[Michelle]

Hi everyone. I would greatly appreciate any advice you can give me re a very upsetting issue we have. 6 months ago my mother in law, who lived in Spain, passed away. She had everything in place to make things easier for my husband and a solicitor took control of the flat sale. Unfortunately he put the flat on the market for far too high a price and as a result it still has not sold. We received an email from the solicitor (who does not speak very good English at all!) to say that we need to send him £7,000 immediately as a fine for not selling the flat within 6 months.

We were not prepared for this or in a position to pay and will need us to take out a bank loan to cover this.

We have been told that the Town Hall Tax is 7,600 euros to change the title deeds – is this a reasonable figure?

We also believe that someone has been staying at the flat without our permission or knowledge, items of furniture/property have been removed. The utility services we turned off when we shut the flat up are all back on and the heating was on full so incurring further costs. We don’t know who to turn to or trust.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Michelle

 

[marios]

Sounds utter rubbish to me but there are a few lawyers on here who will confirm.

[Alice]

You need someone to advise you on Spanish law, does solicitor mean inheritance tax rather than a fine?There are books also on buying/selling in Spain which could give some help.  And you need to find out who has keys to the flat and get locks changed.  Difficult when you are trying to sell!

Changing title to property can be costly when I did this 4 years back it cost me about €2000/2500 but much of that was to pay for translating a UK will (there was no Spanish will which would have made things easier and cheaper) and to pay solicitors fees, new documents and to register the escritura.

I hope things improve for you.

[mindful]

welcome to spain michelle  we have been stung 3 times.  get rid of your lawyer, find a uk lawyer who deals with deceased estate sales (nothing to do with me but Blevins franks should be able to help you) .   undoubtedly you have been made use of with someone living in the house.    check the articles on this website about taxes when selling.   IHT in spain is payable very speedily depending on where you live even if you haven’t sold, but I seem to think you could (or your dodgy lawyer could) have applied for an extension but there are RULES about when this can be done  as indeed there are RULES AND MORE RULES AND PAGES OF PAPERS to complete for most things in spain except when you want to sue someone and get some money from them…..then nothing happens.   we’re off as soon as we can sell but I am doing it privately no lawyer until the notary to register the sale.   had enough of being done by lawyers, architects and sundry others including a pom ‘property promoter’   Best of luck to you.

[kevin]

Hi Michelle,

as others have said, I suspect your lawyer is referring to Inheritance Tax liability. You do not say where your flat is located but I can recommend a Spanish lawyer who speaks excellent English. I have known him for over 15 years. He is located in the Valencia region.

It is only a personal view, but I think it is much better to use a local Spanish lawyer – and indeed other professionals, builders, architects, estate agents, etc. This is after all their country. They will be fully conversant with Spanish property law, etc. There are good ones and there are bad ones – just as there are good and and bad English lawyers.

Best of luck, and things will get better

Kevin

 

[Guille]

What region is the flat located in? probably we can help in advicing… in any case inheritance law in Spain brings lots of ptroblems for those who are recevieng a “benefit”.

[Author]

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