Selling Apartment in Almeria for Elderly Aunt(Spanish residing in UK)

Hi Gary and Lisa,

1. You have power-of-attorney for your aunt;s affairs in Spain.

2. You need a solicitor to represent you (+ your aunt) immediately in the sale of the house. This forum supplies the names of good solicitors in another thread. But, for the city of Almeria you'd probably need recommendations.

3. You need a locksmith. Google "cerrajero Almeria" and you will find a good one and likely below the cost for similiar service in the UK. It's likely you'll find an English speaking one. 

4. I cannot recommend an estate agent in Almeria city to handle the sale of the property if you are not selling privately. Property sales have picked up in recent years and I think this is a good time for sellers and prospective buyers. 

You have an intensive project ahead of you. I recommend you start immediately.as in now. The quicker you get the property on the market, the quicker it is likely to sell.

Collect all documentation together as needed for sale of property.

You will need to bring with you all the documentation relating to the apartment Deeds (escritoire) a recent EPC, a copy of the LPA, a Nota Simply in fact any and all paper work relating to the apartment, because what looks like to you a scrap of paper could be the very thing the lawyer needs, the Spanish are hot on documentation and will give you 100 sheets where one would do. You will probably need a copy of your aunts passport and NIE.   Also to save you travelling back and forth you could make your lawyer POA.  Good Luck

Definitely grant power to attorney to your lawyer (obviously make sure they're trustworthy first, through reviews etc). We did this after making an offer on a property last December, leaving our lawyer to it and just collecting the keys from them on our next visit in March this year. Through this our lawyer was able to set up bank accounts, transfer service accounts etc in our absence so it would presumably also allow your lawyer to cancel all those things. Good luck. 

Is the power of attorney different to an LPA. 

Bit confused on that point. 

How do I obtain an EPC? 

I am trying to optain the deeds but unsure where they are located at the moment. Aunty is in her 80s and not been in Spain for several years. I'm hoping here property management company may know as they where in involved in the purchase originally I believe 

Your wife would need to use her LPA to grant the Spanish lawyer power of attorney in relation to the sale (I think!). 

Another question re solicitors. I'm hoping to use a multi lingual estate agents. I have found one I like.

Would the estate agent be a good place to get a solicitor, similar to when I've sold in the UK.

I may pay a bit more, but not much,but communication is normally better if agent already has a relationship with the agent Ive found

We had instructed a solicitor recommended on this forum, which our estate agent then confirmed as a good choice as he already had a relationship with her. Online reviews and recommendations might be a good place to start. 

A good solicitor should be able to hold your hand through the whole process, which is what we found so helpful and reassuring. Our solicitor was Spanish with decent English and had a British secretary, who was amazing, which was an effective combo!