escrow
noun · Treuhandkonto
Treuhandkonto for the account, Notaranderkonto where a notary holds the stakes, Escrow kept in brackets where the English mechanics matter. Hinterlegung is the false friend with a statute behind it, §§ 372 ff. BGB, a debtor’s one-sided deposit at a public office, not a closing tool.
Which translation, when
Why
Escrow is an arrangement, not a German institution, a neutral third party holds money or documents until agreed conditions are met, and German practice rebuilds it case by case, a Treuhandkonto in commercial deals, the Notaranderkonto under §§ 57 ff. BeurkG where a notary is in the transaction anyway. What escrow is not is Hinterlegung, the false friend with a statute of its own, §§ 372 ff. BGB let a debtor deposit money with a public office to shed a debt he cannot safely pay, when the creditor is in default of acceptance or unknown, a one-sided exit from an obligation. The negotiated conditions, the release mechanics, the neutral agent, everything that makes an escrow an escrow, has no place in that procedure, and a German lawyer who reads Hinterlegung reaches for the Hinterlegungsstelle of the Amtsgericht, not for the deal. So the translation picks the vehicle, Treuhandkonto or Notaranderkonto for the arrangement, and Hinterlegung only where § 372 BGB is truly meant.
Typical mistakes
- Hinterlegung has a statute of its own, §§ 372 ff. BGB, the debtor’s deposit with a public office to shed a debt, a different animal from a negotiated escrow, and the reflex rendering sends the reader to a court office instead of to the escrow agent.
- Das Notaranderkonto has house rules, the notary may only run it inside §§ 57 ff. BeurkG, so escrow instructions translated loosely can be instructions a German notary must refuse.
- Sperrkonto is a neighbour, not a synonym, a blocked account restrains the holder, an escrow account interposes a third party, and deals use the two against different fears.
What matters
Purchase price mechanics make it concrete: ten per cent of the price shall be held in escrow until the warranties expire becomes zehn Prozent des Kaufpreises werden auf einem Treuhandkonto verwahrt, in a notarial deal in die Verwahrung des Notars gegeben, §§ 57 ff. BeurkG. Rendered as Hinterlegung the clause names the one-sided statutory deposit instead of the bilateral closing tool, and the conditions the parties negotiated have no home in the § 372 procedure.
What the machine misses
Escrow scatters in machine output, Treuhandkonto on a good day, Hinterlegung on an average one, and the second names a statutory mechanism with the wrong shape, the debtor’s one-sided deposit at a public office to shed a debt. The negotiated conditions, the point of every escrow, have no home in that procedure, and the German reader is sent to a court’s deposit office to look for a closing arrangement that was never there.
Examples
| an escrow account | ein Treuhandkonto |
| the escrow agent | der Treuhänder |
| to hold the funds in escrow | die Gelder treuhänderisch verwahren |
| release from escrow | die Freigabe vom Treuhandkonto |