CPCV
Published 4 November 2026, 03:07
Contrato de Promessa de Compra e Venda
A preliminary sale and purchase contract: the parties undertake to complete the deal later and agree the price, the deadline and the deposit (sinal) in advance. By default (Article 442 of the Civil Code), if the buyer pulls out, the seller keeps the deposit, and if the seller pulls out, they repay double the deposit, but the contract itself can say otherwise. If the promise concerns a finished building or flat, the law requires the parties' signatures to be certified and the licença de utilização to be confirmed. The com eficácia real version is also entered in the land registry so that the property cannot be sold to anyone else.
Where you come across it. Buying a flat, house or plot: at the deposit stage, weeks or months before completion.
Deadlines, extensions and the double-deposit rule come from the text of the particular contract, not from some general standard: “three months as standard” is a habit, not the law. An agent's promises that “we'll do it differently at completion” do not override what has been signed.