Any legal question on buying property in Spain? Maria answers

Ads, this is Spain,  not Utopia

It's not a third world country either.

What Ads is proposing is what a well developed country should expect, it's hardly fairy tale stuff.

Ads, this is Spain,  not Utopia

It's not a third world country either.

What Ads is proposing is what a civilized country should expect, it's hardly fairytale stuff.

1,000,000 homes illegally built.

€50,000 average deposit paid per illegal property.

€50,000,000,000 = defrauded from property purchasers.

€50 billion euros effectively stolen! I know it's only a fag packet calculation but that is a pretty staggering amount. I could be underestimating it considerably, too. I mean what about the people who had paid the full purchase price (average of €100k)?

EDIT:-

Don't know what happened with the double posts below.

Even in  Land Act of 2007 it was not clear that  Notary and Registrar must require First Occupation License to authorize / register deeds of end of works.

Notaries wrote an online guide by that time where they wondered about this requisite of the article on End of Works deeds:

b ) the documentary evidence of compliance with all requirements imposed by the legislation regulating the building to deliver it to their users

What document does this refer to? They guessed then:

Ten-years obligatory building insurance? Habitation License? Book of the building?
          
It was in 2011 , when Land Act started too mention specific obligations of Notaries and Registrars in regards to checking on Urban legalities. Then in 2013, when the articles expressly request these checks by these professionals:  

Notaries :

New building deed:
- WORK LICENSE + TECHNICAL CERTIFICATION OF PROJECT BEING SET TO LICENSE

End of Works deed: 
- TECHNICAL CERTIFICATE OF END OF WORKS + TEN YEARS INSURANCE + BOOK OF THE BUILDING + ENERGY EFFICIENCY CERTIFICATE + FIRST OCCUPATION LICENSE
 

Registrars:

They need to verify all requirements above before registering the end of works deed.

When registering finished works they need to verify very strictly on existence of any urban irregularity.

So, in short words, it is not till June 2013 that the Land Registry offers a high level of safety in regards of the planning/zonning status of houses. For all houses built adn registered before then, a good independent lawyers is necessary for verifying those aspects.

 Lets hope for all concerned then that before a new build starts the builder knows all about this and does it legally, and hope that any buyers of new house's don't do all the paperwork  / hand over money only to get to the Notaries office at the last moment to find out that even after all this the Notarie wont pass it.

Now all Spain has left to do is to stop all the destruction of existing house's, and sort out some type of compensation for those that have had it happen to them.

Fully agree baz1946: Residential tourism is and will be an important sourse of welfare to our country. We need to care.

No reply from Maria yet on this: "My question to Maria is, do potential buyers have the legal right to ask for recent community accounts and minutes of AGMs, and is this something that you would automatically request when  carrying out conveyancing work for clients?"

Am I the only one who feels this is a serious and growing problem? I think a lot of buyers are in danger of buying blindly into bankrupt communities. A lot of the "bargains" I see around here are in older buildings where, at the very least, decrepit lifts need replacing urgently (often by law). Many buyers are simply unaware of the potential ongoing costs they will encounter when "snapping up" one of these so-called bargains.

No Roberto I too am concerned about this and would be interested to hear Maria's views on the subject.

Community accounts really need to be available at an early stage rather than run up solicitors costs and arrange for money to be transferred only to find that most of the 'owners' have not paid fees for months (or longer.)

Also, in the case of Bank or Builder owned properties it would be helpful to have any outstanding fees shown on the sale details as these are just an addition to the purchase price. For properties that were repossessed years ago this could be a considerable amount. I suppose the hope is that this information will be discovered too late.

Mal

Please have answers/comments below in bold green ( same text as your email):

Roberto said: My question to Maria is, do potential buyers have the legal right to ask for recent community accounts and minutes of AGMs, and is this something that you would automatically request when  carrying out conveyancing work for clients?"

Yes, they do have that right, to be provided by the seller. Yes, we would ask for those documents to the owner.

Am I the only one who feels this is a serious and growing problem? I think a lot of buyers are in danger of buying blindly into bankrupt communities. A lot of the "bargains" I see around here are in older buildings where, at the very least, decrepit lifts need replacing urgently (often by law). Many buyers are simply unaware of the potential ongoing costs they will encounter when "snapping up" one of these so-called bargains.

Community debts need to be paid up before transmitting/acquiring the property. You know that the property inherits community debts of year of trasnmission and three years before.

Three links on Community of Owners which may be of your interest:

http://www.eyeonspain.com/blogs/costaluz/10937/Legal-tip-998-NEW-Horizontal-Property-Act-June-2013-Part-I.aspx

http://www.eyeonspain.com/blogs/costaluz/10943/Legal-tip-1001-NEW--Rules-for-Community-of-Owners-in-Spain--June-2013--Part-II.aspx 

This message was last edited by mariadecastro on 06/12/2013.

Maria,

Do you think for transparency relating to outstanding community debts (and greater consumer protection) that the community accounts and minutes of AGM's should be a compulsory provision to the legal process when purchasing a property in Spain?

If so, and given the current problems associated with consumer protection, do you know if the Bar Association (or whoever) are proposing/reviewing reform of this nature?

Also who is responsible for community debts beyond 3 years?

Hi i was reading about the ley 57 law , i purchased a property in 2006 of plan when the property was complete two years later the credit crunch had hit, we paid 149,000 euro deposit with 70% mortgage from barclays bank, the bank would only offer us a 50% mortgage so by law we were able to have our deposit returned from the developer, they said they had no money, we took them to court 2 yaers later after winning in court and 10,000 euro later our lawyer told us there was only enough money to pay the bank and spanish taxes , so we lost everything, so if the developer goes bust who gives us our money back

many thanks phil.