DENISE WALTERS

Friends of mine put an offer to buy a property a year ago and still awaiting to go to notary apparantly someone died and nearly new property. I have been telling them I would not be happy with this and to look for somewhere else. but they insist on waiting for news.Whats the general point of view on this??

Mitzyboy

So Im assuming therefore that they dont actually know who owns the property as the heirs are now involved?

DENISE WALTERS

no I know they are going through estate agents every week for last year they are saying next week sounds iffy to me

digdug

tell em to come and buy my place instead

Fortaleza

Sounds like an inheritance problem. Often you can find that a property is inherited by a multitude of people. My missus for example, in theory owns three properties. Yet there are so many people in it with her - and of course no agreement at all - they are really worth nothing to us.

One of these properties by the way has been in this state of limbo now for the last 8 years!!!!!!!

scampicat

in my (admittedly limited) experience, if something has gone to probate it can take ages; it took six months for us to have the name on our rates bill changed because the person whose name was on the bill had died.

Dick Dasterdly

I think it is not wise for them to hang around waiting indefinitely.
There is no guarantee that their offer would be eventually accepted in any event and always a fair chance they could be gazumped at the last minute if no agreement has been signed.
If there were no complications, the paperwork could be checked out and the transaction completed in just a few short weeks.
I think they would be well advised to keep looking around in the meanwhile.
Its a buyers market.

Econ

My mother in law rented an old farm house in Fuengirola, it became a corner house in one of the main streets of the town over time but after renting it for many years her and her husband made an offer on it and the owner agreed... they all started to get things together for the sale even paying a small cash deposit, then the owner died. The problems started when the two sons decided they wanted more money than was agreed to by their father, to cut a long story short she never got to buy the property, eventually '7 years later' a promoter came along and bought the house and the 6 houses beside it and built a block. My mother in law took a small payment from the promoter to walk away and cover 'with some extra' the cash payment they had made to the owner, she took the offer as her husband had since died and she wasn't interested any more but as you can see if there was a death then it can cause endless problems in a property sale.

Dick Dasterdly

I walked away from quite a few country properties and renovation projects in the Canaries because ownership could not be clearly established.
It was a big problem there because so many ppl.had left many years earlier because of Francos oppression and gone to places like Venezuala where there was work because of the oil boom at the time.
Some properties remained unsold and others were sometimes sold by a remaining family member only for others to return years later and put a claim on the property.
Hence one reason I never did get my dream country property out there,although no regrets now, the way things have worked out.

HBG

I know of a Spanish family who have tried to settle an inheritance case involving a finca and some 20 acres of prime building land for the past 15 years. Local developers have been offering them huge sums of money, but a stubborn brother and his sons is refusing to co-operate with the others. I've seen a line of sparkling BMWs going up and down the long dirt track to the finca.

jackytoo

They missed the boat them, probably worth half the price

HBG

That's what I thought too. But the olive trees are still there, rows and rows of them, maybe the stubborn brother reads the Guardian.

Fortaleza

This is precisely our case (well,minus the BMWs!!!)

DENISE WALTERS

Apparently today a lawyer told me that things are getting much worse in Spain, and house prices are dropping further again.
Do you think things are getting worse and do you see evidence of house prices dropping

Dick Dasterdly

I did see some official estimate a week or two back that quoted as best I can recall a total drop of 30 plus% over three years.
I think that included 10% for last year,11%for this year and 12% for next year before things pick up again.
I stress that was only an estimate as best I recall it,so please dont quote me on it.
Who knows for sure?