How can i trace the previous owners of our apartment?

They cannot search by address of the property.

Am  looking for ideas please as to how to trace the previous owners.

The complex is 28 years old

We have it 10 and the previous people 6 so there could be multiple previous owners.

The ideas  that occur to me:
Community Administrators for the complex.
Older residents in the complex.
The lawyer who acted for the person who sold it to us.

Does the place where the Nota Simple is generated keep a historical record of property owners

Would the town hall help?

Thanks

I think that the Property Registry Office of the town hall should have the records going back  ?  years

Aak for a NOTA SIMPLE EXTENSA in the corresponding Land Registri, which will relate to you the whole story of the plot/property

Maria,

Many thanks.

Can anyone do this for me?

I am in Ireland and as there is a hoilday in Calahonda tomorrow and we want to close the sale on 20th Dec can I ask a neighbour to go in and ask?

C

Application for this needs to be done at the Land Registry ( there is online service) and needs to be done in written. Yes, a neighbour can go an apply on your behalf

Maria,

As some illegal properties have not been correctly shown on the Land Registry, how can a purchaser be sure of legality?

"The seller who signs the public deeds of purchase without FOL is in breach of contract, even if the house has been physically handed over, because the ownership rights that he is transmitting are not valid for the use of the house until the FOL is granted"..... "the buyer must not occupy the house, even when having been formally handed over, because that would involve an administrative infringement and because he can be deprived of its use by the competent administration".

Likewise, where contructors' original mortgages were not paid off (and in some cases these mortgages were illegally extended)  and Banks have subsequently retrospectively demanded monies for developers' unpaid mortgages, even when purchasers have paid in full for their property, how can the purchaser (and previous owner(s) ) accurately check and be protected from these eventualities?

Could this retrospective scenario also apply to other previous mortgages that remain unpaid?

For those of us not up to speed on Spainsh anagrams FOL in the post below is : First Occupation License or

Licence Of First Occupation And Completion

But for those living in Spain :

Licencia de Primera Ocupación (sometimes referred to as a ‘Certificado de Habitacion’ or ‘Cedula´)

The solicitor that made this mistake..Suppose they have gone bust then, thats why you haven't told them to sort it out?

As you only have 10 days left to complete on your sale isn't the best move to do is to go out to Spain and sort this Nota problem out yourself rather then let a neighbour do it, for fear of yet another mistake, surely that way you can be in charge of whats going on.

I must be well wrong on this but I have been under the understanding that in Spain all loans are secured  against your house, if that is correct...Which now seems perhaps not to be....How come the Abbey National haven't got in touch before, and either, asked for payment or at least who did you buy it from, after all you have owned it for 10 years.

Does the Nota Simple Extensa show details of Banking/mortgage details and any debts due on that property?

If not, where in the current property administration system can these essential details be swiftly and accurately ascertained?

Is the current administration system failing in this regard?

Baz  .How come the Abbey National haven't got in touch before, and either, asked for payment or at least who did you buy it from, after all you have owned it for 10 years.

Just in passing. My son bought a property on a mortgage ten years ago. After a couple of years he paid off the sum but he still has not removed the note of the debt on the Property Registry records. (There is a fairly heavy charge for doing it). 

Just because it would be shown on a new Nota Simple, of course does not mean the debt is still outstanding.  If my son were going to sell we get the inscription removed

Ads, we posted at the same time.  The Nota Simple will show the debt if it has not been officially cancelled / paid off.

This places even more insecurity on the administrative process!!........ are there no COMPULSORY obligations on the sale/purchase of a property to eradicate these complexities, that sadly have the potential to be abused?

Does the Nota Simple Extensa show details of Banking/mortgage details and any debts due on that property?

If not, where in the current property administration system can these essential details be swiftly and accurately ascertained?

Is the current administration system failing in this regard?

Their has to be the correct and legal way of finding out if a house you buy has "ANY" debts left over on it by your own good solicitor, I have always been told every house I have bought is debt free by my solicitor, and never had any problems when selling them.

We bought a villa 9 years ago and our escritura showed that there were no debts or mortgage on the property. However, 2 years later we used another abogado to arrange permission for a pool. She informed us that the official documents, lodged in Almeria, still showed an outstanding mortgage. She explained that it was the  responsibility of the vendor to inform all relevant authorites when a debt had been repaid and usually the purchasers' abogado reatined some of the monies until this was done. Ours didn't so the vendor didn't bother.

It took us a trip to the notary, a fee of 115 euros plus the abogado's fee to get it sorted. The official looking document we have is titled 'Escritura publica de carta de pago otorgada por Caja de Ahorros del Mediterraneo'.

A debt can be registered against a property and if so it will be shown on the Nota Simple.  However, it is also possible there is a debt which has not been registered.  When the Notary deals with the transfer he/she will have obtained a Nota within 24 hours before the signing to ensure that no registered outstanding debts remain.

I made a loan of 30,000  euros on a property but I did not register it. The property was subsequently sold to an Englishman.  When I discovered the sale I approached the Notary who dealt the exchange.  He gave me a copy of the new escritura and said he would start proceedings to recover the debt from the new owner, albeit that the new owner had not been aware of the debt. I was able to ‘get around’ the problem and the original borrower repaid me.

You use the term "good solicitor"...... the trouble is that for those who remain in ignorant bliss of who a good solicitor is, and without any respected accreditation scheme(s) in place, or perceived accountability to date by those within the legal profession who have been legally negligent/corrupt/failed to demonstrate due diligence, the innocent consumer increasingly has to rely upon a competent and accurate administrative system, effective regulation and where applicable adherence to existing laws and consumer rights (including inalienable rights) and timely law enforcement..... the jury's still out on that I'm afraid (pun intended! ).

Yes, and I don't use the words "Good Solicitor" lightly, all I can do is go by what I assume is one, the one I have used for everything.

I agree fully with you about some sort of governing body to oversee everything that Spain does about the  legal implications of house sales, and a massive shake up is well overdue,  at the moment it seems by the problems that many are having the whole system can be worse then crap and rotten to the core.

Starting from the top going down to the bottom.

But looking at it another way, why should Spain do anything? The bodies in power seem as bent as everyone else so why change something that benefits you, to something that wont. For all we know with people still buying houses this is still ongoing.

No easy answer....Yet.

Baz  .................................. at the moment it seems by the problems that many are having the whole system can be worse then crap and rotten to the core

I would not agree completely, there are of course problems but the whole system of buying and selling is more straightforward in Spain than in UK. 

 In Spain I have bought 9 properties and sold 6 so far, all without needing to employ a solicitor, which I appreciate,  as I too think  'Good Solicitors' are hard to find, and that’s with 30 years professional experience dealing with them.

  I never attempted to buy or sell property in UK without a solicitor.

I have never had one problem with buying or selling in Spain, not one, and I have used the same solicitors with every purchase and sale,  I do agree that the system is superior to that of the UK in as much as the worst bit..Apart from them dragging it out bit.... Of the UK is folk can, and will back out up to the last moment.  But as I said no problems in Spain so for me it's been all good.

But even you have to agree that when you read of the ongoing problems that some have it can make you think that there are still so many scams and corrupt things going on with house sales / purchase's, no legal comebacks  in Spain.

I have bought 3 houses, and sold them in the UK with no solicitor and all went as planned, I even bought one with the people the solicitors hate, no problems,  my last house I bought through a "Well known big  solicitor"  he let me buy it....I am pretty sure of...…Knowing the builder didn't own the land it was built on,  and it took me 6 to 8 months to sort it out on my own.

I have no doubt that many of peoples problems arise through buying off-plan, coughing up large deposits,  and of course trusting who you thing are honest and genuine, and those loverly pictures of what it wont look like.....And before anyone jumps on me...I am not suggesting this is the case in question.

Mmmm.... it's not just offplan problems, what of the hundreds of thousands of existing owners compromised by retrospective action relating to the Costa Ley Laws and illegal builds? All unsuspecting "pawns" in ongoing disputes between local and regional authorities.

It's all these aspects relating to legal uncertainty, questionable administrative "competence", retrospective actions, lack of regulation of the Banks, inconsistent rulings etc that continue to compromise, and the sooner these uncertainties are adequately addressed by the Spanish Authorities, the better for ALL.