[Anonymous]

BUY PROPERTY SAFELY IN SPAIN…. OR NOT!!!!
El Mundo reports that on the website (buyingahouse.registradores.org), the user can get in touch with the Association of Registrars and make an enquiry on a property. A group of experts will then follow up this application and send back the required information, translated into English.

According to a statement from the institution, this new service responds to the need to “help international users to jump the barriers of Spanish legal terminology when investing in real estate in Spain” and the document continues, “to evaluate and correctly interpret the information issued by the Land Registry Offices.”

In addition, the registrars indicate that all legal concepts that appear in the records shall be interpreted in accordance with current legislation in Spain and, in case of discrepancies regarding the translation, the Spanish version will prevail. To facilitate the review and comparison of the original extract and its translation, the information is presented in a double column format in both languages.

The Secretary of State for Housing said that “in this way, foreign citizens may have at their disposal, in a format more understandable to them, all the physical, legal and development information about the property, so that any buyer can go to this register before purchasing a property to check that there is no risk in the operation.”

The Chairman of the Spanish Association of Registrars said that “this new service is aiming to bring the registry a step closer to users not residing in our country, and to contribute to the transparency of the Spanish property market beyond our borders”.

I recently took advantage of the new service and for 23e cost, I had the report within 24 hours.

The report I asked for was on our own house in La Zarza, Abanilla.

The first thing that struck me was it looked as if someone had taken the information in Spanish from their records and “googled” it into English.

They describe my beautiful land of Olive and Almond trees as a “a piece of dry land for cultivation of cereals” with an area of 48 areas 80 centiares?. First question then, Whats that?, Is this the size of my plot??!.

The size and description of the house was good, how did they know we had sloping ceilings?.
Another surprising piece of information, the house orientation “The main front faces the mid day”.

They had the pool down but not the garage. I suppose if you were interested in buying the house you would see all that the first visit.

It told me the east boundary was a road, yes I agree. The north and south belong to a Spanish family Mr Gomariz, possible, but the West didn’t belong to Mr Gomariz as stated.
It belongs to my English neighbour who has a very nice villa on it.

It next puts my wife and I as the owners, great, together with our NEI numbers and who the Notary was.

Then we come to a section called – Charges, Tax Exemption.
We have five paragraphs, one after the other with the following similar text in each but a differing amount of money and date, contained there in
The property is subject for 5 years from today to pay discharge or discharges that might be issued regarding the property transfer and stamp duty tax. The property is free from this charge of (amounts of money) settled by self assessment of which a copy is filed. Cieza on ( date)

The report then concludes with various statements about the data protection, nothing to worry about there.

I wanted to know what the above five paragraphs was about and why other vital omissions were made. What about including the catastral records??

There is a “help” phone line but is in Spanish and when you ring you get an extensive menu, pulsa this and pulsa, that, after 3 years of Spanish lessons not a clue, let try the email address given. I had the following response when I questioned them about the above “CHARGES, TAX EXEMPTION” .

Dear user,
Afer conversation with Registry of Cieza we inform you the Propterty 20336 of Abanilla is not subject to any charges. That information appears in the land registry report because it is the last registration recorded. Those charges are not longer valid, therefore any payment is necessary.

Respectfully Yours.
Customer Center Service

Sorry, clear as mud.

I have several concerns about this new service.
My garage is not mentioned , it was built in 2007, so a prospective buyer may jump to the conclusion that there is no building license, there is though and its on the Catastral record.

But most important for a prospective buyer, I would think, is the fact that my property is subject to “land grab”. Yes our builder is planning an urbanization and mine and three of my neighbours are losing over 50% of our gardens. The plans have been in Abanilla Town Hall since June 2007. We had the official Notification in August 2010, that they have initial approval.

Why was there no record of this?. Surely this is vital information if you are considering buying a property

Obviously the new service is not fit for purpose.

This is a ridiculous tinkering with the problem. Why don’t they set up a committee of experts to look at all the property problems and abuses and take their recommendations

What the government needs to do is ensure that lawyers do their conveyance with due diligence.

Below is the link to information on my property and also the phone number and email if you require help
https://buyingahouse.registradores.org/usuario/informacion.do?codigo=0573df5131dfd46b208fdb37ea79fd42

Our Customer Attention service is available on telephone number
00 34 91 270 1796
and at the e-mail address
support@registradores.org
Thank you for using this service of the Property Registrars.

[Anonymous]

What you all dont accept that the Spanish do not think there is anything wrong with their system & further in Spain nothing has to be accurate it is always mas o minus when confronted with facts. It is always ” pasa nada “

[Inez]

Sounds like a poor translation of the nota simple

[Anonymous]

Hey, Inez where have you been !!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

[Inez]

Ha – Northern Ireland, Dublin, UK Mainland, now home but off to Barcelona mid sept and back to UK mainland 🙂 quiet today so I popped in to see what was happening 🙂

[Anonymous]

Steady on, Inez at your age .

[Inez]

Oy – speak for yourself!! lol 🙂

[Anonymous]

I am a prospective purchaser of property in Spain. Having purchased in Mexico (No money changes hands in Mexico, but rather through banks in the US where they have escrow/ trust accounts) I am aware of the financial pitfalls if one does not do some research before buying. As I understand Cbyrne, when you purchased your property , there was no indication that it was subject to urbanization. Then out of the blue a builder decides that yours and your neighbours property can be developed and without any say in the matter he was able to acquire half of your land? What if you don’t want to sell? Can you refuse ?
Was this perhaps something that your solicitor at the time of your purchase should have picked up on? To avoid this problem are there properties that I should stay away from.
It no doubt has made your house a more difficult sale with this uncertainty hanging over it .

[katy]

It is not a question of refusing to sell. In most cases the land is taken without any payment. Difficult to imagine I know but first you have to turn over the land to a Developer (probably a friend of the local Mayor), then as a final insult they charge you for infrastructure of said land. How to avoid it, don’t buy in rural valencia!

[Anonymous]

Dont buy it in Valencia is a good starting point.

[katy]

Not valencia but things can be a bit dodgy after you have bought!

Roadworks leave expat in Spain homeless

[Anonymous]

Is this a problem only in Valencia or more widespread ? The article in the Olive Press is revealing and to think that the Spanish gov’t is trying to encourage investors and they pull these kinds of stunts. What are they smoking! We would like to purchase a retirement home in the country, but I’m not so sure. Thanks for your input Katy.

[Author]

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