A place to call home

Finally the Deed of Absolute Sale was signed today. We now own a flat in Prague! Every tiny inch is solely ours. It's a brand new flat in an exclusive neighborhood near the school I teach. A year of relentlessly scouring for a place that fits out taste and budget has finally paid off.

Of all the places we went to see, this has always been our first choice. Somewhere in these buildings is a place we can finally call home. (Thanks to Tatka and Mamka for all the help.)

BUYING A FLAT IN CZ

I have to say the experience wasn't a walk in the clouds. With my very limited Czech, the deal was done in a blur. Of course one can request for an English copy of all the documents or have all the documents translated but we thought there was no need to since A can translate everything for me. If ever you'd find yourself in a similar situation, I suggest better request for an English copy so you wont have the paranoia of being kept in the dark.

Business, as I have noticed, is done differently here. Let's start with their "paperless" style which I still couldn't get used to. When you deposit a payment through the bank here, your validated deposit slip will serve as the receipt. Yes, the company you sent the money to doesn't usually issue one. When we deposited our reservation fee, I had to insist I needed a receipt for my peace of mind. We were given one but probably not without a raised eyebrow behind my back. (Paranoia strikes again.)

Maybe a deposit slip is enough here, but not back home. A receipt is the ultimate proof of payment. One can always deny receiving the money without it. Exactly why it's called a receipt.

On to the contract and the contract-signing-- I was surprised when I was told to sign it only on the last page. I was signing several contracts a month back home in my previous job and our lawyers were always adamant we had to sign it on every page. This means you've read and agreed to everything's that written, otherwise signing it only on the last page would legally mean you don't agree to the other conditions stipulated on the other pages. In CZ, one signature covers everything.

The biggest surprise was when I learned we had to deposit the rest of the money before signing the DAS (Deed of Absolute Sale). The usual process I know is that you review the contract, sign it, then pay the amount due. No, not here. Here you have to review the contract, pay the amount and later sign the contract. Note that again, the deposit slip is your only proof that you already paid.

Of course, the DAS has a clause which states that it can't be signed if the payment hasn't been made yet. I guess this makes the whole business valid but I really have to say this is such a strange process. It's not just me who finds it weird, my co-teachers as well. Apparently we all follow the same process in PI, Australia and the US, but the Czechs found a different way in making their legal system work. Oh well, different strokes for different folks is all I can say. For now I'm just happy to have finally found something to call ours.