Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2019 12:07pm
Hello Gerry, I hope you have better luck with your search today.There are thousands of properties for sale and many of them will have been for months,if not years, so don't feel as if you will miss out if you don't put a deposit down to take the property off the market. Although it may seem a load off your mind to hand everything over to the estate agent to arrange when you find a property there are dangers involved in doing this. For some, it may all go smoothly but there are too many horror stories to overlook the fact that there will be a conflict of interests if the abogado is working for both the seller (through the estate agent) and yourself. Before you put any deposit down you need to make sure that the property is listed correctly on the deeds as there could be illegal extensions or under-builds turned into living accommodation.
The issue of flooding has all too sadly been made evident in recent weeks and although this has been the worst storm since records began, flooding occurs most years in different parts of the area so I would recommend that you get something in writing from your solicitor to confirm that any property you are interested in has not suffered in the past. Be wary of freshly painted walls.
Another potential pitfall is the Complimentary property tax which is the subject of another thread running currently. This is an old article I have found so ignore the percentages which have probably changed, but it explains it well. http://www.abacotaxes.com/complementary-tax.
It would be a good idea to ask your abogado when you find one to find out what the authorities consider the value to be.
In my experience, even with an independent abogado, it is up to you to ask the questions. There will be no flood risk report or radon gas or searches for incidents of subsidence, heave or landslip etc that you get in the UK and the abogado is unlikely to actually see the property so will not know if it differs from the deeds. Has it got a Habitacion certificate? If not, the least of your problems could be getting the utilities transferred into your name. Even our own independent abogado wasn't in the least concerned that we were buying ours without one and we had to do our own research about getting a Certificate of no Infraction and ultimately the Habitacion Certificate.
If you think there could ever be a possibility that you will need to rent the property out, even if it is to friends and family at reduced rates, please read this, Davebev1's guides: Renting out your property as a holiday let in Spain
I really don't want to put you off because I love my life here in Spain and would do it all again in an instant but it has not been smooth sailing.
Above all else, do your own research and do not rely on information given by the estate agent as it is not their job to put you off buying.
All the very best.
Cheryl
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