[Anonymous]

In Canada as in the UK and USA deposits and in fact all real estate payments are held by a solicitor in a trust or escrow account, separate from their own business bank accounts. I feel quite secure in handing over funds under these circumstances. Are notarios in Spain obliged to handle funds in a similar fashion? Their Mexican counterparts are not and most real estate transactions in Mexico are made through escrow accounts in the US so that buyers have some security when depositing large sums of money.

[Chopera]

@Mexberry wrote:

In Canada as in the UK and USA deposits and in fact all real estate payments are held by a solicitor in a trust or escrow account, separate from their own business bank accounts. I feel quite secure in handing over funds under these circumstances. Are notarios in Spain obliged to handle funds in a similar fashion? Their Mexican counterparts are not and most real estate transactions in Mexico are made through escrow accounts in the US so that buyers have some security when depositing large sums of money.

In my limited experience the Spanish notarios do not handle funds. When we have bought/sold in Spain a representative of the bank(s) has been present to oversee the transfer of funds when the exchange takes place. All the notarios ever seem to do is read the contract, check the IDs of those present, and act as if the sun shines out of their a**e.

[Anonymous]

Even if they had a escrow account. Who do you think is authorize to operate the account. One guess its not the Pope

[Anonymous]

Chopera said: All the notarios ever seem to do is read the contract, check the IDs of those present, and act as if the sun shines out of their a**e.

Oh! so that’s why they have to take an urgent trip to the toilet at the point of exchange – severe blistering of the nether regions …

[Anonymous]

In our experience, our lawyer TOLD us the deposit would be held in an escrow account. In fact they handed it over to the builder and the property was never built!!

[Anonymous]

Why would you beleive anything a Spanish lawyer tell’s you ?

[Anonymous]

Hindsight is wonderful…had we had any at that time!! Now I would be hard pushed to trust anyone in Spain regarding a property purchase.

We had 12 days in Spain in June. The first time we’ve been back in three years. We found it VERY expensive.

[Anonymous]

It seems that Spanish solicitors have an iffy track record regarding real estate transactions. Has anyone used a UK based solicitor and if so how were the local spanish records checked?

[Anonymous]

If you use a UK base lawyer he/she will use a local lawyer & you will effectively pay for the two.

[Anonymous]

Shakeel,
I agree with you that a local spanish lawyer would assist in the title searches. The difference being (hopefully at least) that the UK solicitor would have an ongoing working relationship with the counterpart in Spain, who would not want to risk harming future business through sloppy work.It would be more expensive and take a little longer but there would be some assurance that the property would have been researched correctly.

[Anonymous]

“The difference being (hopefully at least) that the UK solicitor would have an ongoing working relationship with the counterpart in Spain, who would not want to risk harming future business through sloppy work”

If only it worked on those lines. Do you not think that a good Developer would build a nice block , deliver what he promised to do so. In order that he gets repeat or recommended business from satisfied owners. Spaniards dont think on the basis of nurturing a relationship. Their thinking is here & now.

[Author]

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