Lawyer required

Can anyone recommend a reliable lawer for purchasing a property in the Costa Calida area, we have read that not always best to use the one associated with an Estate agent.

Again any help much appreciated.

thanks

Hi  I am using a solicitor at the moment who I have used before, and I am glad I am using him again because the contract the bank have given for me to agree to is  staked all in the bank favour, which he will not agree to, so the contracts are being redone, if your are buying a bank owned property don't think things will be right, the bank are the worst people to buy from, and it's not just the contract the solicitor is not happy with.Do NOT use a solicitor who the agent tells you is very good, 1 you will pay over the odds because the agent will be getting some thing from it. I am buying a property in the same area you are looking at buying, I will PM you the solicitors details.

Isn't there a 'conflict of interest' ethic built into the professional standards in Spain?

There should be no payment between any agents and lawyers for recommendations.    

Is this why we had to get English people to take on the banks with their own law!! 

Brian  Isn't there a 'conflict of interest' ethic built into the professional standards in Spain?

There should be no payment between any agents and lawyers for recommendations.    

I am sure you do think that commissions (back handers) legal and not so, are not paid both in cash and in kind,  in UK  in all sorts of business.  Why would you expect anywhere else to be any different ?

Only because I am a chartered building surveyor and it is part of our expectation, culture and overseeing bodies and we can be stopped from practicing, as can solicitors if we are involved in 'sharp practice'  

I accept estate agents and perhaps bankers are not as 'robustly monitored' and even police in my neck of the woods are getting some bad press, but it's not common practice here for professional bodies to overlook that type of thing  

If you come across examples I urge that this should be reported straight away to the professional bodies, or perhaps these don't exist or don't care where you are?

Be very careful chosing a Lawyer in Spain as and in my experience, most of them talk a good story but end up letting you down and charging you excesive amounts of money for doing very little.  

Get everything down in writing as to what they are going to provide for you, and try to pay them at the end of the process when you are satisfied that they have done a good job.  Don't be afraid to haggle on this.  

If you are buying off plan/property not complete yet, make sure the Lawyer collects the required Bank Guarantees for all stage payments, and request a copy of them after you have sent the payment as proof that they have got them.   If they cannot provide/dont't collect the Bank Guarantees then do not pay any more stage payments until the property is complete and you are happy with it.  

Unfortunately, we trusted a long established firm of Lawyers who are members of the Bar to collect our Bank Guarantees as they stated they would do this in our Contract, only to find out that they had not collected any guarantees and just let us continue to pay the stage payments when all was not right.   Yes we should have checked this along the way, but we are British and tend to trust Lawyers in our country when the contracts clearly state what they will provide.  

My view is that a lot of the Lawyers in Spain are massivley at fault for the huge number of innocent buyers who have lost life savings buying off plan, but trying to get Lawyers to take Lawyers to court is not going to happen, especially in Spain.  

There is a very "Bad" Lawyer in Los Alcázares so stay well away from them.   

Good Luck.  

My view is that a lot of the Lawyers in Spain are massivley at fault for the huge number of innocent buyers who have lost life savings buying off plan

Of course I am only gussing, but I suspect that most of those who have been on the wrong end of property deals had lawyers. A lot of good it did them !

I know that not all will feel confident not usimg a lawyer, but I have never used one for buying or selling in Spain, for myself nor my son and a couple of friends I have helped.  Never had any nasty surprises.

But it only tales one nasty surprise to ruin someone's life and wipe out their life savings John.  Perhaps they can come to you and discuss this when something bad happens, and you can help them out?  

Based on this logic because no one has ever burgled my house I will let people know that locks and locksmiths are not really required, it's just another top end cost we can do without.  

There are many good, honest lawyers in Spain. It is true that financial, real estate boom attracted and made the banquet of many voracious, unethical ones but....there are good lawyers.

References?: personal reference of a previous happy client is possible the best one. What do you think?

Any progress on the Bar Associations to bring these "unethical ones" to task and make them accountable via fines for their malpractices, Maria, i.e. internal regulation that would act as disincentives?

I see Bar Associations much more active now.