[Anonymous]

We have been trying to buy a house for 5 months, using a Spanish solicitor. For various reasons involving the escritura, having paid a 10% deposit completion has not taken place, and it now appears that the house may have been resold via the same Spanish estate agent.
Our solicitor doesn´t seem to be very proactive, and the seller´s solicitor is evasive, and is reluctant to put anything in writing.
What should we be doing to safeguard our deposit as the seller has left the country.
Suggestions please. Disallusioned.

[mariadecastro]

I guess you signed a deposit contract. Can you enforce it? Is the seller a spanish resident? Who did you pay the deposit amount to? There are many questions any lawyer would need to know before answering if you can get your money back or not and how.

[mariadecastro]

It is definitively a case that can go to Courts to ask not just for devolution–doubled–, but also for indemnization and… even.. there may be some criminal responsabilities involved too. So… you may start talking to the agent and letting him/her know how informed you are about this two sales action.

I would advise you to hire a good lawyer with an expertise in civil contracts and check your deposit contract and take an action. It is an area the General Practice Law Firms can cover quite well.

[Anonymous]

Maria, thank you for your prompt reply.
The seller is non resident and no longer in Spain, and the deposit was passed to the seller via his lawyer.
A check at the land registry yesterday showed that the house is still in the name of the sellers. Is there no quick way to stop completion of the second sale , as it seems that time is of the essence here.
Your advice is much appreciated, and I hope to be able to tell you that having followed it there has been a successful outcome.
Hopefully soon to be less Disallusioned.

[mariadecastro]

Do you have a docuement of written deposit contract? I guess yes. If so, say to the agent that you will legally challenged that illegal double sell. Say to him that that is null and your courts action may end up in an indemnization with criminal responsabilities involved.

[katy]

I read a blog a few months ago. In 2000 a couple from the UK paid 10% deposit, signed contract, 4 weeks later the seller did not turn up at the notarary to complete the purchase. Seller refused to return 10% purchaser took them to court and won, seller appealed. One year later and another court case the purchaser won again, the seller appealed! Both times the purchasers went to court it cost them 17% (legal fees) of the price of the house they were going to buy. By 2004 the couple had still not got the 10%deposit back. Don’t know the final outcome.

Best you could do is to get a lawyer to stop the other purchase going through but it seems you may have to act quickly. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Thank you again for your advice.
Is a possible way of stopping the resale by denouncing the estate agent from whom we originally bought the house, and can we do anyting about the seller as he is non resident and left Spain last October.
Regards

[Anonymous]

Thank you again for your advice.
Is a possible way of stopping the resale by denouncing the estate agent from whom we originally bought the house, and can we do anyting about the seller as he is non resident and left Spain last October.
Regards

[Anonymous]

Dear Teresa,

Have you considered applying to the Land Registry for an “embargo” on the property, especially if it is still in the seller’s name? This could at least deter any other potential buyer and also possibly stop any local mortgage being obtained by a third party to finance a sale.

Good Luck

Terry English

[Anonymous]

Dear terry, thank you for your reply.
We have not put an embargo on the house at the land registry, as we have been advised that any kind of a stop order would entail us having to pay a caution, do you know something different ?
Appreciate your advice,
Best wishes, Teresa

[Anonymous]

Dear Teresa,

As long as you have a legitimate claim against the seller any caution should be small and you should not have to pay anything other than the Land Registry fees for registering the embargo which should not be too much. You may have to have the claim validated and notarised but no doubt your lawyer should be able to advise you on this (or perhaps one of the lawyers on this site).

As I understand it your lawyer should obtain a court order but this could be done within a couple of weeks, depending on how active the lawyer and the court is, under “precautionary measures”

Good luck

Terry

[katy]

When you say “due to various problems with the escritura, we did not complete” had you signed a contract giving a completion date?

[mariadecastro]

In my opinion, the best action is to sue the agent, compelling him to sell it to you and as preventive measure, to ask the Judge to pass a ruling to order the Registry to practice the preventive annotation of confiscation or prohibition to transfer.

You will need enough evidences of that provable sale to a third party to convince the Judge to order the ban to the Registry and he may ask you to deposit an amount as a guarantee of your good right.

[Anonymous]

Thank you again for your replies, we are still hanging on in there.
We took the advice to inform the Agent that we have an existing contract as he well knows having paid a reservation fee to him.
We have also consulted other lawyers.
Our lawyer has sent a Burofax to the Agent.
We have sent a Requermiento to the sellers via the Notario.
These seem to be the quickest steps to try and prevent the second sale if it has not yet been finalised.
Any other ideas would be most welcome.
thank you all again, Teresa

[Anonymous]

That sounds like an awful mess teresa, one that nobody deserves. I hope your lawyer does the right thing by you and it all gets resolved to your satisfaction soon!

[Author]

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