[Anonymous]

What is the legal position in regards to snagging. Can a buyer refuse to complete without all the snagging defects being rectified.

I have been told that snagging will be carried out after completion. I feel that if they could not be bothered to do before they have my money. What chance/leverage do I have after I have completed.

Any advise please !

[Anonymous]

Hi

i’m no expert, but i wouldn’t dream of completing without snagging and then only when any faults (which there bound to be some) have been rectified to your satisfaction.

[Melosine]

Really depends on what you regard as snagging.
Snagging ,in the true sense, are the tiny little nuisances that were not immediately noticed …easing of a window, small plumbing leak . The things which are only usually noticed once in situ.
Anything else is not snagging but a building problem which should be corrected before you agree to release final payment.

Have read cases where people have been coerced into completing without the kitchen in place!!!!

Any new build .or new work on old build , can have settlement problems..more so in hot dry countries and we discussed retaining 10% of the final figure just in case. However this was not an option it seems in Spain but to our builders credit our few snags have been corrected.

[mariadecastro]

Even if you have completed you still have all the rights in your hands according to Building Law. Without getting it to COurts. Ask your lawyer to follow this article of the General Law for Building Ordinance.

Provision 17: Civil liability of the agents that intervene in the building process.

1. Despite their contractual liabilities, the individuals or companies that intervene in the building process will answer to owners and third purchasers for the building or part of them, in case they have been divided, of the following material damages happened in the building within the stablished deadlines, counted from the reception date without reservation or from the rectifying moment.

a) For 10 years, of material damages caused in the building due to deffects or vices that affect the foundations, supports, beams, floor structure, charging wall or another structural elements, that directly compromise the mechanic ressistance and the stability of the building.

b) For 3 years, of material mdamages caused in the building by deffects or vices of the building elements or the installations that produce the breah of the habitability requirements of the provission 3,1,c.

The builder will also answer for the material damages by vices or execution deffects that affect the elements of finishing of the works within a year deadline.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for replying. With all due respects to the legal profession in Spain the law is one thing and the timely justice is another. I understand that structura works are covered by the 10 year guarantee along with others.

What is the position on

1) Door frames loose.

2) Broken/uneven tiles

3) Bathroom mirror light placed in a way that it will loose hanging and not neatly wired behind the bathroom wall

4) Opening space for the fridge freezer is not sufficient to allow the fridge to enter the space created for it.

5) Private terrace space has been taken over to place the air condtioning unit relating to appartments below.

My experience with the developer a large one from Galicia has been once they have the money nobody does anything. any staff confonted offers a shrugg of the shoulders.

[mariadecastro]

The builder will also answer for the material damages by vices or execution deffects that affect the elements of finishing of the works within a year deadline.

Provision 17.1 of the General Building Act.

[Anonymous]

Once again I understand what the law says. I have noted that if you sue a spanish company for redress to your basic rights the managers/owners take that as a personal ego problem.

I would like to withold completing until the snagging works are carried out as this gives me the leverage and this is where I want to know what is my legal positions keeping in mind the items listed above.

[Anonymous]

@shakeel wrote:

My experience with the developer a large one from Galicia has been once they have the money nobody does anything. any staff confonted offers a shrugg of the shoulders.

– and I thought it was only supposed to be the CDS developers (apparently…..) that behaved this way.

Barbara

[Anonymous]

My solicitor told me that I could not even enter the property for snagging until after I had completed and that the snagging items would be dealt with thereafter etc, etc.

I completed and after making a list of faults it took quite a while to get any response at all. Even when I was told the problems were resolved, I arrived to find they were not. It made me feel sick to arrive back at my dream home and find the filth the workmen had left in my toilets. In the end I decided it was easier to buy basic tools and fix the final items myself.

I would like to know if my solicitor was correct in insisting that I must complete before snagging. It is important for me to know because I have other issues with him, and if he lied, I need to find another solicitor for the other problems I have.

[Anonymous]

Worth having a look:

http://www.eyeonspain.com/spain-magazine/snagging-survey.aspx

Barbara

[katy]

I think snagging is a new concept in spain and I doubt if your right not to complete would be upheld. Everyone I know has usually had to carry out minor work themselves.

I don’t think the ten year guarantee is very effective either according to waht people say.

[Anonymous]

I was supposed to be snagging an apartment on Arenal Golf, Benalmadena next week for a client who’s just been advised that it’s “complete” (late of course).
The developer phoned me to arrange an appointment to do so…and then told me I would be given 10 minutes inside the apartment!!! Now, I work fast but not that fast! When I said that was no good and I would need a couple of hours inside, the developer said that this visit was not for snagging purposes. So I said, what’s this visit for? He said it was for an “inspection” to make sure the buyer was happy to complete (??!!). So I said, when can I have a longer appointment to snag the apartment? He said when it has been “handed over”!!!
He and the buyer are now arguing, sorry negotiating…

[Anonymous]

@davidAH wrote:

My solicitor told me that I could not even enter the property for snagging until after I had completed and that the snagging items would be dealt with thereafter etc, etc.

I completed and after making a list of faults it took quite a while to get any response at all. Even when I was told the problems were resolved, I arrived to find they were not. It made me feel sick to arrive back at my dream home and find the filth the workmen had left in my toilets. In the end I decided it was easier to buy basic tools and fix the final items myself.

Have just realised David that you bought at Green Hills – are you really surprised…..??

@davidAH wrote:

I would like to know if my solicitor was correct in insisting that I must complete before snagging. It is important for me to know because I have other issues with him, and if he lied, I need to find another solicitor for the other problems I have.

Perhaps Drakan, Maria or Cesar could give the correct legal answer to this one…?

[Anonymous]

Hi Barbara,

davidAH wrote:

I would like to know if my solicitor was correct in insisting that I must complete before snagging. It is important for me to know because I have other issues with him, and if he lied, I need to find another solicitor for the other problems I have.

No, of course not.

I NEVER let a client complete without snagging first the property, it is only logical.

Snagging flaws are to be dealt with before completion so as to put pressure on the developer. You want your money ? Well first fix this for my client. It’s blunt, albeit effective.

You can even practice a retention at completion in some cases.

Once the developer has your money secured (post completion) you can be sure he will have little interest in mending any flaws despite the wording of the Ley de Ordenación de la Edificación which María de Castro has mentioned. Developers are not afraid of litigation, they deal with it in a day-to-day basis and take it for granted. They already calculate that a percentage of buyers will litigate.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your responses to my post.

Barbara,

I did not buy at Green Hill, but at Las Cumbres, Riviera del Sol. However, it seems that the same carefully honed deceptions are widely practiced by many developers and lawyers.

David

[Anonymous]

Hi David

My sincere apologies – I had you confused with another David 😳

Am glad at least that Drakan has come up trumps (as always) with a very clear answer to clarify that you did in fact have the legal right to undertake snagging before completion – too late I know in your case.

Good luck, and my apologies again.

Barbara

[Anonymous]

My name is Roy Howitt and I operate a company in Spain that provides third party snagging and we also wrote the piece that is mentioned in this thread and we are regularly featured in lock & national magazines newspapers & TV

The facts are that you can refuse to complete on a property that, at the time of snagging does not meet the agreed specification, does not have a Certificate of Habitation, does not have the agreed facilities built, e.g. pool or where is there evidence of serious structural problems

Out of 50 properties that we have recently checked on a large golf resort in Murcia we have had to advise 4 buyers not to complete based on defects found and because the properties were not completed and on the plot size was wrong

Today at an inspection again we advised nit to complete until the buyer had a full structural survey done by a structural engineer as there was evidence on a terraced block in 3 separate blocks where they had failed to tie in the brickwork the building were separating with large cracks running from the front to the rear across the roof & roof terrace

Yes there is a 10 year guarantee but this is not a lot of good if you cannot use the property and getting a builder to Court in Spain can be a nightmare

If a developer will not let you snag the property prior to completion then they probably have something to hide, and I would always advise clients not to complete without checking the property and allow at least 10 working days between inspection and completion to put defects right because they become less interested once they have your money. If your solicitor cannot arrange this then change your solicitor.

I apologise if I am being quite strong on this subject but with experience of inspecting more than 800 properties in Spain I have seen just about every trick in the book

[Author]

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