parispete

Many years ago I had an unfortunate experience buying a 'hot' apartment, during which a lot of professional people were revealed as nothing more than con artists out to make a fast buck from foreigners. Since the EU, all this funny stuff has doubtless improved, but the massive corruption revealed in local councils has me a little concerned that the Costa del Sol is not yet totally clean from official types (gestors, notarios) who might do me no good.
Advice from embassies is for the most part pretty useless, so, since I love Spain dearly, any and all opinions would be greatly appreciated.

jdr

You can trust me, I`m a doctor.

parispete

And a good one, I'm sure

jurdyr

and can trust me, I`m dyslexia

jdr

Seriously Pete you have to be very careful, especially with new property, although if you buy old it doesn`t really mean it is totally legal.
At the moment there have been problems with 11 Mayors and their officials, solicitors and Estate Agents around Malaga, some are still in jail.
Google Malaya case.
Always get a solicitor that doesn`t sleep with the Agents and double check and double check the paperwork again.

parispete

Yeah, it's like that famous movie line went - "Just 'cause you love somethin' don't mean it has to love you back." That's been my Spanish experience. I love it, but, boy, you have to be careful who you trust !!!!

livit

Same rules for all countries.

The major problem most expats suffer from is a distorted view of there paradise in the sun.

Spain has three different police forces for a reason, there not all sat around drinking San Miguel all day long.

Dxf

Hi

That's SIMPLE - NO-ONE but yourself; listen to everyone by all means but use your own brain to decipher the information. No-one cares about your money better than you unless they want to put it into their own pocket - and there are a lot of those around in this crisis.

Davexf

parispete

It's such a shame that a lovely place has such a bad name for con artists. Take buying a car, for example. How is it possible to do this in safety? Surely there are docs that prove title and bods in the transport offices that can be trusted.

EsuriJohn

Can you explain these please. We have Community Police, Local Police, National Police and Guarda Civil. I think there are others who do the detective work for the investigating Magistrates what do they all do and who is in charge.

Loco

You can buy books on the subject becuase it is so complex!

Try http://www.foropolicia.es/

It has a forum that lists the main ones and their subs.

Happy reading!

Best
Loco

Wendy Nesbeth

After being here over 5 years, there are very few people that I trust.

We lived in London before coming here & we trusted more people there. I have to say that I dont like it here much.

Wendy x

livit

Not just con artist`s.

Spain has a very colorful history when it comes to crime.

For example, Pais Vasco/Catolonia has its own local police (Ertzaintza/Moso`s d`Esquadra), mainly due to violence towards the Guardia and National police, even so all Basque local`s work in towns away from there place of residency so that there family isn`t threatened.The Policia National in both regions have limited capabilites.

If you trace history of local Policia, many were born around the 18th centuary when municipal militias where used to defend against the bandits from the Carlist war`s.

parispete

Yeah, the authority of the law to manage society is nowhere more troubled (apart from maybe Africa) than in Spain. I recently wanted to do business in Marbella, with a man I considered to be upfront and honest. But when going into the risks I might run, it turned out that a huge percentage of the legal people I might be involved with - and the process itself - was under investigation for corruption.
There was also the disturbing fact that extra funds required for a more thorough investigation had been denied. So how far up the chain of command does the funny stuff go? I love Spain, and to see it going through this self-inflicted torture is painful for me. Never was another Inquisition more needed - with a couple of heavyweight crims burned at the stake as an example that this massive corruption has just got to stop.

livit

Here`s Spain`s position in the world.

http://www.transparency.org/news_roo...cpi_2008_table

Spain has different rules than the UK, whilst people in the UK believe cheating the system is wrong, Spaniards believe its there right, as there free democracy is simply and extension of Nationalism, which is as popular today as in the 60`s .

Its a system that frankly works in Spain, everything from Tax to employment normally has some intervention by a third party.

Could be worse, you could be living in Italy