Professional support recommendations on real estate transactions

Portugal continues to attract foreign property investment and the market is increasingly active and bustling.

Nevertheless, it is important not to take hasty decisions and all real estate transactions should continue to be handle with the utmost care and attention. For this reason, it is highly recommended to contact a Lawyer and an official real estate agent, before entering in any real estate transaction.

These two professionals have complementary tasks and together they guarantee the security of your investment.

The real estate agent carries out prospecting actions and collects information’s to find the property desired by the client. In addition, he leads promotional actions, namely through publicity to ensure that the business occurs more efficiently, quickly and at the best price.

The lawyer, on the other hand, leads the procedures necessary for the legality of the business, preparing the contracts, analysing the documents, scheduling the deeds, advising and acting legally on behalf of the Client, along with other tasks, powers and acts that the law determines that can only be done by lawyers  with active registration in the Bar Association and by solicitors registered in the Solicitors Association.

Due to the duty of independence and technical autonomy, the lawyer cannot perform the real estate agent tasks, being forbidden, for example, to search for potential buyers for a property or to do advertising actions for real estate promotion.

On the other hand, the real estate agent does not have the competences that the law determines to belong to the lawyers, and for this reason cannot receive powers of attorney from Clients, nor can prepare legal documentation or contracts (not even filling in the blank spaces in pre-prepared drafts).

This is a matter of great importance because, according to the law, the practice of legal acts by someone without legal authorization is a criminal offense punishable with a prison sentence of up to one year or a fine of up to 120 days (article 7 of Law no. 49/2004, of August 24th).

In addition, the promotion, disclosure or publicity of acts of lawyers or solicitors is an administrative offence, punishable by a fine, when carried out by persons not authorized to do it (article 8 of Law no. 49 /2004, of August 24th).

The Courts are increasingly aware[1]  and the Bar Association has also stated to have the priority to fight the non-authorized legal practice, and the number of administrative proceedings carried out on this is growing exponentially.

For these reasons, it is recommended that all the professionals act with special attention and synergistically, always prioritizing the full satisfaction of each Client’s interests and strict compliance with the law.

[1] https://www.oa.pt/cd/Conteudos/Artigos/detalhe_artigo.aspx?sidc=31634&idc=500&idsc=21852&ida=160525