Can You Explain, in More Detail, a Process Involving a Greek Notary?
Preparing the notary purchase deed
When selling a home in Greece, you need a notary purchase deed. The seller's engineer creates an Electronic Building ID (E-ID) of the property, which holds all the necessary data about it. In parallel, the notary works with the seller's accountant to update the seller's E-9 tax form to reflect any changes. The notary also usually checks at this point whether the seller has any debts to the state.
Signing the final papers
The notary prepares the property transfer tax declaration and submits it to the tax office. Once the buyer pays the transfer tax, the final contract can be signed. At the signing, you need to be there in person or send a legal representative whom you have authorised by power of attorney.
How Much Does it Cost to Use a Notary in Greece?
For home sales, the minimum notary fees are set by Greek law. Notaries normally charge around 1% of the price or objective value, whichever is higher, plus VAT. The fee runs on a sliding scale, so the percentage is lower on higher-value properties. The cost to sign a power of attorney at a notary in Greece is about 100 to 150 euros, depending on the notary. A power of attorney can also be drawn up by a foreign notary, in which case an official Greek translation is needed.
What Else Can a Notary Do in Greece?
Notaries and e-auctions
Notaries in Greece can also manage online auctions for homes. We will not cover this in detail, as it is not relevant to most transactions.
Notaries and establishing a company
Notaries in Greece can also set up companies for an individual.
Notaries and paying taxes
We said earlier that notaries do not pay taxes in Greece. There is one exception: when the seller owes a debt to the Greek state. In that case, on the day of signing, the buyer transfers the amount matching the seller's debt to the notary's bank account, and the notary has three days to pay it to the state.
Notaries and Acceptance of Inheritance
In Greece, real estate is passed to the heirs by a notarial deed of inheritance acceptance. Since 2024, lawyers are also allowed to take part in the process, but this is rare, and acceptance of inheritance still mostly happens through a notary.
The process:
The heirs declare the death to the tax service.
The heirs obtain a Death Certificate from the registry office.
The heirs obtain a Certificate of Inheritance, which is issued by the court or, since 2024, by a designated lawyer.
The heirs visit the notary with the necessary documents, including the Death Certificate and the Certificate of Inheritance.
The notary files an Inheritance Tax Declaration, and the tax office calculates the inheritance tax.
The deed is signed.
What if the heirs live abroad?
If the heirs live abroad, they also provide the Greek notary with a Death Certificate and a Certificate of Inheritance drawn up by a public notary in the deceased's country of nationality, bearing an Apostille stamp, in an official Greek translation.
What if I want to sell the inherited home?
If you may sell the inherited home in future, have an engineer check the house to confirm its square metres. If you later sell and the home's specifications do not match the square metres in the Deed of Acceptance and the Tax Declaration, you may incur fines.
Notaries and Parental Donations
A parental donation is the immediate transfer of property from one person to another, usually from a parent to a child or another family member. It is treated favourably under Greek tax law, because you do not pay the 3.09% transfer tax that applies to normal property transfers. The tax-free limit for such donations is 800,000 euros. Parental donations usually use a usufruct structure. The notary process for a parental donation is the same as for buying a home, with the notary fee and the land registry costs calculated on the objective value of the property.
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