15 Sep 2022 10:41 AM:

Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced Short Term medical insurance provider in Spain (to cover a period of unemployment of around a month)?

 

Ta

Thread: Short term medical insurance policies in Spain

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16 Oct 2019 3:47 PM:

Hi,

I have been given an offer, in principle, to work for an overseas company (also based within the EU) from Spain. However, they are unable (or more specifically, unwilling) to offer me the position as an employee, but on a contract basis.

So my question is, as this would be my sole source of income, is there be a "legal" way to achieve this arrangement as an autonomo (either as a regular Autonomo or a TRADE autonomo)?

The other option would be to set up a company here, but there's no way I want to go down that route just yet.

Thread: Contracting for overseas employer as Autonomo

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03 Oct 2018 11:59 AM:

Thank you for your replies, and to you too Maria for your post.

Actually we didn’t use the services of a lawyer when purchasing the house, so the mortgage contract was never reviewed externally. The quotes we received from the lawyers we contacted were fairly extortionate in comparison with the price of the property. Most were around 4-5% of the price (i.e. quite a bit more than the illegal mortgage fees), and my experience of lawyers here in Spain has been somewhat of an “eye-opener”. I’ve unfortunately had the pleasure of experiencing lawyers openly recommending high-risk, illegal tax avoidance schemes, not turning up to pre-arranged meetings (or turning up very late), and blaming clients for their mistakes etc.

Now, before anyone jumps in and says “well, if you take that kind of risk by not hiring professionals, you get what you deserve”, we didn’t purchase the property blindly or naively. We had a full independent survey of the property carried out (something a lawyer will also do, but charge several times the price). We checked that the building had all it’s licences, had no debts and checked that everything appeared correctly on the catastro (and that it matched what was in the escritura). In addition, we also knew the previous owners, and several other people living on the urbanisation. So all things considered, in our opinion anyway, it was low risk (at least as far as property purchases in Spain go). Also, we had factored in the fact that there might be unexpected expenses that we might have to cover (such as these fees). 

It’s very frustrating that there doesn’t seem to be a consistent legal precedent that cover exactly what fees can be claimed (it sounds like different regions/courts have interpreted this ruling differently), and it’s infuriating that the banks are still using the fact that the system is fundamentally broken to pass on their financial responsibilities to their clients.

Thread: Illegal bank fees when taking out a mortgage

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01 Oct 2018 2:02 PM:

Earlier this year I took out a mortgage on a home from a well-known Spanish bank.

As part of this mortgage, there were several other fees that we got landed with (Notario fees, mortgage taxes etc).

However, since taking out this mortgage, I have found out that possibly some of these fees should have been covered by the bank, rather than myself. I have also found out that my bank have been offering "refunds" of some (i.e. around a third) of this amount to clients who request it without too much hassle - as long as they sign an agreement promising no further action will be taken against them.

For several reasons (mostly cost) I am not looking to hire a lawyer and force this through the courts. However, I would like to pressure this bank into returning all the monies that they are required to (not only a small part).

So my question is, does anyone know:

1) Exactly what items are illegal to charge for when setting up a mortgage (I am pretty certain the Notario mortgage fees can be claimed, but I'm not sure about the rest)?
2) Does anyone know of any court precedents either nationally, or in Andalucia that I can quote? 
3) Is there an equivilent of the financial ombudsman in Spain?

Thanks in advance

Thread: Illegal bank fees when taking out a mortgage

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26 Mar 2018 6:16 PM:

I am planning to buy a house in Spain with my partner. We've found somewhere we really like the look of, and would really like to make an offer. 

However, before we do so, we'd like to cover ourselves as much as possible (given the number of horror stories we've read).

My partner thinks that the (Spanish) bank will do a full survey as part of the mortgage agreement (which we'll have to pay several hundred euros for), however with this amount of money I'd need to be 100% sure. 

Another thing I noticed after taking a look at the catastro website, is it although the house and the land themselves are there and all officially registered (which is the main thing), there is a very small outhouse/shed (of a few square meters) which looks like it hasn't been registered properly. Personally I'd be happy to just knock it down if anyone raised an issue with it, but obviously I'm worried that if we bought it we could also be liable for some kind of hefty fine somewhere down the line for illegal construction.

Thread: Advice on Buying a property

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