If you wish to buy or sell property in Hungary but do not live in Hungary and do not wish to travel to Hungary to sign the contract, your signature must generally be certified with an Apostille or authenticated by a Hungarian diplomatic mission (embassy or consulate). Documents bearing an Apostille are accepted by government offices and authorities in most countries around the world, including Hungary.
How can you manage your property affairs from abroad? What is an Apostille?
If you wish to buy or sell property in Hungary but do not live in Hungary and do not wish to travel to Hungary to sign the contract, your signature must generally be certified with an Apostille or authenticated by a Hungarian diplomatic mission (embassy or consulate). Documents bearing an Apostille are accepted by government offices and authorities in most countries around the world, including Hungary.
What does Apostille mean?
Many legal transactions require authentic documents. In Hungary, this includes real estate purchase agreements, which must comply with the formal requirements prescribed by law. One such requirement is that the contracting parties must sign the agreement in the presence of a solicitor or notary public. But what can be done if one of the parties is unable to appear before a solicitor because they are abroad? The Hague Convention, which was established on 5 October 1961, was created for such cases, and most countries, including Hungary, have acceded to it.
The Convention stipulates certain formalities and states that a document issued in a country that has acceded to the Convention must be accepted in another country that has also acceded to the Convention without imposing any further formalities, such as additional authentication requirements.
Therefore, if you are not residing in Hungary but would like to purchase or sell a property in Hungary, for example, the solicitor drafting the contract will send you the original copy of the purchase agreement. All you need to do is sign the contract before the appropriate authority and obtain an Apostille.
How can I obtain an Apostille?
Each country can determine which authorities are authorised to issue Apostilles. It is also possible that different authorities are designated to issue Apostilles for different types of documents. Generally, courts, ministries of justice or chambers of notaries public are responsible for issuing Apostilles. If you do not know which authority in your country is authorised to issue Apostilles, we recommend that you contact your nearest notary. Notaries frequently deal with documents that need to be certified and can usually help you obtain an Apostille. This is the case in Austria and Germany, for example.
Caution! Notarisation of a document is not the same as an Apostille!
How can you determine whether a document has been certified with an Apostille or another type of certification (e.g. by a notary public)?
It’s quite simple: the Apostille is usually affixed to the document in the form of a stamp or sticker, which must bear the following text in French: “Apostille (Convention de la Haye du 5 octobre 1961)”. However, the text of the certificate may also be written in the official language of the issuing authority. If we do not find such text, we can be sure that it is not an Apostille.