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Common problems and questions when buying properties in Spain
What Spanish lawyers do and what they do not do:
It is generally assumed that if you engage the services of a lawyer for a property purchase in Spain all will be well. Well it might be! A competent lawyer will be sure to check that the property is correctly registered in the name of the vendors without any debts or other encumbrances that could be passed on to the next owner but a common misconception is that he will also know or find out about the many other issues that might well affect your future enjoyment of your dream property.
As well as needing someone to check the strict legal situation of the title documents you really do also need to find out about other issues that you cannot see for yourself that might affect your future enjoyment of the property eg:
- Does the property have any history of problems of a structural or other nature?
- How did this property fare in the severe winter experienced in 1996/7 when many properties here and all along the coast of southern Spain suffered varying degrees of damage following those "once in a lifetime" weather conditions? (Not something estate agents would normally talk about but there was quite a lot of damage all along the south coast of Spain at that time and on this hillside approx 5% of the properties were damaged to some extent
- Is the property built across one of the fault lines that run through the hillsides all along the Andalucian coast? Yes we're serious; there is a property currently on the market that is, although the owner of this recently built villa did not know about the fault line when he bought the land from another agent.
- Does the property have any possibility of being declared illegal as a result of the original local level planning permission being rescinded by the regional planning authority?
- Is the water and electricity supply reliable?
- Are there going to be any new developments nearby that might change the appeal of the property?
- Are the neighbours (who perhaps might not be around at the time a property is viewed) nice considerate people or the other sort!
- Are there now or have there recently been any boundary or other serious disputes with neighbours?
- Is the community of owners in a healthy financial state?
- Are there any other issues, financial or otherwise, likely to have an adverse affect on the future enjoyment of the property?
But how can these things be checked?
If you are intending to buy a property on the hillside overlooking Salobreña the answer is simple. Put your trust in Inmobiliaria Lingwood as having lived here since 1988 we know almost all there is to know about this hillside and the properties on it.
And bear in mind that some of the properties on offer with other agents are those that for one reason or another we have declined. One example of this is a property recently featured as the "property of the month" in local advertising by another agency. Probably they don't know that there is a legal problem with a neighbour which might well result in part of the garden and swimming pool of this apparent bargain being returned to its rightful neighboring owner! Another one currently being offered by other agents has a history of structural problems and as a result was the subject of a court case shortly after it last changed hands following a private sale.
We don't claim to know everything but the knowledge and experience we have gained over the many years and hundreds of transactions specialising just in properties here on this hillside have provided us with a wealth of information about the properties we offer and their locations.
We do consider it part of our duty to buyers to share with them anything relevant we know about that they are unable to see for themselves from a simple visual inspection of the property.
Return to our introduction about procedures and costs for Spanish Property Sales
Spanish Property Buyers Guide 1
Spanish Property Buyers Guide 2
Spanish Property Sales - Purchase Costs
Spanish Property Sales - Procedures