What you are actually buying
A share is not a property. Buying a share means buying everything the company owes as well.
So before a purchase, the same things get checked as with a property, only for a company: obligations to the state, loans, guarantees given, pending proceedings, enforcement, long-term contracts, employment liabilities.
The seller is not always hiding something. Sometimes they genuinely do not know what is left over from earlier years.
Form and sequence
Transferring a share has requirements as to form. It also involves company resolutions and an entry in the commercial register.
The practical consequence: a signed contract does not by itself finish the job. Until the entry is made, the old position remains the valid one as against third parties. If someone acts in the meantime, that matters.
Changing the manager
A separate step, which people often confuse with transferring shares. You can change the manager without the shareholdings changing, and the other way round.
Important for a departing manager: until the change is entered, they continue to appear as the representative. If the company runs up liabilities after they left, the missing entry creates a problem for exactly that person.
If one of the parties is abroad
That is common and is handled through a power of attorney, drafted for the particular step, with an apostille and translation where it comes from outside.
Plan it with time to spare. A document that has to travel is prepared before it is needed, not on the day of signing.
If relations have already broken down
Then this is not a technical change but a dispute, and it is run differently. See shareholder disputes.
What I will need
The company’s current entry, the constitutive act or shareholders’ agreement, and what exactly you want changed. If you are buying a share, say so at the start, because the check comes before the contract.
This page provides general information and does not constitute legal advice on any specific case. Rights and deadlines depend on the facts and the applicable law.