Start of a New Adventure in Spain

The following day I phoned the vender to get hes reaction on this, you can guess that he was not too pleased as he came so close to having he’s money, he could see it, nearly touch it, but  it was not to be, so close yet so far. He said the only positive thing was that he’s ex wife was not present, he thought that would have been the icing on the cake. 

I got a phone call on the Monday to say that the ex wife was going to come out her self, I thought that would be interesting for the vendor, just in case there was any more issues as she wanted to to get this done and dusted.

All was set for signing at the Notary on Thursday the 5th November 2009.

Thankfully, we completed on  that date with no problems, you can imagine how we felt when we recieved the news, we was finally able to pop the chamagne open to drink to the first part of our dream complete and finally we were the owners of Cortijo los Titos.

How we could start the renovation

Also we could not wait to visit and pick keys up from our solicitor.

What had happened was years ago, the property was extended, but so the owner  did not pay any more tax they never registered the extension as tax is based on the size of the property.

This took a few months, which is not surprising, but it was quicker than I thought it would take as the vendor was pushing it though, as he knew that we had the bank behind us.

Finally everything was in order and a date was set for everyone to sign at the notary, although we was having trouble contacting out solicitor as he had power of attorney to sign all paperwork on our behalf. So at the time it was suggested that we come over to sign. We looked at doing it in a day which could be possible, or over 2 days which we have done before, it was a nightmare to find flights to be able to do it in a day, or two as the vendor was willing to pick us up from the airport, in the end it  was not possible., as a lot of the airlines had cut back on there flights.

In the end we was able to make contact with our solicitor,  he contacted us and all was arranged for the meeting and the signing at the notary , you thought we would have been excited by this, but we was not, as we had  been though this many times and there always something that raises it`s ugly head, and guess what?

We was right, everyone was at the notary for the signing etc, when the notary noticed that the ex-wife of the vendor power of attorney and her NIE number was in her married name etc, but now she was divorced it was not legal for them to sign on her behalf. I got the phone call after the event, which at the time I thought should have been  good news, but as I said it was not, I could not believe it, so close, but still not ours,  thought came to me that we could have gone all the way out there at a great expense to not have completed, I would have lost it big time.

My legal/ fin adviser stated that her solicitor should have realised this at the time of going though all the paper work, but once again this was missed.

He said that it was not a problem but she would need to get another power of attorney done was would be able to do it quite quickly, and should be able to complete next week. I had my doubts as the way our luck had gone on this it would go on for longer.

But as the saying go`s (you never fail till you stop)

Within a couple of weeks he a found a couple of banks interested, once again we had to send all our documents off again (buy this time we must be will known with the Spanish banks).

One came back with an ok as the advisor had sold our situation to them as he had all the original information of the property, but this was also depending on valuation, which again we had to open account with them and send money to pay for this.

The valuation was completed and came back at a lower value then the last one which we had expected. We got back to the vendor and put another offer on the table on how much we was willing to pay for the property, he was not happy with this offer , but we knew he had no choice,  if he decided to put the property back on the market he would only get the current market value for it and the added cost of marketing it again.

He had to liaise with he’s ex wife on this, but it was not long before he got back and agreed to our lasted offer.

Then the next problem arouse, we thought there could be no more problems, but we was wrong, the size of the property was different to what was stated in the land registry,  they said that it was not a major problem to be So what happened next ? 

rectified, but it had to be re-measured by an architect and then signed by the town hall, then get it registered at the land registry so that a number can be allocated to the property, which the bank needed. This had to be done by the vendor as this error should have been highlighted and sorted when he purchased it.

Once again what do we do?  Give up or keep tiring. We decided to pay a visit out to Spain to see if they were any other problems, also to see it there was anythink we could do. I had spoken to vendor about the last set back, which is was quiet angry about due to the fact it kept coming back that the property was illegal,he was going to speak to the bank himself because he felt that it was all wrong, because all paper work that was in place and the fact as said before the town Hall had granted us planning permission for the renovation, which they would not have done on an illegal property.

He also came up with another idea on taking over he’s mortgage (which I found out that you can do this in Spain) and paying the difference from the mortgage and asking price, which we had re-negotiated again due to fact that house prices was falling fast in Spain, as well as in the UK , and was based on the last valuation that was done.

We went out in May 2009, had a great visit first staying with the father-in-law in Elche and then driving done to Almeria and staying in our favourite B&B and meeting up with the vendors bank Manager, which he agreed that they would be no problem in taking over he’s mortgage, we supplied him with all the information that he required (don’t know how many times we have how given banks etc our details).

The only thing now was that he would submit it to he’s Head Office for approval, which as he said at one time he would have had the authority to ok it, but because of the credit crises, everything had to go to them now, which could take one week or several, and how the Spanish work, months.

We also went to the solicitors just to make sure that it would be in order and the contact that he would have to draw up to make sure it was all legal, which was no problem as all parties involved was ok with this, including the vendors ex wife..

We also found out that the proposed golf course that was earmark across the way from the house was still going ahead; we visited the offices of the promoters who had plans of it laid out and the details of site and work involved. This would take about 2 years to be developed by the work involved, so this would give us the time hopefully to buy and renovate the property before it was finished.

The rest of the time we spent in Spain was enjoyable, time went very quickly and in no time at all we was back home.

Several months past and phone calls back and forth to the vender on any news from the bank, but no news yet. We also tried to look around again to see if there was any bank that would be interested.

Out of the blue some months later I had phone call from the solicitors that was acting on behalf of the vendors ex-wife, firstly to ask that we was still interested in buying the property, as it had gone on for so long now, and secondly he would be able to assist in helping us find a bank that would be interested giving us a mortgage (its not what you know, it’s who you know as the saying go`s).

find out next time what happen`s