Before you sign to buy, check for a seal and for mortgages. After you sign, file an advance-notice registration at the real-estate registration office

Before signing, take your identity card to the real-estate registration office and check whether this home is mortgaged or sealed, and whether it was registered to someone else first. Agree in the contract to file an advance-notice registration, and file it as soon as you have signed. After it is filed, if the seller sells again or mortgages again without your consent, the registration office will not process it. Once formal transfer is possible, you must go complete the transfer within 90 days; after that the advance-notice registration lapses.

Cost

Before you sign, take your identity card and check once. Half an hour. After you sign, you and the seller take the papers to the registration office. Pay the registration fee at the local rate.

Benefit

The Civil Code states: once a purchase agreement is signed, to secure getting the home later, you may apply to the registration office for an advance-notice registration as agreed. "After the advance-notice registration, a disposal of the real estate without the consent of the right-holder under that registration does not take effect in property law." The advance-notice registration has a time limit. It lapses if the contract is ended, or in similar situations, or if no application for formal registration is made within 90 days of the day formal registration became possible. The implementing rules of the Ministry of Natural Resources put that onto the registration office: both pre-sale commercial housing and the sale of a second-hand home can be filed. While the advance-notice registration is in effect, if the seller applies to register this home without your written consent, the registration office will not handle it. If you are buying an off-plan home and the developer does not apply together with you as agreed, you can apply alone. What you can check before signing: if you intend to buy, your identity card alone lets you check whether this home has a mortgage, an advance-notice registration, or an objection registration, and whether it has been sealed. An online filing of the contract does not control whether the contract is effective. The Supreme People's Court's judicial interpretation states that a pre-sale contract that was not filed does not, for that reason, fail to be valid, unless the two sides agreed that it takes effect only once filed.

Notes

How to check before signing, and what to bring, is in item 6 (check the title certificate and the mortgage before signing). Before a contract is signed you cannot see who the owner is. The name on the title certificate has to be matched, in person, to the seller's identity card. An advance-notice registration has to be agreed by both sides in advance, so write it into the sale contract. If the seller colludes with someone else, signs another contract, and hands the home over, you can ask a court to confirm that other contract is invalid. That means a lawsuit. Ordinary first-instance procedure starts at 6 months. Lawyer fees are generally yours. The advance-notice registration closes that path beforehand.

Sources · 5

1. 全国人大 (2020). 民法典（第二百二十一条）. spp.gov.cn/spp/fl/202006/t20200602_463888.shtml
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3. 自然资源部 (2024 修正). 不动产登记资料查询暂行办法（第二十一条）. gov.cn/gongbao/2024/issue_11506/202408/conten…
4. 自然资源部 (2025). 关于修改《不动产登记资料查询暂行办法》的决定（自然资源部令第 18 号）. gov.cn/gongbao/2026/issue_12546/202602/conten…
5. 最高人民法院 (2020 修正). 关于审理商品房买卖合同纠纷案件适用法律若干问题的解释（第六、七条）. court.gov.cn/fabu/xiangqing/282621.html