Condado - New Purchase

We have just paid a deposit to buy an apartment on Condado.  We are buying from the bank.

I've just had the mortgage details and they are offering home insurance and life insurance and title insurance...

Assuming that the Spanish banks are like the UK banks, I suspect that any policies they offer are likely to be more expensive. 

More to the point, can any one let me know whether i actually need all (or any ) of these policies?  Is the buildings insurance likely to be covered by the community charges?  Do i really need life insurance as we have more than enough cover on our UK policies?  What is title insurance?  I assume that as we are buying from the bank - on a Polaris resort - title to the property should not really be an issue...

Thank you.

You don't need buildings insurance as that is covered by the community insurance.

Some mortgages do require you to have a life insurance in place.  If you have an exisiting life insurance policy then maybe that will suffice, but check with the bank on that.

For more information about title insurance check out our title insurance in Spain website.  That will give you an idea of what's covered.  Whether you want this or not, mainly for peace of mind, is really up to you.  These policies do cover other disputes that may arise in the future, for example, neighbouring wall disputes, etc.

Hope that helps.

Justin

Hi  david and ellie,

Congrats on your purchase!

I'm sure Justin won't mind my mentioning but you do indeed need to have buildings insurance and the bank will not complete at the notary without it. The community insurance will not suffice as this generally only covers the common elements of the building and urbanisation.  If you can, and opt to take an independent policy this must state your mortgage account number and the lender as interested party.

In my experience the insurance cost of the banks product is more or less in line with independent companies but life insurance in Spain is expensive (compared to the UK) and depending on the basis of contracting the mortgage it may be obligatory that you take their product - as Justin says, it is best to check if it is just 'on offer' or a condition of the mortgage.

There is a seperate forum for Condado de Alhama, any questions posted will get you information from owners and residents..

Go to home page, scroll down to Popular communities, click on Condado de Alhama and this will take you to the community home page, at the bottom of this page click on - visit Condado de Alhama forum.

Good luck with your purchase, as we are very happy with ours.

Hi david & ellie,

We completed on Condado in September 2009 and took out buildings insurance with our Spanish bank when signing at the Notary office. We have since found out that the buildings cover is included in the community charges and have not paid the renewal premium to our bank this year. We did have to get the community administrators, Mileniun-Levante, to send a copy of their buildings insurance policy to our bank for them to confirm that the cover was sufficient. Our bank accepted the community policy and we did not have to renew with them.

It may be a condition of the mortgage that you have to insure with them for the first 12 months?

We sorted our own life insurance out with a company in the Uk, although our bank did take money out of our account for this insurance. They did refund it as soon as I notified them that we did not require it.

Don't recall anything about 'title insurance'.

You may want to consider contents insurance when you have completed and start furnishing. This year we used the community administrators to sort out our cover at a very good price.

Best wishes,

David 

Sharonw

I can tell you a story but I do not know what happened in the end.

Person bought a property and bank were to arrange building and contents insurance.

Of course bank manager was a tad lazy and did not do for about a month after completion.

In that period property was broken into and many items stolen.

Bank denied any responsibility and said there was no insurance in place so just bad luck.

I don't know what happened after that.

So if the bank is doing arranging it then you might want to make sure it is on cover from day 1.

But more importantly read the policy as it is less comprehsive than UK policies - particularly with regards to jewellery and valuables etc and lots more exclusion clauses etc

I recently found out that the Community policy provided some building cover, so with this information I contacted my bank and managed to have £80 knocked off my insurance premium for this year.

Community administrators should be able to provide owners with this information.

ovide owners with this information.

You need to know what is covered under which policy.

It's the old overlap or not between buidlings and contents and in some cases.

example in UK anything that is fitted comes under buildings - that can be kitchens, bathrooms, wardrobes etc.

It's unlikely community policy would cover internal wiring/pipes etc

One thing insurance companies are good at is telling you you are not covered.

Hi Faro,

That is an interesting story and just recently I have discovered that a previous client had also completed, seemingly without the insurance - their completion date was 30 Dec and the insurance was effective from the 22 Jan! Thank god nothing happened during this period, but the fact that it was allowed to happen came as such a surprise to me.  

Normally, as the property is declared as a second home jewellery may not be covered.

Community insurance should cover pipes if they are of a 'common' nature - it could be that the community insurance, for some banks is acceptable for their purpose but maybe not adequate for the clients.  I agree it is important to check the specfics.

The problem is that in many cases you contract the insurance via the bank at the time of signing and at this point you do not know (are not told) the actual terms and conditions.

Hi David & Ellie - love Condado and visit 4 - 5 a year. Hope you are happy with your purchase and your time at Condado.

We too bought on Condado March 2009 and got completely ripped off by Bancaja, I tried to stop the bank taking money for insurances and did so only by going through my solicitor.

Building & contents - best to use Mileniun-Levante as mentioned by chesneyville
Life insurance - I am more than covered on UK policy and this was accepted after the first year and contact from my solicitor. Bancaja was taking 850 euro's per year just to cover mortgage on one life, when in the UK I'm paying just under £300 p/yr to cover two lives on a figure that would cover mortgage almost twice.