Checking a completed or resale apartment: a pre-payment checklist

A completed apartment is checked differently from one under construction. On a construction site you are checking a promise: whether the developer can finish and register. On a completed unit there is no promise left — there is a fact, and the only question is whether that fact matches what you were told. Who owns it today, what the documents say about this specific unit, what debts follow the apartment, who lives in it and what condition it is in. Below is a working sequence for the checks, and the order in which it is safe to place payments.

How this differs from checking a project under construction

The difference is not the volume of work but the subject. The two question lists barely overlap, which is why an off-plan checklist is useless on a resale.

The comparison of the transaction formats themselves — developer sale, resale and assignment — is covered separately in the piece on the three transaction formats. Here we assume the format is already chosen and move on to checking the specific apartment.

Who the seller is and who may sign

This is the first question and the one that most often fails. An individual seller is not a company with articles and a seal: authority is evidenced differently here.

• Does the name in the seller's passport match the name on the property documents letter for letter, transliteration included. A difference in spelling usually means extra explanations and time.
• One owner or several. If several, all of them must sign and attend the formalities — not one "on behalf of everyone".
• Whether spousal consent is required and in what form. The seller's marital status is not curiosity but a question of the validity of the sale.
• If a representative signs — is there a power of attorney, what exactly does it permit (signing, receiving money, filing documents), who issued it and when, and is it valid on the date of the transaction.
• If the owner is a company, who its director is per the constitutional documents and whether the decision to sell is evidenced.
• If the seller inherited or was gifted the property, how that transfer to them was completed. An unfinished previous link blocks the next one.

Check originals or certified copies, not photographs in a messenger app. And check before any amount is paid, reservation fees included.

Title history and the registry record

An ownership document in the seller's hands is not yet evidence of the right. The evidence is that what is in their hands matches what is in the registry. How registries work and what is checked in them is covered in the piece on registries and official records.

1. Establish which document exists for the property and what type it is. The whole subsequent procedure — and the very possibility of foreign registration — depends on that.
2. Reconcile the property details across all documents: unit number, floor, building, area. A mismatch between the contract, the plan and the ownership document is a stop signal.
3. Check who made the last entry and when, and how the seller became the owner.
4. Instruct an independent lawyer to verify in the official source rather than relying on copies from the seller or the agent.
5. Separately confirm that this particular unit can be registered in a foreign name — a general rule about the building does not replace a check on the specific apartment.

Area deserves its own conversation: on a resale it is measurable, and what the documents say does not always match what you can pace out. The approach to measuring is in the piece on the area of a delivered property.

Encumbrances: mortgages, disputes, leases

An encumbrance is someone else's right over your future apartment. It is invisible at a viewing and almost never comes up in conversation by itself.

• Is the property mortgaged or pledged as security for the seller's borrowing. If so — what is the release procedure and at what point relative to your payment does it happen.
• Is there a court dispute, an attachment or a third-party claim.
• Is the property let under a lease in force, and until when.
• Has a power of attorney over this apartment been issued to anyone else.
• Was the apartment previously sold under a contract that was never completed.

A practical rule: the absence of encumbrances is evidenced by a document or by a lawyer's check in the source, not by the seller's statement. A verbal "it is all clean" is not the result of a check.

Condominium arrears and utilities

The most underrated part of a resale. An apartment can be flawless on paper and still arrive with accumulated debt.

Which obligations under Cambodian law follow the property and which remain the seller's personal debt is not something we assert here — that is a question for your lawyer. The practical protection does not depend on the answer: get a dated clearance letter, record the meter readings on the day of handover, and state plainly in the contract who pays for the period before handover and who after.

Tenants and actual occupancy

An apartment that is empty in the photographs may turn out to be occupied. That has to be resolved before payment, not after.

1. Request the lease in force with all annexes and the exact end date.
2. Establish the deposit amount and who physically holds it. If you are buying the property together with the tenant, the deposit must be passed to you and the transfer recorded in the contract or in a separate document.
3. Decide explicitly: you take over the lease with the apartment, or vacant possession by the handover date becomes a condition of the sale.
4. If the unit is to be vacated, write it into the contract as a condition with a date, rather than holding it in your head as a promise.
5. Check who actually lives there: a tenant, the seller's relatives, staff. Vacating also means removing belongings.

We do not confirm any mandatory Cambodian rule on what happens to a lease when ownership changes: the consequences are set by the wording of the lease itself. Read it before the deal and show it to a lawyer.

Condition, inventory, meters and keys

A completed apartment is checked with your eyes and your hands. There is no developer specification here; there is wear, do-it-yourself alterations and appliances with an unknown history.

• Services: water and pressure, drainage, every electrical point, air conditioning under load, bathroom ventilation.
• Traces of leaks on ceilings and walls, the state of windows and the balcony door, damp and smell.
• Alterations: were any made, were they approved, were shared services affected.
• What is included in the price: furniture, appliances, air conditioners, curtains. All of it belongs in an itemised inventory, not in the word "furnished".
• A condition report with dated photographs, signed by both parties.
• Readings from every meter on the handover date, recorded in the handover document.
• A full set of keys, access cards, parking remotes and building access credentials.
• Warranty papers for appliances and the contact details of the building management and contractors.

View in daylight and, if you can, view again immediately before handover: between the viewing and the signing the apartment gets emptied, and sometimes what you thought was part of the deal leaves with the belongings.

The payment and handover sequence

This is where a resale is won or lost. With a developer the schedule is set in advance; on a resale the parties agree the sequence, and the seller naturally wants the money before the transfer happens.

We give neither a mandatory sequence nor any timings: we do not confirm a single rule for Cambodia in this overview, and practice depends on the type of document, on whether a bank is involved and on the particular parties. That does not change what the structure must contain — before the first payment the following should be in writing.

1. What amount is paid, when, and into whose account — with the payee reconciled against the seller named in the contract.
2. What action by the other party each payment triggers, and what document evidences that action.
3. What happens if the transfer does not go through: the refund period, who refunds, and out of what funds.
4. Who bears which fees and charges connected with the transfer — the allocation must be written, not assumed.
5. Who hands over the keys and signs the handover document, on what day, and how that connects to the money.
6. What happens if either party is late.

Discuss the payment structure and its protection with an independent lawyer before signing. Cash without evidence, a transfer to a third party "at the seller's request", and payment against a verbal promise to transfer the title later are the three ways of losing money that recur most often.

The final pack: what you should be left holding

After the deal you keep a set of documents that you will need both for registration and for a future resale. The full list is in the piece on the buyer's document pack; the resale minimum is this:

• The sale contract with all annexes and your signed counterpart.
• Copies of the seller's documents and of the power of attorney, if a representative signed.
• The property documents received at closing and evidence that the transfer has been filed.
• Every payment confirmation, itemised line by line.
• The handover document, the inventory, dated photographs, the meter readings.
• The clearance letter from the building management.
• The lease and evidence that the deposit was passed to you, if the unit was bought with a tenant.

What happens next — filing, statuses and the final record — is covered in the piece on title transfer and registration.

Frequently asked questions

How does checking a completed apartment differ from checking a project under construction?

With a project under construction you are checking a promise: the developer, the permits, the financial ability to finish. With a completed apartment you are checking a fact: who owns it today, what the documents say about this specific unit, what debts and encumbrances follow the apartment, who lives in it and what condition it is in. The seller is more often an individual than a company, which makes signing authority and spousal consent the central question.

Which debts come with the apartment?

Three groups matter in practice: condominium service charges and special levies, utility bills read off the meters, and tax payments attached to the property. We do not confirm any universal rule about what Cambodian law makes follow the property and what stays a personal debt of the seller. The working approach is the same either way: get a dated written clearance letter from the building management, record all meter readings on the day of handover, and write into the contract who pays for the period before handover.

What if a tenant is living in the apartment?

Before any money moves, obtain the lease itself with all annexes, the end date, the deposit amount and who holds it. Then decide: either you buy the property with the tenant and take over the lease together with the deposit, or vacant possession by the handover date becomes a condition of the sale, written into the contract. A verbal "he will move out" is not a condition of sale.

Can I pay the seller before the right is transferred?

This is the main risk in a resale, and it is managed by sequence rather than by trust. Before you pay, put in writing what amount is paid and when, what action by each party each payment triggers, what happens if registration is refused, and how the money comes back. Agree the payment structure and its protection with an independent lawyer before signing, not after the first transfer.

Sources

Transaction support practice in Phnom Penh · NovAsia body of work on property checks and the resale market · reviewed July 2026. Not confirmed in this overview: any legally mandated sequence of "payment then transfer" in Cambodia, specific timings for any stage, rates or amounts of fees, the set of obligations that follows a property on a change of owner, the required form of spousal consent and of a power of attorney, and what happens to a lease when ownership changes. Document names and contents vary by project and property type. Everything listed here is confirmed for your specific transaction and through an independent lawyer. This material is for general information and is not legal, tax or investment advice.