Contrato de arras
Deposit contract (pre-purchase)
The binding deposit agreement before a purchase — and the point at which walking away costs money.
An arras contract commits both sides to a sale and fixes what happens if either backs out. In its most common form the buyer who withdraws loses the deposit and the seller who withdraws repays it doubled.
It is signed well before the notary, and it is the moment the transaction stops being reversible without cost. Due diligence therefore belongs before the arras, not between arras and completion.
There are several types with materially different consequences. Which one the document is matters more than the amount involved.
What to check in the contract
Establish which type of arras it is and what conditions release you — a failed mortgage application, for instance, is not automatically an escape.
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