PRIMO

i hear so much news about people getting ripped off buying in spain, I was hoping to move out over the next few years but i see and hear that many brits have had to leave the houses as they were not built legal, What can be done to make sure every thing is 100% with the house we choose to buy ? Is there any gaurentte from the solicitor when you buy homes ? Any help would be a very big help to me. I would not like to buy a home and find out later it was not a legal home,

mikelincs

Use an independent solicitor, never the one suggested by the agent, ensure that the property has a 'license of first occupation' and check with the Spanish land registry that the property is urbano and not rural. Off plan seems to be more of a problem that a property already built and being lived in.

Fred James

There is nothing wrong with houses built on rural land if they have the right permissions.

To be safe, buy a house that is at least 20 years old and has changed hands at least once.

agoreira

Employ one of the resident experts here, they are far too smart to ever get caught out. They reckon it's only the rest that leave their brains on the aircraft. That's a lot of thick people people by their reckoning, there are many thousands of Brits that have ended up with an illegal property. Even the Priors had paperwork issued to them, but it didn't stop it being demolished. In truth, it's very much caveat emptor out there, get some good independent advice.

PRIMO

Thank you all so much for your help and advice on this matter last thing i ever wanted is to spend out money on a home that we will have to have demolished. we would have like to buy a home in the country side just outside of a town or village,

Domino

You haven't said which part of Spain you are looking at.
Some parts a better than others, as Fred says - if the property has reasonable previous sales the theory is the better it gets.

illegal properties don't usually have electricity and water - but in the middle of nowhere both are exceedingly expensive to get, so not always an indicator. However, both water and electricity have been known to be turned off if a property is found to be illegal....

once you have decided on a particular part of Spain you can google for reports on illegal properties. I remember asking agents to only offer properties that had full proveable documentation - this didn't stop them from taking me to illegals. One particular property was in the middle of a group of 150+ other properties, a look at the Catastral on-line indicated that the boundary wasn't clearly defined, the build of the property on satellite was far greater than that shown on the Catastral. Whilst it may be possible to get that resolved it could mean several years back taxation - and if you have already completed You Pay. The others were in the same situation

I used a Spanish abogado (from Valencia region IIRC) who is also a senior in a UK practice - so for him double jeapardy if he gets it wrong, and he owes you more duty of care from the latter than the former.
Spanish abogado's seem to have little or no duty of care to the person(s) paying them

PRIMO

Hi Domino
Many thanks for your reply, we have not limited our search to just one place, We breed and show dogs that is is why we wanted a place a little outside of a village or town, So no one is upset with us keeping our dogs as i totally understand some people dont want to have dogs next door to them, I have been looking on line at property and we have seen a lot around the area of east or south east, But like i say the property must be right rather than have a choice of area

Swei

We bought one flat and I am sure it is pretty safe. It is 12 years old.

Then we bought another from the bank. It is very cheaper but need a lot of money to improve.

However, I would not like to buy a villa or country house until we stay here for a couple of years even if I have plent of money. I am Chinese and like to live in the flats. But my husband is British and does not relly like to live in a flat for years.

PRIMO

Swei thank you for your reply. We are going to look for a house just outside of a village or town as we have dogs. We need the extra bit of land that will come with a country house

Dxf

Hola

I live in an illegal house; there are 16,500 illegal houses in my town according to the latest figures. So what I will say is that buying an illegal house is not necessarily the end of the world. Yes buy a legal house and make sure as far as you can in Spain, that it has all the correct documentation. BUT don´t sink everything into it; budget for the odd problem cropping up and you will enjoy life here.

Davexf

Domino

you must be thinking about the English - the Spanish don't seem to give a monkey's.
around here we are considered quite conservative - we only have one dog, but he does give a good bark. Most other houses have at least 2, in some cases 4, one neighbour breeds Rottweilers.

So don't use the dogs as a limiting factor

PRIMO

Thank you DXF and Domino for your recent comments, i have 7 dogs at the moment and they are large show dogs, they are no problem at all to anyone but i do understand that some people may not like living to close to dogs, Also to be honest i would like the house on the out side of town or village as i seem to find they have more land with them so i can let the dogs run with no problems

agoreira

Might not be the end of the world, but surely the chances of selling must be about nil and the value of the house, a tad less than you paid for it. Should you ever want to move, even within Spain, what's the chances of you selling?

Dxf

Hi

Actually yes illegal houses are selling here - no-one seems to care - we are talking in the sub 200,000€ here. I think that the Spanish believe a simple solution will be found, and if not, then they will carry on as before.

My own belief is that it will be years before anything will happen, and I will be long dead. The worst that is likely to happen is that you will have to legalise your house when it changes owners.

Davexf

Casa Santo Estevo

You say you have large show dogs.
I hope they do not fall under this description:
Normativa sobre Perros peligrosos en España
It is not only the breeds listed, but the characteristics listed that are taken into account too. The page also say some comunidades have added more breeds to the basic list.