Is a promise of sale enough to protect me when I buy an apartment that is not built yet?

Also asked as: “Is a promise of sale enough to protect me when I buy an apartment that is not built yet in Lebanon?” · “Does a promise of sale protect an off-plan buyer in Lebanon?” · “Provisional inscription of a promise of sale” · “Can I register an off-plan apartment before it is built?”

What a promise of sale does and does not do#

A purchase in Lebanon runs from a Land Registry extract, through an optional promise of sale and a notarial deed, to inscription at the Land Registry. You own the property only once it is inscribed^[1]. Until then, Kallas Law Firm says, the property stays in the seller's name and is exposed to any sale, mortgage or attachment entered before your inscription. Rights and court actions on a property count against third parties only from the date they are inscribed on its folio^[4].

The registry protects whoever relies on it. Someone who acquires a right relying on the registry entries keeps it, unless they knew of the defect beforehand^[4]. Kallas says selling the same property twice is fraud under the Penal Code^[7]. Between two buyers, though, the one entered first in the daily journal ranks first. A promise kept in a drawer does nothing against either risk. For more on contracts that never reach the registry, see what happens if you only have a sale contract.

Provisional inscription and its limits#

Kallas Law Firm reads the Code of Real Property as allowing a promise of sale to be provisionally inscribed on the property's folio, which keeps your rank against any later sale or mortgage. Kallas also reads Art. 220 as capping the promise's option period at 15 years^[1,3].

That inscription does not make you an owner. Kallas says an annotation entered on the strength of an ordinary sale contract or a power of attorney does not transfer ownership. Your right stays personal, and subject to the ten-year limitation, until final registration^[8]. Separately, Kallas's summary of the registry decree says a provisional inscription expires after one month, six months, two months or up to one year^[4], depending on whether it rests on a deed, on the parties' agreement or on a court order. No source we found explains how the 15-year option period and these expiry rules fit together, so ask a lawyer whether your inscription will need renewing and when.

If the seller later refuses to complete, Kallas says you can sue the seller or the seller's heirs to force registration or claim damages. Open, continuous and unchallenged possession of the property interrupts the time limit^[4,9]. With an unbuilt flat it is unclear what you could possess, so ask a lawyer whether this safeguard can apply to you.

The off-plan problem: your flat has no folio yet#

Kallas says no real right can be registered on a defined part of a plot until the plot is partitioned and that part gets its own folio^[4]. Until then, what can be registered is a number of undivided shares in the whole plot, and those shares give you no right to a specific piece of it^[2,4,10]. A flat under construction looks like such a defined part, and it has no folio of its own yet.

The flat gets its own number and folio only when the building is divided into units. Each unit then gets a number added to the property number, with private units numbered from 4^[11]. Dividing the building is the owner's choice. It also needs a final occupancy permit^[6], and the construction must comply with the building laws. A provisional occupancy permit is not valid for subdivision, sale or final registration^[12]. Decree 15874/2005 also bars selling parts of a building that has no final occupancy permit. Whether that ban reaches a promise of sale on an unbuilt unit is not confirmed.

We found nothing published on these points:

• how a promise on a future flat is inscribed: on the parent plot, and against which shares;
• what that inscription protects against a mortgage the developer later puts on the plot;
• how it turns into a title for your unit after the occupancy permit and subdivision;
• what you can do if the developer never divides the building.

Any charge already on the plot's folio carries over unless it is cleared^[1]. Read whether the developer's bank or creditors can take the land before you sign.