amideislas

We aren't in the south, and based on my experiences in local properties, and considering the vastness of various rules, I'd have to believe that almost all properties here are in violation of something. Certainly our house is, and most people I know of.

But you rarely hear of demolition for those violations (I've never heard of it). The usual process is to "legalise" anything that's foul of some rule. Depending on the violation, it's often a simple matter of paying some amount to someone for their stamp on a document.

Dxf

Hola,

As has been said; join AUAN and ask questions. If you read this forum then you´ll have seen that everyone says you should rent for the first year and then consider buying.

So put aside the thought of buying and rent in the area; not only will you get a feel for it, you will pick up valuable knowledge from the AUAN members.

Davexf

billgates

Sorry, I have to take issue with this statement.
Most Brits use a solicitor to purchase their house in Spain. The problem in the past (and even now) is that the solicitor is in the pocket of the estate agent. The estate agent recommends their own solicitor saying they are reliable and have local knowledge, etc. and the Brits just accept that any solicitor must be trustworthy and have their interests as priority. This has clearly not been the case because the solicitor is often working for both the buyer and seller, earning two commissions for the one job.

Where Brits have often gone wrong is in not having surveys carried out, usually because they've been told that nobody bothers with them in Spain.

snikpoh

Isn't that really to do with the fact that they don't seem to exist in Spain.

I only know of one on the Costa Blanca North.


What does one look for in Yellow pages or the likes?

amideislas

"legality" of a property has traditionally been a bit of a moving target - even if it's all proper on paper. It begs the question of whether a "survey" really holds much weight.

One would expect that the more legal proof you can supply to a court, the greater the chances of success. But as my lawyer often says, "no matter how compelling your case is, you can never predict what the court will decide". And in my few experiences in the courts - and seeing the experiences of others, I've found that to be largely true. I've seen some very surprising verdicts, indeed.

Moses2013

Ok many didn't and that's another issue that Brits use the solicitor recommended by the estate agent. When buying, a survey should be done, or at least contact an architect in Spain.

Mitzyboy

None of which are any use at all to those many people who bought houses correctly and STILL found that eventually their houses were illegal in siome way. Myself included, and it took me three years and many thousands of euros to sort the problem out

Houses can be legal at purchase point, and then illegal after that point at the whim of the ruling junta. You can have every survey you like done, but it doesnt mean that you will escape freely!

jimenato

Absolutely correct. I have friends who are in this very position. Their house was entirely legal when bought - they used a proper and respected abogado.

Now, trying to sell it, it has been declared illegal retrospectively and they have had to walk away from a property worth 800,000 Euros, at least for the time being. Some years down the line it might suit some ayuntamiento mandarin to change his mind but until then...

It is simply not correct to accuse Brits of not doing things properly in all or even many cases.

concerned 1

Thanks The Captains Wench will do take it its abit dogey
?

scampicat

DON'T

scampicat

Ours was never deemed illegal, but unknown to us, the deeds had never been updated by previous owners who had done various alterations. This was not pointed out by the solicitor who we used when buying.

On selling, our abogado sorted it all out for us, and our buyers got the most 'legal' house in the area, and it cost us 8K euros and took eight months to do so.

Fortunately we were able to set the cost of doing this, plus the cost of the alterations, against the selling cost and therefore made no capital gain, and therefore no CGT to pay.

concerned 1

Thankyou scampicat every replie seems to be the same any will look at different areas of almeria any advice anyone