Anyone interested in moving to Spain should have watched 'Cowboy Builders abroad' last night, channel 5, it was on about British cowboy builders in Spain, or rather one builder, Bob Irvine a builder based in Jalon. It showed one family who had been torn apart by his actions, he sold them a 'luxury' hotel, the day they opened sewage started to leak into the dining room of the hotel, and it just went from bad to worse, the sewage pipes were too small, and had been laid under the patio and crushed by the patio. Tehy had to close, and they then found that what was on the deeds for the land was their own living accomodation, no permission for the hotel, The GC taped it off and told the owners it was finished. They did try to open a couple more busineses, but they all failed, she left him and is now living in Australia with a new husband, he is in the UK living hand to mouth and working as a shelf stacker in Tesco's. They went to Spain with £1,000,000, he now has around £200 in hsi account.

The useful part of the programme was an interview with the British consulate in Alicante where all the warnings about using independent lawyers, haveing all docs translated by an independent translater, having the deeds etc checked were stated, everything that people on here warn would be buyers about. Plus the chap at the consulate did give the UK gov website and that there was a 'guide to buying abroad' on that website which told people the same thing.
If you haven't seen it it's well worth a look.

it was a shame the builder didn't get his comeuppance,but hopefully the bad publicity will finish him off;how naive were the victims! No lawyer, no licences, plans etc-did they leave their brains at the airport? Trust a builder because he's British? They were so foolish.
The two in the badly finished house were so lucky to have the main faults put right, but why did they have a house built without checking utilities, heating etc;why do they part with all their money in advance? Did they even get proper permission for that house? All that new work by the C5 team-did they not have to get permission first? They did it in 10 days!

I assume they got permissions before as they did say that permission was required before any alteration could be done. I strongly suspect that the fact that it was Ch 5 did ensure that the permissions were granted quickly as the local councils wouldn't want bad publicity. As to why they didn't check, well I do suspect it was because the builder was a Brit and told them everything was OK. How many times have people on here wanting to buy in Spain been told about independent lawyers, chacking dees etc, checking the place was legal, even the Alicante consul did say that, make sure the plans for what you are buying apply to the house and not a barn or warehouse elsewhere on the land.

Although I know that the oversight of a Notary is principally there to ensure that the correct tax has been paid do they not have some sort of responsibility to make even superficial enquiries that the property that is being sold is legal??

I have said it before but as it's a new thread I will say it again......

Why is it that normally sane sensible people who would never do such things in the UK without dotting all the I's and crossing the T's and getting 2nd and 3rd legal opinions suddenly lose their marbles when in Spain ??

Caveat Emptor

Because you cannot?
This thread

one would hope that double checking the double checks, using reputable (whatever that word actually means) legal representatives that it is possible to do things "legally".
however as Antonio Banderas found out, that isn't always the case.

Are you suggesting that nothing can be done legally in Spain ??

Last year I walked away from a very nice property in Almeria because only on the double check was it noticed that the land was agrario and the local Town Hall refused to give a certificate on it as there is no intention of making that area urbano.
I have this week found out that the property has now sold and that his brother's property (the plot next door) is now on the market, this has additional items that are not shown on the Cadastral.
I would imagine another poor sucker will come along and buy it.
(Both properties owned and sold by Brit Expats).

Don't know why the Banderas house is used as an example. What has been taken is window dressing the whole garden on the sea side should have gone according to the Ley de las Costas.

You only have to look at houses for sale in Axarquia region, nearly all illegal and you can tell by the photos most are owned by expats.

Banderas used as an example as a known name who has had a problem.
As to how he managed to mitigate the problem is his concern not ours.

But it does go to show that no matter how much money you have, how much you pay your legal advisers you can still come unstuck.
On the other side of the coin Sean Connery has his own problems over a house sale........

but I expect you to know all about that one as well

I live in Jalon and cowboy builders only scratched the surface with that man,
Here he is known as Bob Hamilton not Irvine (hiding from something maybe?) he has estate agents in Javea and in Moraira and also sells cars in Benissa, he also owns at least one apartment in Jalon that he rents out and happily drives one of two lamborghinis he owns although he has been seen lately in a Ferrari, it was quite amusing to see the face of someone you know as a cowboy rip of merchant being shown on tv and I hope one day he gets his, .....

No I was making the point that one can never be sure. No mater what you do, even the Spanish at some time or another seem to have problem with legalities.

ah, thats why my next door neighbour, an abogado, has people arriving at his door at all sorts of hours
only the other day he and the rest of his family had gone off somewhere and I walked past to go the basura and was accosted by an irate guy who wanted to know why he wasn't available for consultation