[Anonymous]

I didn’t think things could get worse and then friends of ours said that they had seen our house for sale in the local newspaper. It is not on the market due to legality issues, ie no LFO as the developer didn’t get permissions etc.
After some investigating, it was indeed found to be our house, put on the market with a spanish estate agent, by our developer/neighbour!!
The estate agent has said that she is a bit sloppy when checking correct photos however I’m not fooled. The picture is the original one we saw from the Spanish neighbour) about 2 and a half years ago. If the EA was doing a proper job for them, they would have taken a new photo.
May be our neighbour was trying to provoke an instant reaction from us. They are the ones who have been trying to extort money out of us for an illegal electricity supply. We have refused and been told by the electricity company that we were right to do so.
There are now plans in the pipeline to get this resolved with the EA, however if all else fails, a little legal muscle may be required.
Is this normal for Spain?

[Anonymous]

I am guessing that no one else has had this problem. Our interpreter in Spain, who is dealing with this, is having trouble pinning the EA down about photos and getting the ad taken out of the paper.

If there were any potential purchasers interested, could the EA and developer legitimately sell the property again?

We have a registered escritura and a mortgage on the property. We just cant live in it as there is no electricity (altho our neighbour has an electrician working for them and could easily put the wire back) and we have nasty bullying Spanish neighbours who are the developers, who sold us this semi-legal property in the first place.

Any suggestions or views?

[Inez]

If the escritura is in your name then it cannot be legally sold without you being present at notary UNLESS your lawyer or someone has power of attorney on your behalf and could sign on your behalf.

Let them carry on advertising it – they can do nothing except waste their money! And prospective buyers would want to view it anyway when you can tell them where to go.

Might be worth sending a registered letter or bureaufax informing the agent you will denounce them as they do not have your authority to advertise your proeprty for sale.

[Anonymous]

Hello Fran,

Personally, I would get on to the Editor of the newspaper pronto & threaten them will legal action for this advertisement if it is not withdrawn immediately, explaining you are the legal owner & did not place or authorise the advert.

If you’re not based in Spain, you really don’t need this additional aggro & worry.

[Anonymous]

Hi Suzanne,
I have spoken to the editor of the newspaper, but they say that they are not responsible for the content of the ad. They just take the money and print it!

Hi Inez,
The escritura is in mine and my husbands names and so is the mortgage. No one, either here or in Spain, has our power of attorney.
We also a took the precaution of changing our locks before leaving Spain as we felt our neighbours may have another set (we only received 2 when we moved in).

However, I wont put anything past our neighbour (the developer). They have already sold us a house knowing that it had no permissions, licenses and was on rural land, so they are obviously not averse to doing things on the dodgy side.

Thanks for the advice

[Author]

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