Minimum Value Letter Received Today - Any Advice?

so i was way off there

"But looking at the house problems in Spain and it seems to me (perhaps it's only me) but the many that don't sell are high rise apartments or in not so nice positions,"

not always

but pretty frequently and the majority.

seafront propertys dont hang about on the market for long or come into the reposessions market because they are desirabale and rentable for really good prices which cover the mortgage just from a few summer months.

there is a ton of `golf` propertys or second rate ones not by the sea that just dont shift.

so based on my limited decade of knowledge of the housing market in spain.
Always buy seafront if you ever want to rent it out or sell it.

Funny you mention golf properties because one we looked at was right on the edge of a golf course, we don't play golf, but the house was smashing, and the agent and builder knew it, but their was nothing around it, no shops, little transport, out of the way, inland a bit, the price was fixed to the fact that it was on top of the course, which if the course went bust you live next to a field, and now having had a nose around last November many were neglected and empty with sale signs up, which is a shame because i suspect that many may have lost a packet, might just have been the one section / area though.

It's hard to give advice to folk over buying houses in Spain because like i said about the people who bought the top floor apartment, the same folk i bet back home you wouldn't get them into a tower block for love nor money.

But dont the builders posters look good about the apartments he will build......shame he took your money and forget to build them.  

 Excellent last few posts, and agree with everything you both say. 

Going back to the issue of the tax department imposing extra tax on property purchases where they believe the sale (declared) price was too low, and whether or not to fight it  (apparently ths situation is affecting a lot of bank repos that are flogged off at rock bottom prices) -

If what Bobaol says is true, about simply making an extra trip to the notary to clarify things, then fair enough, but I wonder why nobody has actually taken the govt. to court over this yet? It is surely totally illegal. Transfer tax is set by law at 8% of the sale price. How can the tax dept. then just say they are going to charge more tax based on a hunch? This is exactly the same as if you bought a sweater half price in the sales, and the tax dept. then write to you demanding the VAT on the other half you didn't pay. Nobody would accept that, so why with property? 

If they want to levy tax based on an assumed market value calculated at 2.5x valor catastral, then they should be honest about it. Instead of 8% of the sale price, why not simply charge 20% of the valor catastral? Then everyone would know exactly where they stand, because the VC is down in black and white and not subject to market forces, which this dictatorship of a govt. seems determined not to recognise. For example, increasing IVA on new builds to 10%  . Perfect way to put the final nail in the coffin of a defunct property market. 

 Hi, Roberto.

You say that Transfer Tax is set by Law at 8% of the sale price.  This is not correct.  Transfer Tax is set by Law at 8% of the "real value" of the property.  There is no legal definition of real value but the generally accepted principle is that it is close to market value.

Due to the fact that traditionally quite a number of property transfers were underdeclared, the tax authorities came up with a list of criteria for determining real value that was applied for many years with no major problems because quite often the resulting "real value" was still under the real price paid for the property or very close to it.

The problem now is that with the declining values of properties in Spain, the criteria used by the tax authorities have become obsolete.  Naturally, the re-valuation assessments being sent to purchasers can be challenged first before the authorities and before the courts but the latter can be costly, is time consuming and often purchasers just don't bother because there is no guaranteed success even after all the cost and hassle.   

Quite possibly if the underreporting of purchase prices were to disappear, the Transfer Tax could then be set at 8% of the sale price but until that happens, I am afraid situations like this will come up every day and purchasers need to decide whether they have enough good evidence to show that the price they paid is the real value of the property at the time of purchase or else pay the additional assessment and get on with life.  In the situation described in this thread, I would certainly pay the assessment and enjoy my holidays.

 I read elsewhere about these valuations that were using buying prices out of date and higher. I also read that the majority of appeals were successfull, but there was a short window in which to appeal