ᐅ Have a contract with the property developer reviewed?

Hello, we have received a developer contract and are supposed to go to the notary in two weeks. It concerns a new development area with semi-detached houses with plots of land.
Should such a developer contract be professionally reviewed by a lawyer?
Do you have any experience with these kinds of developer contracts?

Only sign what you understand.

This is especially important for the biggest investment in your life.

A lawyer would be my second point of contact; first, it should be about the construction/the subject matter before dealing with legal details.

You can and should have it inspected. However, you should also be prepared for the possibility that the developer may not make corrections, and in that case, you might need to buy elsewhere.

It also depends somewhat on how large the developer is and how flexible you can work with them. If it’s a contract they have used for 1,000 other projects, you probably won’t be able to make many changes. In our case, we clarified 2-3 points, which likely would have been built that way anyway. However, I would still recommend having it reviewed, if only so you can assess your risks.

Besides the legal aspects that any lawyer can review, there is also the question of who pays which costs and what exactly is included in the contract. Finding someone who can handle this within two weeks is already more difficult.

We had the contract reviewed by a lawyer friend and discussed one or two points with them again (for example, there was a section saying xy—what exactly does that mean?), then we brought a few points up with the developer. One or two times it mainly led to further discussions and stayed as it was, but I believe two or three changes were eventually made. (We had agreed on these beforehand, and they were passed on to the notary and recorded on the day of the notary appointment.) Of course, it depends on the developer and what they are willing to agree to.

We also had the scope of work reviewed by several other people, though none were true experts. There were a few comments, but overall they were issues we could live with. Whether we should have hired an expert in the end, we’ll have to see :p