Is the drawing of the land on the escritura verbally changeable?

We are now putting our finca up for sale. My questions is:
Is the drawing of the land as shown on the escritura legally binding? So does it hold if there was a verbally agreed swop of a small piece of land with the owners of the bordering land?
Or do we have to stick to what is on the escritura?
Just to add, we would prefer to stick with what is on the escritura as we only did a land swap to help our neighbouring farmer. However, now we want to sell, we don't want to have to pay for a new escritura.
 

Hello again Coleen,

This is a potential problem and you really do need to be prepared to spend some money to sort it.  I'm not vaguely qualified to answer your query,  possibly no-one else on EOS is either. 

You've got to think that the details in the escitura will take precedence to a verbal agreement between you and your neighbour.

So before you sell your place you might try formalising the change you want with the farmer/neighbour - effectively a "sale", possibly with a notional amount of cash changing hands, so that the boundary is legally aligned with whatever you desire, before your actual sale. 

That might work but for sure you do need to spend some money on good professional advice to avoid a "can of worms" creation.

Regards

Hello Coleen

What do you think the purpose of an escritura is?

Hello Kavanagh,
Thank you for your comment and I take in what you say. However, I was trying to keep my question as simple as possible but there is a bit more to it.
When we were buying the finca, the owner demostrated with an arm where land we were to buy finished. Naively we didn't get it measured and staked out because the land was overgrown.
Nor could we use an aerial photo as they weren't common 21 years ago we bought the finca.
So the situation is that although the drawing of the land is on the escritura, the pajero that lies on the land is only shown on an aerial photo. We didn't really expect that to be included because according to where the owner showed us, it wasn't on the land we were buying.
However, now we have the aerial photo from the Ayuntamento, we can see that the pajero is on our land, the land being what is on the escritura.
We have approached this with the owner but he says he's not interested because he had demostrated with his arm where our land began and ended.

However we now have an aerial photo

Hello Coleen

It is not possible for any EOS member to make a legally enforceable judgment on your situation. No member of EOS is a high court Spanish judge. As already stated you should engage the services of a competent Spanish lawyer, or alternatively the citizen’s advice bureau or the Samaritans.  

Thank you.

 I hadn't considered contacting the citizen’s advice bureau or the Samaritans so that's a very helpful thought. I really don't want to fall out with the people involved, so I have to think about if it's worth it. 
What is certainly worth it is to get a land surveyor before purchasing a place with land.

Coleen, surely you need to give your neighbour a copy of the info you've obtained - and put the ball in his court!

Hi there, many thanks for your suggestion.
However, I already sent a WhatsApp to the previoius owner and told him that as we were going to put the finca on the market, we needed to go over the escritura as there was a discrepency.
So we sat round the kitchen table and showed him the aerial photo with the pajero included on our piece of land. The outcome was that he waved it away with his hand.
One thing that I can imagine is that he would say if he was including the pajero in the sale, he would have asked for more.
Our estate agent has offered to have a talk with him, although I've yet to ask the previous owner to agree to that.

It sounds like you have an unreasonable neighbour - a guy who will argue black is white until he's blue in the face?  Involving the estate agent sounds good and perhaps a few more folk to gently wear him down.  Good luck!

Here are some additional points to consider:

• If the neighboring farmer encroached on your land and built structures or made permanent improvements based on the verbal agreement, their actions might be considered evidence in court. However, even in such cases, the legal outcome remains uncertain and costly to pursue.
• It's important to disclose any potential land discrepancies to potential buyers during the sale process, even if you decide not to pursue legal action regarding the swap. This ensures transparency and avoids future disputes.

Remember, this is not legal advice, and you should always consult with a qualified professional for guidance specific to your situation.

Geometry Dash

That's all good advice - the only uncertainty I have is the comment about "...always consulting with a qualified professional for guidance"...joking apart, there aren't as many as you expect, in Spain there are different rules and apparently you can be boss of a firm of lawyers without holding any legal qualification...caveato emptoro!