a practical wish for a quicker or leaner contract should be stated openly. The responsible body can explain how real items and performances can be dealt with in a traceable way. Incomplete information is not a sensible shortcut to legal clarification.
Compare the final wording with the actual will
Finally, check whether the proposed text and the expressly agreed documents describe the transaction actually planned. Open differences are raised before signing the declaration. A private expectation that the parties will later recall the oral side idea does not replace this agreement.
This way advice remains tied to the real conditions of the sale. You do not need a self-devised supplementary route alongside the deed whose connection to the land transaction and whose legal consequences no one has fully examined in the first place.