Villa in Spain
We bought a villa 2 years ago in Andalusia, Chercos, a lovely villa in a very nice area close to the pretty town of Chercos, 15 minutes from Machael the area famous for the marble. We used a recommended local solicitor who assured us the villa although built on Rustic land was perfectly legal, several times we asked him if it was ok to go ahead with the purchase. Once we had paid his bill and tax we asked for the deeds (escritura) however he said that there was a problem, the land the villa was built on was still in the builders name and the plot had to be segregated, this was not mentioned before, when we got architects involved they said that it was not possible to segregate the land as it was Rustic land.
We sacked the solicitor and tried to sort it ourselves but found it difficult as we don't speak Spanish so employed an interpreter who accompanied us to several meetings with architects. Out of frustration we employed another solicitor recommended by the interpreter who at first seemed to know what we were up against and now eventually we have got the land segregation and registered at the Cadastro in Almeria .
Now we want to sell the villa, it turns out the villa was never given a habitation license, the paperwork we had turned out to be mainly false.
Absolute mine field, cost so far in fees 10,000€ still not finished.
Lost all faith in Spanish solicitors, my advice to anyone thinking of buying a property in Spain is simply DONT.
Sorry to be so negative but it has been for us and still is a very traumatic experience, you put your trust and money in professional advice and just get screwed.