The Document Checklist for Buying Property in Durrës (2026)

Ask for the kartela e pasurisë first and pull it from ASHK yourself: it is the one document that proves who owns the property and which encumbrances sit on it. Then the leje përdorimi for any finished building, a notarised and registered kontrata e porosisë for off-plan, and the encumbrance extract on the parent plot, not just the unit.

The core title documents

1. Kartela e pasurisë — the ownership extract itself, and the single document that matters most. It's pulled from ASHK and shows current ownership, any registered encumbrances, and the property's legal history. Pull it yourself, independently, rather than accepting a copy from the seller or agent — a seller-provided copy is exactly the version that's been known to hide a problem, and DomLivo's working rule is simple: no independently pulled extract, no money transferred.
2. Harta treguese — the indicative boundary map from ASHK, which confirms the physical plot matches what's being sold. Boundary disputes from poor historical mapping are common enough on this coast that this isn't a formality; a seller pointing at a fence line isn't the same as a map confirming it.
3. Hipotekë / encumbrance extract on the parent plot — not just the unit. A developer's mortgage on the land the building sits on passes down to every apartment built on it, so an extract on your specific unit alone can miss a debt attached to the whole project. This is the single most commonly skipped check on this whole list, because it requires knowing to ask for the parent plot's extract specifically, not just the apartment's.

The construction and use documents

1. Leje ndërtimi — the building permit. Confirms the structure itself was legally authorised in the first place, at the height and footprint it was actually built to. A building that grew extra floors beyond what this permit allows is a real, documented pattern on this coast, not a hypothetical.
2. Leje përdorimi — the occupancy permit, and the one buyers skip checking most often because a finished-looking building seems obviously done. Without this specific document, a building can't be properly registered, mortgaged, or resold — completion by eye isn't completion on paper, and a developer who's sold units without one is a real red flag regardless of how finished the lobby looks.

If you're buying off-plan specifically

Since Udhëzim 1/2024, the preliminary purchase contract for an off-plan unit — the kontrata e porosisë — must be notarial and registered in the ASHK register. This single rule closed the double-sale loophole that used to let one unit go to several buyers on private paper, each of them believing they'd bought the same apartment. A private, unregistered version of this contract has no legal force at all, regardless of how detailed it is or how many people signed it — if a developer offers you anything less than a registered notarial contract for an off-plan unit, that alone is reason enough to walk away before a deposit moves.

What each document actually costs

None of these fees are large enough to be a reason to skip a check — the total cost of pulling every document on this list is a rounding error next to a single title dispute. Registration itself has an official 21-day turnaround, though a realistic timeline runs two to four weeks, longer if the title turns out to be complicated — one more reason to have every document above checked before, not after, a deposit is paid.

A sworn translator is worth budgeting for too if you don't speak Albanian: the notarial deed requires one to co-sign if you can't follow the document yourself, typically €50–150, and it's not optional the way an agent is — a Ministry of Justice sworn translator is a legal requirement for a non-Albanian-speaking buyer at the signing itself, separate from all the documents above.

The one-line version, if you remember nothing else

Get the kartela e pasurisë and the parent-plot hipotekë extract yourself, independently, before any deposit moves — and confirm the leje përdorimi exists before you assume a finished building is actually finished on paper. Once the documents check out, the rest of the process runs on a predictable timeline. The eight specific ways a title can still go wrong even with documents in hand are worth reading in full before you commit.