[Anonymous]

I have been reading the property blogs from here for quite a while and they offer a very valued insight into whats going on with the property over here.

I have several question I hope someone can shed some light on with regard to Spanish property law along with some insight where to find out some information.

First off I live in a little unheard of place called Catral. We have one or two illegal houses in the area.

Black money and taxes. There has been reliable information going around that people could face taxes for the black money used in purchasing their houses. Not the builders who received it, but those that payed it, the home owners.

Is there a cut off period, where after a certain period of time, you can no longer be held liable for these taxes?

Second question. Due to stress etc, some people are looking into selling up at vastly under market prices. They have been advised to use a solicitor to do a disclaimer so they can not be held responsible for any urbanisation costs etc.

We have been reliably informed, that some builders have done substandard work and part of being made legal involves a building inspection where faults will have to be rectified. This can include foundations needing underpinning to a house rewire. And the home owners are the ones liable for paying all costs to rectify the problems.

Even if someone has sought legal advice on selling their property and had the disclaimer added about legalisation costs, are they still open for extra cost under the Vicios Ocultos law

Finally. Is there any where you can look up planned motorways or toll roads. Rumours are that one is to be built from Murcia to Catral.
It will only be shown on the town plans here, as and when the town plans get approved.

With the odd illegal house, some of these home owners could face more devastating news, if they discover their pool is going to be a six lane motorway and the only payout will be for agricultural land.

Thanks to anyone who can shed any light on the above

[Arthur Stuttard]

Look up Catral (and its 1200 illegal dwellings) on Wikipedia. They even recommend a specialist local lawyer.

[Anonymous]

As I said, one or two illegal properties. Unfortunately, in light of whats been going on in the area, you do tend to make light of the situation.

Out of those 1200 houses here, there have been figures quoting a much higher amount, there could be more houses depending on how the figures are calculated.

Three things in the equation could be, sold houses, built but not sold and empty shells, half built houses.

There are a lot empty estates. I dont know how many houses would be classed as an estate, but say six houses plus that have been completed and the houses never sold. There are a lot of those around the area.

At a gestimate, about 1/3 of the houses in the area have owners and they are not all British. One of our neighbours is a Spanish bank manager.

Compare Catral to the size of the problem in the whole of Spain and we are but small minnows in a big pond.

[Anonymous]

Very interesting questions. Does anyone have any answers?

[Author]

Posts