I’m in the process of buying a property, and my lawyer has made a search of the property at the local town hall. He has told me that everything is in order and there is no debt outstanding. However by the time I complete in 5-6 weeks time is it necessary for my lawyer to do another search to establish no debt has been raised on the property during this period, I seem to remember reading this has happened in the past.
On the day of signing at the Notary, get your lawyer or Notaries secretary to phone up the Land Registry and fax you over the current Nota Simple. That shows all lendings etc on the property.
However, take along a picnic.
When we do it over here, the Land Registry say it is “on the way”.
They mean that they will fax it over before they leave for the day at 2pm.
So, if your Notary appointment is at 10.00am, you probably won’t get the fax until 1.55pm!
The Nota Simple may not always show all debts. You need a CERTIFICA from the Land Registry for this. You should request this now and as advised previously obtain a Nota Simple when in the Notary and have it checked against the CERTIFICA. The Notary should also obtain confirmation from the Land Registry that there is nothing waiting to be registered. For example the CERTIFICA and Nota Simple may be OK but there may be a claim which has been filed in the Land Registry but not yet officially entered on the registry.
from my understanding – the Notary is OBLIGED by law to conduct a search prior top the notarial appointment on the day of the appointment (usually one hour beforehand) to ascertain that no outstanding charges exist. Furthermore he will ask the seller to Declare that there are no outstanding charges. Once confirmed if there are you would in anyway have legal recourse (and that is another matter in itself) to claim back any charges that notary didn’t spot (highly unusual but not impossible)
So unless the seller is quick he couldn’t organise another mortgage (he couldn’t anyway as this would have to go through the notary.
Also once the property is signed for in front of the notary it is “Blocked” from the seller or anyone else but you registering the property or debts against it for 10 days. After which providing you are the named person only YOU can then have debts against it.
Although when a property is sold, the seller delcares it to be free of all charges, encumbrances etc etc. do as much research as you can.
Both properties I have bought have had unpaid elec, telephone and water bills on them.
In both cases, the bills were from YEARS before.
Even though the seller turned up at the Notary with the last 3, 4 or 5 bills showing they had been paid.
In one case, the water bill outstanding was from before the FIRST person bought the house from the builder (I was the second owner) and the aljibe had a leak.
The builder never paid for it, the first owner got away with it for 2 years, but when I changed the water into my name, I was told I had to pay or be cut off!
Legal advice came next and a bargain or sorts was struck with the water board.
Forget chasing the vendor – you would die before any result!
Even now when enquiring for my purchasers, the water and elec and phone companies will not disclose any info if you are not the direct client, so you can never be 100% sure unless you make the point of going to each utility provider in person with the vendor to prove there are no bills outstanding!!
The other safety net you can levy is to withhold an amount (say €500 ) for unpaid bills. The vendor may not be willing to do so but then it depends how much they want to sell. Then you have two weeks to check the bills and if any are outstanding you are covered.
Vince
Author
Posts
Viewing 6 reply threads
The forum ‘Spanish Real Estate Chatter’ is closed to new topics and replies.