Hi All,

Apologises that this may be a long post but I’m after a little bit of advice.

The problem revolves around a property my mum owns in the canaries. It was joint owned by my mum and dad and purchased in 2004. My dad died in 2009 and my mum started the long process of getting the property transferred into her name alone. Having paid death taxes it has turned out that the property has never been registered in their names. In fact the property was never probably registered in any off the previous owners names, the land registry deeds (if thats what they are called in Spain) still has the name of the original Spanish owner from the late 1980s (there has been at least 4 owners since then).

It would appear that each of the subsequent owners had paid a notary to register the property, the same notary and English estate agent (based in the canaries) had been used for each sale with a fee being taken to have the property registered. This was never done. My mum has been trying to sort this out for the last 18 months with the notary but has gotten nowhere. Whenever she calls or visits in person she is always fobbed of and told that it is in hand and will be done shortly. We are now a little stuck and not sure where to turn for any help or advice. Not withstanding the fact that the estate agents and notary appear to have taken money without providing a service would anybody have any advice on where to look/who to contact to try and get this mess resolved.

Thanks.

Hiya

So .... who's name are all the legal documents you have in?
I presume you do have "deeds" to the property?

Hi,

I'll be honest and say i'm not 100% sure, maybe I've posted a bit early before my old dear has given me all the details. But my understanding of it is that (without confirming with her and seeing what she has), the property was registered with the government under both their names, they have been paying taxes to the Spanish government since they purchased the property. It was only when my mum attempted to change the name to only hers that this problem was raised. Apparently there has been an attempt to contact the orignal Spanish owner (an older lady by all accounts) who moved to the US and it is suspected that she may have passed away. Assuming its similar to the UK (which I'm sure it is) if your name isn't on the deeds you dont own the property, so if it is deeds that my mum has been told that her name (and my dads) never appeared on, does this mean that potential she could lose the property to the orignal owner (or her heirs). I believe that when they purchased the property the estate agent offered them the service to hold all Spanish documents so they may have never been aware that they were not correctly registered.

Also if the propertry was not correctly registered with the Spanish government how are they able to raise a "death tax" bill on the property?

Alot of open ended questions, which we do not know where to start looking for answers.

Thanks.

The simple answer is they can´t.

A visit to your mother should help to clear things up.

I dont think you have enough detail yet.
The property taxes come from the local town hall.
The property is registered at the land regsitery

You need to check that you have the escuitura for the property and it is all in the name of your parents.

I'm not an expert by any means, but the fact that you are being told that the house is still registered in the name of someone from long ago is pretty worrying. Part of getting it all legally sorted is getting the property registered in your name at the land registery

Thanks for the advice, I'll see what the old dear has and hope she has her terminology wrong!

Cheers.

The property deeds in Spain are called the Escritura and the Spanish Land Registry is very sophisticated and can be accessed on-line. The best way to find out who owns the property is to pop into the local Land Registary office and ask for a Nota Simple on your mums house. This is a short form of the ownership record and costs about 10€ and is avaiable to anyone, you just have to say why you want it.

When I bought property here in the mainland the registration was completed on my behalf on completion of purchase.
However when I bought in Tenerife it was necessary for me to go and register the property in person, after the solicitors and notario had helped complete the transaction.
Apparently quite a few ppl.didn't bother, believing that once the purchase process was completed, that was the end of the matter.