Property law

In everyday German der Besitz is simply what someone has: a house, a car, a collection of records. In property law the word splits off and means something far narrower — who actually holds the thing, whatever the paperwork says. Ownership is das Eigentum, and the two can sit with different people for decades. A tenant has den Besitz of the flat and the landlord das Eigentum. A buyer usually gets the keys, and with them possession, on the day the price is paid, while ownership passes only when the land register records it, often weeks later. So a sentence such as der Käufer ist seit März im Besitz der Wohnung says nothing at all about who owns it. In every contract and judgment on this page, read Besitz as ‘possession’ and never as ‘property’.