Solicitors in the area - Page 5

Many thanks Louise, I will pass this suggestion on and keep the forum posted with any progression.

Best

Dave

Hi All,

Well we pulled out of the purchase under the recommendation of our solicitor. Two different insurance policies were discussed, both of which were nowhere near enough protection.

It was put up again for sale by Almeria Homes and has been under offer for months now. Looking at Almeria Homes website they have again not bothered to mention any of the issues with this property in their description! Unbelievable.  

D

Hi, 

Sorry to hear that you have had to pull out, i know how disappointing it is to lose a house you have set your heart on through no fault of your own and also how hard it is to find something else you like, but better to be safe than sorry. 

We offered on a  property last September and were told by the agent that the paperwork was in order, we knew there were some problems, i.e the solar system, taps, radiators etc needed to be reinstalled as they had been removed but were happy to proceed on that basis provided there were no other problems, which the agent assured us there werent! It was only after engaging a solicitor and them drawing up a contract, that we found out the paperwork was not in order, work had been undertaken without permission and the owner refused to allow an Architect to visit the property to detail what was now there in order to rectify the situation and wanted us to sign a contract that mirrored the one they had signed when they bought it, dsspite the property being significantly different now - the property was also on protected land and therefore the risks were too great for us to continue with the purchase, but by this point we had incurred solicitors costs!

 It is wrong that the agents are not honest and buyers can end up spending money that is basically not going to necessarily lead them anywhere. Very unprofessional. Our solicitor was also disgusted with the behaviour of the agent.

 We saw the property re advertised on A Place in the Suns website so we raised a complaint on their site, detailed what we had been through and said we didnt want anyone else to lose money as a result of agents and sellers not being honest. They removed the property from their site and we both wrote to the agent. The agent did try to deny it was one of their properties to begin with but ultimately also removed it from their website. 

If the property you were interested in is listed on any of the main property websites, i.e Kyero, Idealista, Think Spain, A Place in the Sun, you can raise a complaint about the advertisement being inaccurate and they may remove it and take it up with the agent, who may also remove it from their listings as invariably they want to be able to continue to list their properties on these sites. This might help to protect other buyers.

 Obviously it doesn't help the poor owners who have got caught in a change to the system from when they bought the property and did the work. In a lot of cases some of these owners are stuck. Did you incur costs?

We have since offered on another property, again were told all the paperwork was in order but again discovered this was not the case when our solicitor started to process the purchase. The seller however appears willing to rectify matters and cover associated costs so we are keeping our fingers crossed.

Unfortunately we have learnt that you cant really trust what anyone says which is a liitle disappointing and we have started to wonder if someone is trying to tell us that Spain isnt for us, if this one doesn't work out we may well decide not to bother. 

Hope you find something else to your liking.

L

Hi Louise,

Oh No! That sounds awful and such a let down.

We have thankfully now purchased as of last week but we have also incurred solicitors costs for the property that fell through of around 600 euros which I intend to go after that agent and was also going to contact Place in the Sun as I'm sure it was in there but even if it wasn't they certainly advertise with them.

You are so right why should the unsuspecting buyer have to pay for the underhandedness of the agent.

I hope you are successful soon, I wish you lots of luck.

D

A couple of years or so ago my partner had found the perfect property to suit our needs in Piedra Ameria (Partaloa) but I was in the UK.  Anyway the agent from Albox said the property was all in order with paperwork. Eventually I got back to Spain and obviously wanted to see the property in the flesh so the agent took us out and whilst on the drive there I asked many questions especially regarding the property being legal and had it got all the paperwork as had read up on illegal properties and the agent said they would not have it on their books if not legal.  Well all seemed good, partner decided to go for it, had to wait for tenants to move out but owner said we could move our property and lock in some outbuildings which we did.  Tenants were not happy as they were cultivating cannabis and didn't like us on the property.  Then as our solicitor proceeded with the process we were told there was no paperwork at all just a scrappy hand written piece of paper so the property and neighbouring ones were not legal.  They may be able to be made legal one day but could be years.  Same agent recommended money transfer company too and their rep was iffy, money in the account disappeared and we were lied to and the agent supported the rep who happened to visit their office one day so we caught up with him and got it sorted no thanks to the agent.  We of course baked out of the sale but due to tenants and bitter owner we had a lot of belongings stolen before we could move the stuff out plus partner was threatened and forced to hand over "rent" (cash) for storing our stuff.  Police/courts are involved but slow process over here and Covid has not helped.

Hi,

So sorry to hear about what you have also gone through. It is worrying as long term how do you trust anyone there, i.e workmen etc, are they professional or just after making a quick buck! You must have been very upset. 

What is disappointing is a lot of the agents are English and you would expect them to be more honest, but unfortunately we have found that most of them are the same. You would think that Spain would do something more to govern the agents, as ultimately its Spain that gets the bad reputation.

Only one agent that we viewed properties with would not take on or advertise properties that did not have the legal paperwork in place and therefore you would not have such problems, but their area as a result is quite specific and didnt have anything we really liked.

Most people moving from the UK to Spain just want a quiet life,not to start one with this kind of hassle. We ae seriously asking if this dream is really worth it. 

All the best for the future 

L

The dream is worth it and the agent was English/British.  They also collude with each other.  All I can say is that I trust some Brit agents to a degree, wary of Brit builders, found Spanish workmen to be more trustworthy and solicitors are good and bad so to sum up go with your gut feeling, change solicitors if not doing their job properly, ask many questions and to see papers as agents are supposed to have proof after 7 days of listing a property but this is often not adhered to!  I would not move back to the UK, Spain is a lovely country.

Hi All,

Just an update to our situation re an AFO, we have now been told by Lawyer (Mercedes) and an estate agent Spanish Property Choice, that we need a FO. not an AFO but a FO!!!!.. This FO is apparently the piece of paper that you need to say your property is exempt from an AFO. So According to the lawyer this is now being put in place, we haven't actually received it yet, because the excuse is everything is taking longer because of Covid. We have been waiting 2 months now. So I will let you know if/when we receive it. As far as I am concerned all this should have been in place BEFORE we bought the house, but neither the lawyer or Almeria Homes mentioned a thing.

Hi,

So pleased to hear that hopefully you have found what you actually need to move forward and fingers crossed this resolves the problem.

I would agree with you that this should all have been in place before you bought the house, and is disappointing that neither the lawyer nor Almeria Homes mentioned this or sort to resove the matter for you, and once again, you as the innocent party has incurred the costs to rectify the matter and the stress of having to find a way through.

Fingers crossed for you that the FO is issued sooner rather than later. 

L

Well the good news Louise is that the lawyer is footing the bill for this, as we made it perfectly clear it was totally down to her.

Have a good day