[Anonymous]

Hi,
I am looking to buy something around the la manga region.
With regard to solicitors, is it necessary to use 2 – one in the UK and one in Spain, or just one in Spain?
I have been given the details of a Spanish conveyancing lawyer who works in London, and is doubly qualified in Sapnish and UK law from someone who attended a course he ran on Spanish conveyancing. He sounds ideal to deal with a Spanish property purchase, but is the fact he works in London a problem given that forms etc need to be signed for in Spain?
Or is it worth using him in addition to a Spanish lawyer working in the area of the property purchase?
Many thanks,
Vicki

Also is there anyway to get to read any past articles from the Sunday Times – I read the one yesterday, and was thrilled to find this site!

[Anonymous]

Hi Vicki

If you go to the 2 topics below on the Forums page they will each give you links to previous articles in the S. Times which you definitely should read before purchasing especially if through the agent mentioned (exposed) for mis-selling. There was another article about this Company in the Mail on Sunday a while back on their mis-selling on the Costa Blanca re the Valencia Land Grab scam. Just be careful who you deal with as many agents ‘promise’ the earth and then don’t deliver, and don’t use their recommended lawyers!

Problems investing off-plan

Marbella Property Market Agonies

[Anonymous]

Hi Vicki,

It isn’t necessary to use two lawyers and it would certainly be more expensive to do so.

The ideal solution is to use one good lawyer based in Spain, more or less local to the area where you are buying. This means that, when it comes to things like signing the deeds or, as is sometimes necessary, visiting the development/property/local town hall, the lawyer is there to do it and doesn’t have to work through others.

However there is nothing wrong with using a Spanish lawyer based in the UK, so long as the lawyer is competent and qualified in Spanish real estate law. A good UK-based Spanish lawyer should be able to protect your interests as a buyer. I would expect it to work out a bit more expensive though.

The most important thing is that you get a competent, independent lawyer who is working for you and you alone. Time and time again I hear of people who have used a lawyer recommended by their estate agent or developer, only to discover that the lawyer is only really looking after the vendor’s interests.

You can access the Sunday Times online property section here: http://property.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,14052,00.html

Below you will find a cut and paste from a previous thread. It does a good job of explaining what is important to bear in mind when choosing a lawyer.

Mark
*************

I agree with the general advice given in Spanish Property Insight, my long experience as lawyer especialized in conveyancing gives me a good base to advice clients and foreigners thinking of investing in Spain: do not take the lawyers recommended by real estate agents, find your own lawyer recommended by a friend or a neighbour, it is not so difficult to find one.

Reasons:

A) the main one: as a matter of principle the interests of an estate agent and a buyer are competely contradictory, the estate agent just want to sell a property ( and in many cases no matter how ) because they want their commision, and the bigger the commission the more eager for money they get. Commissions here are getting really abusive, and now a 10% , yes you have read a ten percent !, is considered normal, and this abusive commissions are even charged by “reputable and honorable agents” , the big ones included.

B) the buyer’s interests are quite different: to get a property free of charges, legal problems, clean title deeds, no big community problems, no claims or troubles with the council, etc, etc. Therefore if you pay your own lawyer he/she will defend YOUR INTERESTS and only that, no matter if the purchase has to be canceled or delayed.

C) yes , as someone has pointed in this forum, it can be suspicious if an estate agent recommeds a lawyer, simply because there can be a bussines relationship behind that, and that is no good for the buyer because that bussines behind can condition the relation between the buyer and his lawyer. But even if there is no bussines behind:

D) Just imagine what would happen if there is a serious legal problem during the purchase process: a truly independent lawyer has full freedom to say to his client not to proceed and choose another property or look in a different agency, a lawyer who gets clients mainly from an agency , especially the big ones over here, has to choose between his BIG PERMANENT CLIENT or his little client buying just one property.

Well, as I say to clients who meet me for first time planning a sale or a purchase: no matter if for any reason you don’t come back to me but please use your own lawyer.

Jose Maria Sánchez Alfonso
abogado / Lawyer
Costa del Sol
tel/fax .95.2479268, mobile619.886542
jmsalfonso@inicia.es
_________________
Jmsa

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