Due diligence and title checks in Albania?

Order the ASHK kartela before any large payment leaves your account. That extract names the owner, the cadastral identifiers, and the burdens on one defined property. A seller's PDF is a copy you can start from. It is not the register. Agricultural land, forest, and pasture are closed to a foreign individual as a direct purchase.

Topics

• Pause if this is true
• Land you do not buy
• The kartela is the register
• A clean extract still misses
• Permits and the off-plan file
• Seller papers against the extract
• Match the door to the record
• Ready for a signing date?
• Wrapping up

Pause if this is true

Stop the money when the only kartela is a seller PDF, when the contract identifiers do not match the extract, when a mortgage or court note appears late with no documented release, when the land is agricultural, forest, or pasture, when the permit is for another phase or missing, when a large share of the price is already non-refundable, or when you are asked to pay a personal account that is not the owner on the kartela.

Then stop.

Another viewing will not repair that list. We have watched buyers send a reservation because the photos were good and the extract was "on the way."

Does the name on the kartela match the person in front of you?

Land you do not buy

The usual purchase is an apartment, or another building the cadastre already treats as a structure. A foreign individual can hold that in their own name. Farm, forest, and pasture are different. A company or a lease is sometimes discussed, and both are advice for counsel on the actual category, not a sentence a sales office adds to a form.

Is this a building, or a field?

Ask for the category before you talk price on a plot, a ruin, or land with a view. A building on a parcel is not the field beside it. If the kartela says agricultural and the pitch is that a foreign passport can buy it anyway, walk away, or send it to counsel and pay nothing until the advice is in writing.

A parking apron or a garden strip does not transfer because a painted line suggests it. If it is not on the kartela as part of what you are buying, it is not yours.

The kartela is the register

ASHK, the State Cadastre Agency, keeps the record that matters, and the kartela is the extract for one property: who is registered, which zone and parcel apply, and which mortgages, court annotations, or other burdens are noted. Order it through your lawyer or the notary. Read the page that comes back from ASHK, not the screenshot in your inbox.

Read it yourself.

Zone, parcel, building, and unit have to match the plan, the contract, and the door. One wrong digit is a different property. The path from shortlist to deed sits in buying property in Albania. This page is the check.

• Owner. The kartela name matches the seller. Old extracts circulate.
• Identifiers. Zone, parcel, and unit match the plan. A nearby flat can look identical.
• Burdens. Mortgages, seizures, and court notes are listed, or they are absent.
• Area. You pay for the registered area. Brochures round up.
• Category. Apartment or building, not farm, forest, or pasture.

A clean extract still misses

A kartela that names the seller and shows no mortgage is a strong start, and it still does not prove the permit covered this floor, that the unit can be registered on its own, or that anyone will answer for the common areas when the lift fails in November. Your lawyer assembles those points. You read the conclusions in a language you understand, before the deposit is large.

Get it in writing.

The right to sign is part of identity. A spouse's consent, a company resolution, or an inheritance that was never registered will not appear as a cheerful line on a listing. If the person at the viewing is a relative, an agent, or a site manager, ask who is on the kartela and who signs the deed. Those can differ only when the signer has authority the notary will accept.

A construction mortgage can sit on a building that looks finished. A promise to remove it next week is not a clearance. Clearance is a later extract that no longer shows the burden, funded by money your lawyer can see.

Permits and the off-plan file

On a finished building, the lawyer should see the permit and evidence the unit can be registered alone. A photo of a permit for another phase, another plot, or an earlier design is not evidence for this unit. An extra floor that was never permitted is a registration problem, even when the view is good.

Off-plan uses the same habits, only tighter. Delay, specification changes, weak milestone payments, and incomplete permits are the risks that matter. The permit should be this phase. The specification should name floor, orientation, area, parking, storage, and the handover. "As per brochure" is not a specification. Pay against registered milestones, into the developer's account, with a remedy if the date slips.

You will not hold a kartela in your name until the deed is registered. Check the land, the developer's title, the permit, and any mortgage on the parent parcel now. The land is already on the register.

Seller papers against the extract

Treat the pack as claims. Where it disagrees with the kartela, chase the register. Silence in the pack is a question, not a comfort.

• Draft contract. Cadastral identifiers written out.
• Permit pages. This building and this phase.
• Plans. The unit you stood in.
• Authority. If a company or an agent holds the pen.
• Acquisition deed. On a resale, so ownership has a previous page.
• House rules. Common-area shares and unpaid charges.

Ask the administrator for a statement before completion, and decide who pays arrears. A year of service-charge debt discovered after the deed is a dispute you bought. Photograph the meters the same week. A clean title can still sit on a messy water account.

A mortgage on the kartela is the seller's debt until it is released. Do not pay the seller's bank "to help" unless your lawyer structures the release. Buyer costs often land around 4-7%, including that reading. The notary tariff is roughly 0.23-0.35% of value. ASHK registration is about 3,500 ALL, and the filing is about 4,000 ALL. None of those clears a mortgage. The lines are in the cost of buying.

Buyers do not pay a 2% transfer tax. The seller typically pays 15% on the gain. Pressure on the timetable is not a reason to skip the kartela. A registered developer generally prices a new build with VAT at 20%. A private resale often has none. Tax treatment does not replace the extract.

Match the door to the record

Stand in the unit after you have the identifiers. Count the rooms against the plan. Check the orientation the contract names. If the price depends on a view, look at the neighbouring plot and ask whether a permit would close it.

Count the rooms.

Tirana resales often already have a registered unit. That does not make the match optional. Around Vlora, Durres, and Saranda, put the cadastral description in the contract, not the marketing name.

Remote buyers need the kartela translated before a representative signs. The power of attorney has to be notarised, apostilled where required, and translated, and it should name this unit and a price ceiling. A power to "deal with property in Albania" is wider than the check you did. How to draw it is in buying remotely.

Ready for a signing date?

You can talk about a date when the lawyer answers three questions in writing. Can you be the registered owner of this unit? Which burdens must be gone at the deed? What, in order, has to happen before ASHK records your name? If the answer is "we will see at the notary," you are early.

Keep one folder: kartela, plan, permit pages, draft contract, receipts, and the lawyer's note. Take that folder, not a new story from the night before. If the story changes, order the kartela again.

After registration, order a fresh extract in your name and read it. Ownership is that extract, not the keys. Parking or storage that was in the price should be identifiable in the result, not only in an email.

Wrapping up

Sign only when those three answers are on paper and the identifiers match. We introduce local partners, and we do not certify title. Book the appointment page if you want that introduction, then price the file in the cost of buying property in Albania so the fees are not a surprise on the day.