Start of a New Adventure in Spain

We spent the next 6months looking for a mortgages though mortgage brokers this had cost as time and money, the first one looked at all papers asked for copy of valuation, and looked at a few banks that might be interested, but all came back with the same answer as before that while the work was being carried out on the property it was not habitual. Therefore, if anything were to go wrong, they felt it they would not be able to sell it.  After all, it was still a building, on land, that has a value.

We then went though a broker in UK and he found a bank that would be interested and we filled in all the paper work paid some admin fees to the broker and everything was going fine, then at the last minute the bank pulled out saying that they had changed they criteria and we now did not meet this, the broker tried to fight this for us stating the we had started the process before they decided to change this. But the bank came back to say there would not loan us the money.

By this time we started to think that it was not to be, we would not be able to buy the property and our dream was lost.

If I gave up on this dream I would always think what if !  So I was not going to give up, although friends and family thought we should give up, as they thought it was not to be.

I went back to broker to find out if they was anyone else out there that would be interested, we also went to a Spanish broker to see if they could find a bank.

They was a couple out they that was interested, so we went over the same process again of providing all the information the banks wanted, having a valuation done.

One bank got to the point of an offer when valuation was sent to their Head office; they stated that according to the land registry the property did not exist so was illegal, what again this is coming up. On requesting copy of valuation, he visited the right place, but on pinpointing it on the cadastral map he had the wrong plot, so all information there took from this was all wrong. I highlighted this with them, and they  relook at it, but came back later with the same story. Which again I told them how could this be when the seller as a mortgage for the property. Again we was told no, but also |I had lost confidence in the bank due to the errors that was made.

The story continues from where I left of in my last blog

We decided to carry on as we have fallen in love with the property; the vendor had to now get the property measured by an architect to draw up the plans with the correct measurements.

The problem was that on land registry it shows  that the size is a lot smaller than the actual measurement, this happened when the vendor had sold some of the land to his father, and paper work was not done correctly and then re-registered at the land registry.

To do this the vendors solicitor is requesting a segregation certificate from the local town hall (to segregate the land from his father and add it to the house) which all should have been done in the first place .

Once this has been done, it can go to the notary to make the segregation and added it to the deed. Then it will go to the cadaster in order to give it an independent cadastral reference to the property. Therefore, in manna culture this could take months.

This was finally completed in May 08, and valuation was done on the property as it stands now and once the property had been renovated. Therefore, everything was ready to rock and roll.

The bank got back to us to say that they was only  prepared to offer us a mortgage for X amount  which was considerable less than we need as part of the mortgage was to buy property and to do the renovation, the valuation came in a lot less than the asking price and the value of property once it had been renovated came in quiet a bit higher which was good, but made no difference to the bank ( due to the situation with the property market in Spain at that time).  One we would need to go back to the vender to see if we could renegotiate a new price based on the valuation, as prices had came down due to the credit crunch, especially the property market that was happening around the world at that time.

Before we made our move with speaking to the vendor the bank Manager phoned me to say that the bank had changed they mind and was not now willing to give as a mortgage, Why?, because the property would not be habitual while the building work was being done, what a load of bull, they knew all this at the start. All that was requested by them, all the plans etc was done so they knew from the start what was involved. They was running scared due to the banking situation around the world, which I would have understood more if they told me this was the reason not to loan us the money, and not come out with some cock and bull story.

story to continue

 Well I cannot believe it has been over a year since I posted my last blog on buying our dream house, well like all dreams there can fade and die if you do not keep them alive and focused on them.

We had more problems that kept popping up, like the world going in recession, which did not help the dream, and at times was sure a sign to say give up its not to be. However, in the end, we decided that we were not going to give up; this is what we wanted to do. If we gave up it would always be what if!  We was determined to see this dream though, unlike ones before that I had and let them die as soon as I had hit an obstacle.

Therefore, in the next post I will continue the story from where I last left it, the ups and downs , and  there has been a few downs along the way. So lets hope you find the rest of our story interesting and informative.