GoCertius in Real Estate: Anticipate with Robust Digital Evidence

GoCertius is the application used to protect any party involved in a contract related to a property – whether it is the builder, the developer, the buyer, the tenant, or a supplier – against possible litigation. Collect digital evidence real estate with GoCertius.

Moments of truth of your real state project

Throughout the life cycle of a property, there will be different times when GoCertius can be used to generate evidence:

• During the construction of a new property, GoCertius acts as an ally of the builder, allowing him to certify the fulfillment of the phases or milestones of the contract through photographs of the state of the property as the work progresses. On the other hand, if the developer detects non-compliance on the part of the builder – such as delays or defects in execution – they can also use the application to document them.

• In the event of defects derived from defects in the execution, after the completion of the work, GoCertius allows you to certify these defects to facilitate claims against the builder. These may be directed to the ten-year material damage insurance or be related to non-compliance with habitability requirements or finish defects, in accordance with the provisions of Spanish Law 38/1999, of 5 November, on Building Planning. It also makes it easier to claim any compensation agreed in the construction contract.

• In the event of a claim, if the property has insurance, GoCertius allows you to certify the damage at the time it occurs. In this way, future denials by the insurer based on deadlines or the authenticity of the evidence submitted are avoided, which is especially relevant considering the possibility of generating false images (deep fakes) using generative artificial intelligence models.

• When buying and selling a property, GoCertius is the perfect solution to certify the condition of the property at the time of handing over the keys. The seller documents the conditions in which the property is delivered, highlighting the defects known at the time of sale, and avoiding subsequent claims for damage caused by the buyer. In turn, at a time after the sale, the buyer may certify hidden defects not notified by the seller, in order to withdraw from the contract or claim from the seller the appropriate reduction of the price (art. 1484 et seq. Spanish Civil Code).

• When renting a property, the landlord may use GoCertius to certify the condition of the property at the beginning of the lease, which will protect you against possible damage caused by the tenant negligently and outside the normal use of the property. In turn, the tenant may certify with GoCertius the condition of the property to highlight any existing defects at the time of the start of the rental, to protect themselves against possible future claims by the landlord, which could jeopardize the return of the deposit.

Benefits of using GoCertius in these cases

If you are in any of the cases listed above, using GoCertius can bring you all these advantages.

"Ex-ante" preventive digital legal security

Generating ex-ante evidence will protect you in the event of potential future litigation with your counterparty. If you wait until you have a conflict to generate the evidence that can protect you, it may already be too late. Imagine that you have to certify that the builder did not deliver what was promised on time: proving it ex-post can be complicated. Therefore, we recommend that at the time of non-compliance, you certify what is happening. So, if you have to claim later, you can easily do so thanks to your certified digital proofs.

Enhanced seizure process

If you had to provide the photos as evidence of your counterpart's breach of contract, having taken them with GoCertius means that they will have greater probative value than if you had taken them with a mobile phone or camera, since photos taken with GoCertius have a reinforced seizure process that guarantees the authenticity of the photo, that is,  guarantees that it has not been modified since it was made. To do this, GoCertius takes the photo and, right after and without you being able to modify it, calculates its hash and makes a qualified timestamp on it, which guarantees that you cannot modify it before it is certified. Once certified, it is already a robust and unalterable test. GoCertius is your digital evidence real estate tool.

Reversal of the burden of proof

Taking photos or videos with GoCertius over a traditional camera gives you a distinct advantage in litigation: GoCertius photos reverse the burden of proof (see Article 41 of Regulation (EU) 910/2014 (eIDAS) and 326.4 of Spanish Civil Procedure Law). If you provide a photo taken with a traditional camera and the opponent challenges the evidence claiming that it is false, you would have to use your means to prove that the evidence is true. However, if you submit a photograph taken with GoCertius, it will be the opposite party who will have to put the means to prove that it is false, and will have to disprove the presumption of veracity.

Much more than a photo: date, geolocation and metadata

GoCertius certifies much more than a photo: the application generates a truthful record of the date and time at which the photo was taken, and is capable of recording the geolocation from which the photo was taken, in addition to other metadata such as the IP from which the application was connected to the network.  the operating system, model, and manufacturer of the device. This makes the evidence presented much more robust compared to a photo taken with a camera, where the date or geolocation from which it was taken could be modified.

Try GoCertius

Don't wait until you have a problem using GoCertius because it will be too late. Download it now from the App Stores. GoCertius is your digital evidence real estate tool

About EADTrust

GoCertius is an application provided by EADTrust, a qualified provider of digital trust services. Visit us at www.eadtrust.eu