Legalities for handing back properties in Spain 2013

 Hi, my Mother and I purchase a property some 7 years ago almost, I lived in Spain for a while but returned to UK after a great job offer.  We now want to sell the property but know it will be very hard, there is approx 30-50k profit in the property currently.

We are stuggling to make the high repayments, 3 times what we first were paying and both have UK properties with mortgages on, what would happen if we just stopped paying and sent keys back to bank legally?

We have tried to contact the bank, who simply say we do not want your property back, or ignore all emails, we have not had a response now for many months, any help is useful as we cannot continue to pay for much longer

you cant send the keys back without an agreement from the bank.

you will still be reponsible for the payments and rember the banks have all the time in the world to persue you.

but i am not a lawyer or anything. just someone who likes to give opinion.

Maybe if you tel us more about it.

What dd you pay for it?

how much is the mortgage?

how much do you owe on it?

how much cash did you put into it?

what is the current price of propertys sellign round it?

someone may take over your mortgage if all is good because people are looking for opportunity and this wayyou get to walk away from the debt.

You have answered your own question really, you say you have about 30-50k profit in your property and are struggling with the monthly payments. Could you drop the price of the house by the profit you have, hopefully sell it because it's so much cheaper then, pay of the outstanding balance, then every monthly payment saved is profit.

The estate agent who sold my house in Nov 2012 told me...and i believe her...all her staff, and her, are buying up houses rather then keeping money in the bank, short term it is a problem, but as we all know life tends to go in a circle.

Back a few years i knew quite a few who just handed back the keys and the banks took them with joy because they sold them on at a profit, then the house problem started in Spain and everyone thought they would hand them back, and now the banks cant sell them either.

I bet the banks get a good few hundred asking to hand back the keys every week now.

 A new Law is coming where Banks need to accept your offers at much more favourable conditions for the mortgage holder.

Legal tip 892. Dation and balance VII . Out of Court sales-auctions 
25 January 2013 @ 12:44 

 Thanks all for your comments, will try again to get in touch with the bank, they just seem to ignore our emails or calls, as we are both in UK now very hard to make contact with them, we may have to go over and visit I guess soon to sort it out

You may need the help of a lawyer

 I am sure we will, just finding the extra money to pay a lawyer is even more difficult currently, am I right in thinking if we find a suitable buyer that is willing to pay 70% of the current market value, the bank may agree to transfer the mortgage to them? (we are not clear what the market value is currently though, or the taxes involved in selling a property in Spain)

You say (we are not clear what the market value is currently though, or the taxes involved in selling a property)  yet you say  there is approx 30-50k profit in the property currently  ????

 Yes this is just an estimation, based on what other properties are being marketed at in that area, it was previously valued at a lot more obviously, this is the min we would expect to have as equity/sell the property for (if we had a buyer which is the hard bit of course) thanks

Oh an have been told various amounts for taxes when not repurchasing in Spain, so we need to have this amount confirmed, believe is a percentage of the value or profit made (which will be no profit the way it looks, if we manage to sell) if you know what the selling fees would be do share please

the propertys being marketed or sold?

there is a large gap between the two

 Unsure as we do not live there, so only research currently is on internet, so can only look at what other people are marketing their properties for and what agents "claim" they have sold for, but then this is not confirmed

Really need info on selling taxes and fees now thanks, if you can help with this