SELLING PROPERTY

We sold a property in La Marina in Nov'15 for nearly 50% less than we paid, €3000 was retained and was told it would be in our bank account within 9 months, have contacted agents every 3-6 months to ask what was happening and just get told we will let you know when it will be paid...meanwhile I have had to keep a bank account open in Spain, pay charges for the account, and last year the people who bought my house have sold it on, assuming they have now paid that retention too? how can town halls get away with this? To me that is a lot of money as I lost my husband 6 months ago...and after losing lots €K's on a previous new build in Murcia in Villas del Palmeral, which I never heard back from solicitors if they recovered anything? beggars belief how these things are allowed to happen :(

Firstly, the 3% retention you are referring to has nothing to do with the town hall - it should have been paid to the tax office (known as Hacienda) by the buyer, on your behalf. The agent involved may have arranged this for the buyer - but I think it's more likely it was handled by the buyer's lawyer or gestor. The retention would / should have been paid by filing a form 211. To reclaim the money you, or your representative, would have had to file a form 210, showing that no capital gain had been realised by you on the sale. Do you know who filed this on your behalf? Do you have a copy as proof that it was indeed filed - or can you ask for a copy? Does the claim have your bank account details - or your representative's, or the agent's? (You could have nominated a UK bank for payment, by the way).These repayments take a notoriously long time, and if there is any error detected on the claim, it will be delayed (indefinitely) until the error is corrected - but they are supposed to pay within 6 months of a correct claim being filed. It's pretty well impossible to find out from the tax office what the status of any claim is, but I think you need to find out who filed the claim for you - and if the tax office rejected it or requested further information for any reason. And check who the payment was going to.

Hope this helps a bit, and hope you can sort it out and eventually get your money back. Good luck.

P.S. Just realised you posted about this back in November on a thread where others had the same issue, and I and several others responded there, so it may be worth reviewing what was discussed then. 

I sold a property a couple of years ago in Murcia had the same probably something like 2 years to get the money back in  the end a paid a new solicitor to get it back, I got it within a couple a of months, i paid 300EU I think, the first solicitor had submitted the forms late, and filled the forms I wrong, so the forms where just left to rot at the tax office untill I got the new solicitor involved

Think I'm just getting so despondant on getting anything back, I trusted Barclays to do their job, but obviously now they forget the commission they got for the sale! Pretty sad that companies in Spain throw you under the bus basically (when it comes to selling) and then forget their part and not conclude it! where do you go from there? 

You are correct Roberto this matter has been entirely covered in November https://www.eyeonspain.com/forums/posts-long-19092.aspx

Some people take advice and act accordingly whereas others ignore advice and just continue with angry outbursts.

"Think I'm just getting so despondant on getting anything back, I trusted Barclays to do their job,"

Don't forget, there is no Barclays in Spain any more. They sold off all their business ot La Caixa 2 or 3 years ago.

Mark

My apologies, but I could not find the original message I wrote back in October, which is why I posted...also it was Watsons, La Marina which were our agents.

So, when you said you "trusted Barclays to do their job", did you mean Watsons? Who was supposed to submit your claim for a refund - Barclays, or Watsons? I'm a bit confused! Maybe they both thought the other would do it - maybe nobody ever did???

Yes a bit confusing, like the town hall having your money and also needing a Spanish bank account.