What is escrow and how does it work? 
Relationship of the parties to the escrow agreement
According to the escrow agreement, the participation of three parties is stipulated. It is a depositor, a beneficiary and an escrow agent. Both legal and physical persons can be in the role of the depositor and the beneficiary. Their status is not limited by law, so this scheme is not only entrepreneurial.
The role of the escrow agent is very important. He is the guarantor of the transaction. The law also does not limit his official status. Banks and notaries can perform this role. For notaries, this type of activity is not completely new. Earlier, notaries took cash and securities on deposit to later transfer to the creditor.
For credit institutions (banks), this service is becoming more and more popular, albeit a newer one. As escrow agents, banks and notaries are more credible but they charge more for their services than just an “intermediary”, as it is the price of security guarantees. This function is often performed by lawyers and licensed specialized commercial structures.
So, according to the law, an escrow agent is any third party competent, legally capable, independent, acting as an intermediary between the depositor and the beneficiary. He must verify the correctness of the fulfillment of the transaction terms by both parties, and only then transfer the funds (property) entrusted to him to the beneficiary.
When making bilateral deals, which is common in civil law relations, a mutual escrow is legally stipulated, in other words, two parties to the contract appeal to an escrow agent at the same time. That is, each side acts simultaneously as a depositor and as a beneficiary. Such a construction is often used if the contract was concluded, but the parties did not fulfill it or the trust between them was not complete due to some circumstances. To guarantee the fulfillment of the contract, the parties turn to the services of an escrow agent. He acts as a kind of "arbitrator" in such complex transactions. But mutual escrow is not necessarily used only in conflict situations, it can be an ordinary bilateral transaction.
Since I have been working in the real estate sector in the Russian market for many years, moving from the usual membership in the Alliance Family Club to shared ownership, I made such an analogy for myself. Registration of any transaction for the acquisition of real estate is carried out through a civil law notary. This is an essential condition for ensuring and confirming the legality of the transfer of property. In the Club, the similar notary functions are performed by Global Actual Services trust company, officially registered in the Kingdom of Thailand. However, I saw the progressivity of this Trustee in attracting the owners of the Club to participate in the management. No notary can offer his client access to the process of studying and obtaining information on his case. That is why we sometimes hear about the sensational cases of so-called "black notaries". The involvement of the Club members to shared participation in Global Actual Services excludes such a possibility, as each shareholder has access to all information related to the trust management of the Club's property.
Ernest Zabolotskiy (Russia) comments upon the advantages of shared ownership
The owner of a real estate Agency