§ 79. Who gets the yield from the goods?
The yield (the dividend, the fruit, the income) that the goods produce before the agreed delivery time goes to the seller. What comes after the time of delivery goes to the buyer. Exception: if there was reason to expect the yield to come at a different time from when it actually came.
Machine-translated from Norwegian. The Norwegian text is the one that applies. Read the original in Norwegian.Norsk English العربية Polski Українська
The text of the law (unofficial translation)
Yield that the item produces before the agreed delivery time goes to the seller, when there was no reason to expect that it would fall later. Yield that the item produces after that goes to the buyer, when there was no reason to expect that it would fall earlier.
What does this mean?
When you buy something that "produces", such as rental income from let property, milk from a cow, fruit from a tree or a cash dividend, the question is: who should have the income in the period around the purchase?
Main principle: The time of delivery (levering) is the dividing line.
- Before the delivery time: The seller has the goods and their yield
- After the delivery time: The buyer has the goods and their yield
Exception (reasonableness): If there was reason to expect the yield to come at a particular time (for example, a harvest that normally comes in September), the natural planning applies, not just the date.
Example: You buy an apple orchard with delivery on 1 September. The apples typically ripen in September–October. Even if some apples come "before" 1 September (late August), the whole harvest goes to the buyer, because there was "reason to expect" the harvest to come at that time.
Examples
Lars buys a rented-out garage with a delivery date of 1 May. The rent is paid monthly on the 5th. The seller has received April's rent. May's rent is paid after delivery. Under § 79: April's rent goes to the seller (before the delivery time). May's rent goes to Lars (after delivery).
Eva buys a fruit farm with delivery on 1 August. The summer berries (redcurrants, blackcurrants) were already harvested in July. Nothing new is harvested on this farm until September. Under § 79: the summer berries go to the seller. The September harvest goes to Eva.
Common mistakes
- Forgetting to agree specifically on the yield in handover agreements
- Confusing "payment is made" with "yield is produced"
- As the buyer: thinking you are entitled to everything from the day the agreement was made
What should you do?
- Agree explicitly on the yield in the contract, especially for large purchases (property, businesses)
- Set a clear delivery date, since that is the dividing line
- Consider what typically falls due when: seasons, leases, dividend dates