bfg69bug

ok..so we moved.. we sold our house and moved out. "book" price was 180,000€. we took an offer of 172,500€. the estate agent made some 15 / 20,000€ comission..but hey, thats up to the buyers.

thing is..we (my parents, i had nothing to do with the money), bought another house, at 142,500€ now..everyone says WOW..u made 30,000€ profit !!! unfortunatly not so. we actually made -minus 6,000€ :scared: how that worked out i will never know!!!

can anyone tell me where 36,000€ went on a house sale? the lawyer was 2,400€. the comission on the house we bought was 7,500€. thats only 9,900€. spanish will´s for my parents were 400€ each. A new car was 1700€. Where is the other 23,600€ ?? where has it gone? is it possible to pay that much profit tax? the profit that we made on the house in 5 years was considerable, but not extorsionate...where has it gone wrong? how can buying a house cost 36,000€???

anyone got any ideas ? can we claim any of it back when my parents residency comes thru? (its in the post )

Dolphingirl

Get your lawyer to give you a breakdown, mine did, in fact i actually got €9000 back from my lawyer.for over paying. I am also a non resident.

sibsie

Good news is that you can claim back a lot of the money. All costs involved in selling, including the agents fees can be claimed. You have to have paid plus valia but that's pretty cheap. Get receipts for absolutely everything. Any structural improvements to the house can be claimed back too. If you bought another place in Spain you can claim back the CGT.

You do need to speak to a competant lawyer and it does take around a year to get the money back. You don't need to be a resident to do it. The notary should have explained it to you on the day.

Dolphingirl

I got mine within 3 months of buying, but I was a buyer didn't sell anything first, so may make a difference..Gave me the money when i got my deeds.

sibsie

When you sell it's a bit of a palava. You actually have to apply to pay CGT as the retention at the notary isn't CGT, just a retention of the selling price at 5% and not the declared profit.

The biggest prob I had was the agent not giving me a receipt for the commission. He wasn't paying tax on it so he didn't want to give me anything to show I'd paid. My lawyer's still hassling him over it 6 months on!

It's not the most straightforward system in the world!

ttbr2004

Can I just ask Dolphingirl, did you ask your lawyer for a breakdown or did he just send you one.

The reason I am asking is because we are in the process of purchasing a property, we sign the title deeds in ten days. I just wondered what I needed to do next?

Thanks.

Dolphingirl

I orginally asked, but I think they give it as part of the service. The lawyer came recommended and since have found a number of expats use them. If you are purchasing down this way if you want their details I'll pm you them. If the money is coming from the UK, you will want to be able to verify where the money has gone, because you don't want to be accused of money laundering as UK are really tighening up to know where cash is going. It is why I insisted on a receipt.

Sibs, know what you mean about real estate agents, she wanted me to pay the oommision on the property not the seller. But she made a mistake on the contract and I spotted it, so she got zilch from me in the end. Myold car mechanic likes to be paid cash and getting a receipt or details of work carried out is a nightmare. Now go to a main Spanish dealer, once we get over the understanding that the car is to be fixed whatever the problem and not there for a 3 weel holiday we get on fine. D and I get all my receipts.

ttbr2004

Thank you Dolphingirl, I would like to know who they are. We are using a company called Manzares who are in Marbella who appear to be very efficient at the moment, but just in case I would like to know of another firm. We are purchasing just down from Marbella in Estepona.

Dolphingirl

Firm is called Aquera & Arrebola they have an office in Fuengirola. (over the bus station and next door to the notary)

The one I initially dealt with is called Tomas Aquera Henz, speaks quite a few languages, is well thought of. Not someone you would walk over anyway. They looked after me anyway.

~Tel 952 460177
email [email protected]

Best of luck with your purchase.


PS if you haven't a bank, found Sol Bank very helpful also they also went out on a limb for me and I wasn't borrowing any money from them.

bfg69bug

found out today that 15,000€ (ish) of the missing monies went to the bank,well, UCI, the mortgage lenders to pay off the mortgage as we couldn´t transfer it

that accounts for a big chunk of it, but still leaves about 8,000€ ?

i might look into that breakdown thing, see if i can get anything back

ttbr2004

Thanks thats really kind of you. I have made a note of both of them, just in case.

We currently have two banks, Santander and Cajasur, one we opened and another the solicitors opened on our behalf for our direct debits. Obviously we have to sort this out because we will be getting two lots of charges. We know nothing about banks in Spain so its great to be recommended one.