Why do you enter into a preliminary sale and purchase agreement before signing the main one?

One of the ways to legally regulate relations in the real estate market is to sign a purchase and sale agreement. This legal form of certifying the will of the parties may consist of two separate documents: the main and the preliminary.

More often than not, the buyer and seller are limited to the main agreement, but the Civil Code of Ukraine provides for the possibility of entering into a preliminary agreement. Its essence is to provide certain guarantees regarding the certification of the main transaction in the near future.

A preliminary agreement can be especially beneficial if the parties or one of them does not have all the necessary documents to conclude the main agreement (for example, when buying and selling real estate under construction).

All of its essential terms and conditions that are not set forth in the preliminary agreement shall be agreed upon in the manner specified by the parties in the preliminary agreement, unless such a procedure is established by civil law.

The preliminary agreement, as well as the main agreement, can be notarized, and if the subject of the transaction is real estate, this procedure becomes mandatory.