Starting today a serie of quick posts on Daily values at work or Work Values for a crisis

Based on what our team consider to be as pivotal values and actitudes for:

- Building healthy team life

- Displaying powerful clients´ care

- Enjoying an increasing satisfactory work life

- Performing social risponsability in a natural way

- Making the company run and endure

It will be a daily snack of simple ideas... nothing extraordinary

Today´s : Patience

A quote by a great person:

" If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent"  Isaac Newton

More coming tomorrow...

The Costaluz lawyers team

 

If you want to leave your widow or widower with the greatest possible rights, you can bequeath him/her the “universal" usufruct, (all you had before dying) and name your children as heirs equally.

The widow/ widower will be able to use  and receive income and benefits of the common patrimony  (if they were married under the common goods system). In no event he/she may sell anything without all the children give their consent. Once the widow/widower dies, the children will receive, without limitation, inheritance of both parents.  

By Jesús and María L. de Castro

La Barrosa beach, Chiclana, Cádiz, Costa de la Luz by Basilievich at Flickr.com

Have a great weekend

Maria

Tarifa ( Europe) with Tanger ( Africa) in the horizon by Chodaboy at Flickr.com

Who are your legal heirs and how much to leave them? .

- Children and descendants:  two thirds of the inheritance: a third of the estate is to be left equally to your children, and another third to your children and grandchildren. This last third ( called " de mejora") can be distributed freely among these or can be left just to one or some of them.

("One third to all descendants, one third to selected descendants")

- Parents and ascendants: if you do not have children or descendants, you need to leave to your parents or any direct ascendants:

*One third if your widow/widower is still alive

*One half if your widow/widower is not alive or you were not married.

("To ascendants, when you do not have children: one third if you are married, one half if you are not married")

- Widower or Widow:  right to usufruct of:

*One third if you have children or descendants

* One half if you do not have descendants bu you have ascendants

* Two thirds if you have no descendants or ascendants

(" To the spouse: one third if descendants, one half if ascendants, two thirds if none of them")

 You can only deprive these people o legal inheritance rights in disinheritance cases, regulated by the Civil Code and very unfrequent in practice. Outside these limits you have freedom to name heirs and legatees.

More is coming!

Jesús Castro and María L. de Castro

Sunset in La Barrosa, Cádiz, Costa de la Luz, by Sergi Gisbert at Flickr.com 

WARNING: These posts will mention so avoided terms such as " your death", " your will" or " your heirs". People with hipersesitivity to these, please abstain :)

"According to Spanish law, the succession is governed by national law of the deceased at time of death"

It is the well known provision 9.8 of our Napoleonic Civil Code:

"La sucesión por causa de muerte se regirá por la Ley nacional del causante en el momento de su fallecimiento, cualesquiera que sean la naturaleza de los bienes y el país donde se encuentren. Sin embargo, las disposiciones hechas en testamento y los pactos sucesorios ordenados conforme a la Ley nacional del testador o del disponente en el momento de su otorgamiento conservarán su validez, aunque sea otra la Ley que rija la sucesión, si bien las legítimas se ajustarán, en su caso, a esta última. Los derechos que por ministerio de la Ley se atribuyan al cónyuge supérstite se regirán por la misma Ley que regule los efectos del matrimonio, a salvo siempre las legítimas de los descendientes"

This dense provision actually set these three basic rules:  

1) Sucession after death will be governed by your  National Law  at the moment of your death, regardless nature of assets and country where they are located.  "Your nationality will govern your death"

2)  Old wills or inheritance agreements made in the past under a National Law, different to your nationality when dying will be valid if they recpect rules of  reserved portions" Your foreign past wills are valid if they respect legal heirs"

3) Inheritance Law applicable to your  widow will be the same as Marital Law, always respecting reserved portions of descendants. " Your foreign widow comes after your descendant legal heirs"

But who are those " legal heirs" and how much they get by Law? We will explain this in our next post.

Best wishes,

Jesús Castro and Maria L. de Castro

 Conil beach, Cádiz, Costa de la Luz by Motxilos at Flickr.com

The Government has included a reduction of 5% on fees charged by notaries and Property registrars in relation to documents where value is expressed such as deeds of house purchase.

This has been made in the recent decree of extraordinary measures to reduce the deficit.

A small lifeline to future owners, who in short, effective July 1, will see the rise of a point of VAT and at the end of the year, from January 1, 2011, will see how the deduction for purchases disappear.

This has been the rate scale so far:

Until       6,010.12--------------------------------------------------90.15 euros

Between  6,010.13 and 30050.60 euros-------------------------- 4.5 per 1,000

Between 30,050.61 and 60,101.21 euro------------------------- 1.50 per 1,000

Between 60,101.22 and 150,253.03euros-------------------------- 1 per 1,000

Between 150,253.04 and 601,012.10 euros----------------------- 0.5 per 1,000.

Between 601,012.11  and 6,010,121.04 euros-------------------- 0.3 per 1,000

From 6,010,121.05: the amount that may be freely agreed by the parties.

Sancti Petri, Cádiz, Costa de la Luz by Heart Industry at Flickr.com 

 Being a tax resident in Spain involves being subject to income tax in Spain. On the other side, being non-resident for taxes purposes implies to be subject to non-residents income tax. 

How is it determined?

When considering the tax residence of a person, we always take into account not only the Spanish law on personal income tax but also provisions of applicable international agreements.

Income Tax Act provides two criteria for determining fiscal residency in Spain:  

-          People who has the core or the base of their activities or economic interests in Spain.

Anti-abuse clause

Also known as the "fiscal quarantine."  This clause is intended to avoid relocation for tax purposes and provides that   those persons of Spanish nationality who can prove their new residence for tax purposes in a country or territory considered as a tax haven will not lose the status of taxpayers by income tax. This rule will apply for the tax period in which the person relocates and during the next four years.

See related articles here

Caños de Meca, Cadiz, Costa de la Luz by JuanJe at Flickr.com

Because we see this is what is needed in the most of the cases were people bought off plan and did not receive a Bank Guarantee,

Because claimers are frustrated and tired of waiting for years for a Court decision to be honoured and this does not happen due to the financial status of developers,

Because it is a great tool to try to put some correction to the financial system in off plan purchases for the protection of buyers so we can be sure these current problems will not happen again in our country,

Because we need to show to foreigners that Spain has a strong and coherent legal system,
 
Because we can offer low cost action to groups of people under the rules of our professional ethical code,

Because Banks have been the necessary element without which the current off-plan disaster in Spain would have never happened,

Because Law 57/68 makes them clearly liable for the lack of Bank Guarantees,

Because we have been studying this action for months with the help of a first class Law Professor who is available to answer questions in Court regarding the report he produced for us,

Because it is necessary, because you need it mainly

We are offering to all the EOS members the possibility of joining existing actions against Banks under provision 1.2 of Law 57/68 at a much reduced cost.

Main ground of Law 57/68 is the protection of money advanced by individuals before construction work begins or during it, in many cases the savings of a lifetime.

The actual preamble or “exposición de motivos” of the said Law establishes that all the "abuses in this type of businesses have made as necessary the establishment of general preventive rules which will guarantee both the real and effective application of money advanced by purchasers and prospective customers to the building of the house and to the refund in the event that the building does not take effect".

The most preventive, general, inalienable obligation that this Law established was for banks or savings banks, where money was paid to by buyers, to secure the establishment of Bank Guarantees or insurance UNDER THEIR LIABILITY. Banks were therefore here established as guardians of legality and finantial correctness. 

Please contact us here: web@costaluzlawyers.es if you want further information about this.

Have a great week,

Maria L. de Castro 

o

 

Tarifa Harbour by Luis López- Cortijo

 

The Public Society for rentals (SPA) under the Ministry of Housing has created a new insurance covering unpaid monthly lease rents for 13 months. This adds to the current offer of this type of Insurances by private companies.

The main advantage of this type of Insurances is that the landlord does not have to wait to obtain a court order to receive financial compensation from the insurance company. Compensation is paid to him as soon as the lawsuit is brought to Courts. 

The insurance by the SPA also offers compensation for damages or thefts of up to 3,000 Euros. It also provides legal defense up to 3,000 Euros to the conflicts that may arise, among others: evictions for non-payment or non authorized works, as well as other claims.

 
It also provides a 24 hours help desk to deal with damages caused by events which are not covered by the insurance policy.

 
In order to sign the rental insurance, the landlord must provide the lease contract and the tenant's documentation to ensure that the payable rent shall not exceed 35% of their household income. 

This insurance by the SPA has a cost of 23.4 Euros per month for rents up to 600 Euros. From this income threshold, the amount payable is increased proportionally.

It has always been our advise to use this type of Insurances, either provided by a public or a private company, and to submitt the rentals to arbitration rather than Courts.

For earlier posts on this you can click on here  or here

Warm wishes,

Maria

"The Cape of Trafalgar, from the road among Zahara and Barbate (Cadiz)", by Luis López-Cortijo

Cooperative values are:  self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, solidarity, honesty, transparency, accountability and social vocation.

Cooperative principles: guidelines by which cooperatives put their values into practice.

- Voluntary and open membership (so-called principle of "open door")

- Democratic management by the partners.

- Member economic participation (In the broad sense: both capital and labor)

- Autonomy and independence.

- Education, training and information.

- Cooperation among cooperatives.

- Concern for community. 

These so modern principles against the old and always ugly "capital only", is in our opinion the best legal formula for communities of elderly UK and Norther European people who this way will be able to democratically organise themselves and share information, legal and financial costs, health and lifestyle tips and resources, experience... for the enjoyment of a retirement under the sun in Spain.

We will explain how to set a cooperative company in Spain and its adavantages in a coming post.

Warm wishes,

Maria

"The river El Cachón (Zahara, Cádiz), with the Cape of Trafalgar at the end of the picture", by Luis López-Cortijo

The reform of Justice in Spain aims to the right of citizens to judicial services to be expeditious, transparent and consistent with the values proclaimed in the Constitution. The legal text of the reform is "Ley 13/2009, de 3 de noviembre, de reforma de la legislacion procesal para la implantacion de la nueva Oficina judicial". It came into force last Tuesday, the 4th in May.

 
Through this reform,  Judges are intended to work just to judge and to execute judgments,  as our Constitution proclaims, downloading all other functions that are currently developing the Courts,  and which are not strictly judicial in other officers working in Courts.

This objective entails the creation of a new work system, with the introduction of the new judicial office and adaptation to the same of the procedural laws, which provide support to the judicial function.

 
Thus, judicial clerks will be developing work on certain materials which are necessary in the judicial procedure but that are outside the scope of judicial authority.

 
The procedural law reform primary aims to regulate the distribution of powers between judges and clerks. Therefore, the initiation and conduct of the proceedings until the issuance of the ruling, except for certain cases that would be studied by the Judge, is attributed to the Clerk.

 
For its part, the execution of the Court Decission, except those aspects that are reserved to the judge, is also attributed to the Clerk.

 
A complementary objective of the reform is the strengthening of the guarantees of the citizens, to this respect, the recording of all hearings and trials has been extended to both labor and criminal procedures, which just used to be for the civil order before.  

Another complementary objective is to facilitate the accumulation of processes and executions, in order to avoid multiplicity of proceedings where different processes have the same object, with the pertinent economic and personal wear that are involved in these unnecessary delays.

Another important procedural reform is about the Monitorio process (abbreviated), which will be applicable now for due and documented debts up to a hundred and fifty thousand Euros. This will mean that the declaratory process, adversarial, lengthy and expensive will be avoided in many occasions.

By Jesus and Maria L de Castro

"Zahara de los Atunes (Cadiz) on the left side of the picture", by Luis Lopez-Cortijo

The European Commission seeks common legal processes in matters of inheritance for all the States members. This means basically: (a) implementing a common law, (b) to allow free movement of probate records and rules and (c) adopting a European Certificate of Inheritance. 

One law 
The proposal is to apply the law of residence. Means that procedures are carried out under the law of the place where the deceased had his/her residency at his/her death

Freedom of movement for probate records and rules  
 It suggests establishing an online European network with the probate records of the 27 countries. 

European Certificate of Inheritance 

 Document certifying whether a person is heir, irrespective of domicile. 

The regulation is necessary due to the importance that inheritance transfers have within the EU. 450 000 probates are formalized each year among member countries, according to the General Council of Notaries. This represents more than 123,000 million Euros. 8 millions live out of their country of origin, and there are 2.5 million properties belonging to people living in a  different state to the one they have a property in. 'The diversity of rules, authorities and the division of inheritance is an obstacle to free movement of persons within the EU. They face great difficulties in exercising their rights in international succession 'stresses the new European regulation in its explanatory memorandum. 

The debate is open. Member States are currently negotiating. Al of them are supporting the initiative, but differ in their application. Still, the idea is to reach an agreement before the end of the year. 

In addition to certain technical discussions regarding the European Certificate of Inheritance, a major sticking point is the profound difference from the political point of view. In Europe different legal systems coexist and implementation of a single law raises doubts by MEPs who consider that the unification will alter the national standards. 

The problem is that the discussion of inheritance is very delicate, because it is rooted in history and culture of each country, said John Ball, former president of the Council of the Notaries of the EU. However, it is an objective that Europe will not leave, according to MEPs who support the measure. In any case, the MEP and author of the proposal, Kurt Lechner, states that the adoption of the rules depends on the political will of the EU institutions and member states.

 
Our secretary of State for Justice, Juan Carlos Campo, has recently expressed his concern about the non-participation of the United Kingdom in the future regulation, "given the importance of the British colony in Spain, and the number of properties they own in our territory. 

 www.successions -europe.eu, provides the information necessary to understand the steps that a person has to go on a cross-border succession procedure. 

Now that Summer is near, we are re-publishing this article that Justin gently publish on EOS newsletter in August 2007, please let us know if you have specific questions regarding your community  pool

Costa Luz Lawyers are contract and consumer real estate law specialists covering all parts of Spain. You can contact Maria atmldecastro@costaluzlawyers.es 

"The Beach of Zahara de los Atunes (Cadiz) with the village of Zahara beside the beach and to the left side of the mountain that is on the right side of the picture"; by Luis Lopez-Cortijo.

What about a campaign for putting pressure on  Financial Institutions to pay off in those cases where they failed to secure on the existence of Bank Guarantees/Insurance policies for off-plan buyers?

When a Bank Guarantee was not produced for the buyer, the only resort is to go against the developer: this results in a very long judicial procedure for the Court decission to be in place and then a new battle , in order to enforce it and obtain the funds back. Many developers are now very short of funds in Spain.

If Banks/Saving Banks where your money was deposited can show they made all possible for the existence of the Bank Guaranteess, then, just conveyancers and developers will be liable for the damages related to the lack of it.  

But if they cannot prove the due diligence they displayed it, they, Banks and Saving Banks are liable.

Someone needs to respond for this disaster and the first ones to ask about are Financial Institutions:  Banks were officially and legally entrusted by Law 57/68 to custody off plan purchasers´funds.

A big battle and a reunion of efforts is needed here, we are concerned they were long-life savings for many of you.

Who is joining o us regarding this? Before starting the judicial battle, we are sending communications to all those Banks and Saving Banks which received money from our clients and will follow up with communications to Ombudsmen and Bank of Spain. We want Bank of Spain to issue an express  statement  on liabilities of Banks on this particular point: please email us if you are in that situation so we can join your name to the efforts.

Our email address is web@costaluzlawyers.es and please write Bank´s liabilities as the subject of the email.

Best regards,

Maria

"the Beach of Zahara de los Atunes (Cádiz)", by Luis Lopez-Cortijo

As our particular way to celebrate Europe´s day tomorrow:

European enterpreneurs please write to us: we could help each other and show to politicians and european economists what the European Union really need to be: the free area where people meet and project together.  Persons, citizenship needs to experience  that Europe exists.

As a way to show this to the Institutions and ( cannot deny it) with sincere worry about the situation of Spain, in terms of the apathy which is capturing enterpreneurs and the increasing  fear of families due to the lack of dynamism of the work-field.... 

We want to launch today on a May saturday, a pilot-experience:

- We offer a one year free service for company stablishment ( full package: company set-up, auditing, accounts, taxes filing, website design, marketing tools and clients care programm and software). All this following the same route we have taken for our own company, and which is resulting at present moment to be right to create a solid one. You just need to tell us about your project, to be developed in South Spain and consisting on services for retired Uk people or Northern europeans.

We will set the specific rules of the contest by June the 13rd. In the meantime, please start sending to us your suggestions and ideas. We will aslo be posting about ours.

Let´s work together!

"Playa de Atlanterra, Zahara de los Atunes (Cadiz); by Luis López-Cortijo

Our sponsored garden designer Maria Luisa Medina has won the Spring Malvern Gradening show award which gives to her a Chris Beardshaw scholarship.

Costaluzlawyers was sharing sponsorship with Bradstone of Aggregate Industries

Congratulations Maria Luisa.... great job!

Maria Luisa Medina ( who is our Patricia Medina´s sister) receiving the award yesterday in Malvern.

Some pictures of her garden: Amazing!

Maria Luisa Medina and Chris Beardshaw in Malvern Gardening show after receiving her award.

Maria Luisa Medina´s winner garden 

Maria Luisa Medina in her garden

 Provision 8 of the new Decree stablishes that there is an obligation of communicating the touristic character of the house and to apply for the registration and classification if you are marketing more than one touristic house. If you are marketing just one unit, the house will need to meet the requirements for the standard (lower) category according to this Decree.

ANEX. TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF TOURIST HOUSES.

1. Acceses, comunications and parkings

 2. Facilities and services