Sale as Universitas Rerum
If the seller wishes to sell his real estate (apartment, garage, office, building plot, etc.) exclusively together, s/he has the right to do so. In this case, Hungarian law allows the sale as universitas rerum, through which the buyer can acquire the properties that the seller wants to sell at the same time only together (as an indivisible service) and does not have the opportunity to “cherry pick” any of the properties offered for sale and acquire only certain properties or properties of choice, but not all the properties offered for sale by the seller. So, in this case, the buyer either buys all the properties offered by the seller, or cannot acquire ownership of any of the properties.
The decision of the seller to sell the properties or parts of the properties he owns exclusively together may create a conflicting situation, especially if the property or part of the property to be sold as a whole contains something which is subject to a pre-emption right for the benefit of a third party (for example, in case of a flat, a parking space in a garage, arable land or a building plot in common property). In such a case the holder of the pre-emption right, if he is not in a position to acquire all the real estate offered by the seller, may feel that selling as a whole (universitas rerum) violates his right of pre-emption. In view of this, it is important that the sale as universitas rerum does not constitute an abuse of rights by the seller, and therefore cannot be intended to circumvent the pre-emption right. In a particular case (in a lawsuit brought by the holder of a pre-emption right for the joint sale of real estate) primarily the seller, but even the buyer, must be able to justify the sale as universitas rerum (better marketability, higher turnover value, functional relationship, need for resources, customer intent to do so etc.).
The sale as universitas rerum is most often justified by the functional (usability, usability) relationship between the properties offered for sale or the higher purchase price available for joint sale.
BALÁZS & KOVÁTSITS Legal Partnership