You wouldn't buy or sell at home without a lawyer so don’t do so abroad

We can’t stress how important it is to have a lawyer working for you, we also can’t stress enough how important it is to have the right lawyer working for you.

Using a lawyer when you buy or sell a property here in Portugal is not a legal requirement, you can choose to go through the buying and selling process on your own … however, this is not something that we recommend. 

When you buy or sell a property there is a lot of paperwork that goes along with it - you can see all the necessary paperwork that is needed to sell a property on our Selling property page. Licenses need to be checked, it’s mandatory that all property documents are up to date and that any alterations made to the property have already been registered with the correct authorities.

We all love the laid-back way of life in Portugal, but you don’t want that particular trait in your legal representative. Ensure that you find a law firm that has previous experience dealing with international clients. Look for a firm that is efficient and answers emails and questions quickly and concisely - all lawyers here are trained in the same way and pass the same exams however we have found that firms who deal with international clients on a daily basis are much more efficient and complete the process far quicker than lawyers who work mainly within the local market. We can point you in the right direction of a number of excellent firms to speak with.

When you are looking for a lawyer here in Portugal you will see the word advogado as this is the word for a Portuguese lawyer who specialises in property law. They will look after everything for you in terms of paperwork and if you are unable to come back over to Portugal to sign the various contracts before completion you can arrange a power of attorney with them too. With this in place, they can open a Portuguese bank account for you, apply for your Portuguese tax identification number known as NIF and represent you at the Promissory Contract and Deed stages.

To arrange a power of attorney you sign a document in front of a notary in Portugal (you can do so in your home country as well) which authorises the lawyer to act on your behalf.

As the vendor of the property, you will more than likely already have a lawyer so if you do not have all the necessary paperwork, and you don’t have the time or the means to collect it, you can instruct your lawyer to do so for you. As the buyer of the property, the lawyer will have more work to do for you ...

Once your offer is accepted and before signing the Promissory Contract, your lawyer will carry out due diligence on the property to check a number of things:

• That the owner of the property is who they purport to be
• That the plans of the property match those held in the land registry
• If there are any charges, rights of way or debts over the property 
• If you are buying a property in a condominium your lawyer will obtain a certificate from the condominium to see if the property has any debts
• They will check the property is connected to mains water and electricity

Once these searches have been carried out, your lawyer will prepare the Promissory Contract describing the property, the price agreed upon when the deposit and balance of the purchase price are to be paid and the date for completion. If there is a mortgage, it will be mentioned here. Following this, they will prepare the deed with the notary and will attend completion with you or on their own if they are your power of attorney. After completion, the lawyer will register the property in your name and will change the utility bills over to you.

In general when buying a property legal costs are usually between 1% to 1.25% of the purchase price, plus IVA (VAT.) You can see all of the costs involved when buying a property in Portugal on our Buying costs page.