Proud owner

I was left without more than 1000 euros because the Government of the Republic of Croatia gave up on the announced abolition of real estate transfer tax. Of course, I didn’t like such an outcome of the situation, and who would? But what can we do? We pay taxes to the state we love, right?

The situation with the pandemic was bad, so the arrival of the seller to Croatia, for the signing of the contract, and the payment came under question.

I had a bit of doubt and fear because one is the payment of a deposit worth ten percent, and the other is the payment of 90 percent of the worth. I am naturally cautious, so I wanted to see Krešimir live in such a situation. As the moment of payment approached, the situation with the pandemic became even more complicated, and it was clear to me that it would still not be possible to complete the work in the planned way.

The good thing is that I was lucky and did business with a serious man, so we very quickly agreed on a modality of payment of money that gives some kind of security that I will not be left without money and a plot. This is understandable because we did not know each other, but during the negotiations, mutual trust was created, and the recommendation of my colleague Radmila was also valid.

The signing of the sales contract was possible in two ways. One is for the seller to go to the nearest Croatian Embassy and certify the contract there and then send it to me. There is a contract in Croatian, and there are no legal difficulties. Another possibility is for the seller to certify it with an American notary public as there is a mandatory contract in both English and Croatian. In this variant, apostille contracts are also required. They certify that the U.S. notary public is authorized to certify signatures and holds a valid license. The Apostille is certified by the Secretary of State in which the seller resides, and in this case, it is the State of Kentucky.

Eventually, the seller notarized the contracts in front of a U.S. notary, so we had an arrangement for me to pay him the remaining amount as soon as he proved to me that he had notarized his signatures and obtained the apostille. It took about ten days.

After Krešimir obtained all the documents, he sent them to me by e-mail, and I then paid him the remaining amount. There were no more problems with transferring money, so he received it on his account within a few days.

By agreement with the seller, he sent me the originals of the signed contracts by express courier, but even that did not go very smoothly. The pandemic probably slowed down terribly, so it took a good twenty days to arrive. Then why are they called express couriers?

Anyhow, we became happy and proud owners of the plot in Rukavac on Vis, so it was time to “water” it with one drink in a very special place. Right?