Contract Drafting in Hungary

Contract drafting in Hungary — szerződéskészítés — means having a lawyer write an agreement from the start under the Hungarian Civil Code. English-speaking lawyers draft it in English, Hungarian or both, and countersign it when the deal calls for an attorney.
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About Contract Drafting in Hungary

Contract drafting in Hungary — drafting a contract, preparing an agreement or writing a bilingual contract — means a lawyer writes the document from the start instead of correcting someone else's text. In Hungarian this is szerződéskészítés or szerződésszerkesztés, and the rules come from the Civil Code, the Polgári Törvénykönyv (Ptk.). A Hungarian attorney can also countersign the finished document, ügyvédi ellenjegyzés, which some transactions require.

When a contract is written from scratch

Service and supply agreements between businesses, agency and distribution, loans between private people, joint ventures, the sale of a car or other goods, and agreements with Hungarian builders, developers or freelancers.

How it works in Hungary

  • Most contracts can be made in any form and any language the parties choose; some are valid only in writing.
  • A document countersigned by an attorney is a private document with full evidential value (teljes bizonyító erejű magánokirat). For transfers of real estate and for company documents the countersignature is part of the procedure.
  • A notarial deed (közjegyzői okirat) made by a közjegyző can be drawn up so that a debt it records can be enforced without a lawsuit first.
  • Authorities, land registry offices and courts work in Hungarian, so a contract meant for them is written bilingually or translated.

Points to watch

  • A template from another country often refers to laws and courts that have nothing to do with Hungary.
  • A contractual penalty (kötbér) that is out of proportion can be reduced by a court.
  • In a bilingual contract one language version is named as the one that prevails, so the two texts are checked against each other.
  • The governing law and the forum, a Hungarian court or arbitration, are better settled in the contract than argued about later.

What a lawyer does

The lawyer asks what the deal is meant to achieve, drafts the contract and any annexes, negotiates the wording with the other side, prepares the Hungarian and English versions and countersigns where that is useful or required. A contract received from the other side goes to contract review; confidentiality before a deal is covered by a non-disclosure agreement; and a deal that goes wrong becomes a contract dispute.

Questions and answers

Can a contract in Hungary be in English only?

Between private parties it generally can. Documents filed with the land registry, the court of registration or other offices need Hungarian, so a bilingual text is common.

What does ügyvédi ellenjegyzés add?

The attorney confirms that the document was signed by the people named in it and was drafted by the attorney. It gives the document stronger evidential value and is required for some filings.

Drafting or review: which one is needed?

Drafting fits a deal where nobody has a text yet; review fits a text already on the table. Many matters mix the two as the parties exchange versions.

1 lawyer who provides Contract Drafting in Hungary

Sorted by experience in this service. Write to any of them — the reply comes from the lawyer, without obligation.

  • Peter, lawyer in Budapest

    Peter

    Lawyer · Budapest, Hungary

    • 199 cases handled · 1 in this service
    • 10+ years in practice
    • Speaks: English, German, Hungarian
    • Law, University of Pécs
    • 4.94(17 reviews)
    Contact Peter
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