Help with house purchase in Los Balcones

People tend to have differing views as to who you should hire to do your conveyancing but depending on just what you mean by a "legal representative" vs a solicitor/abogado.

There are many people that offer so called legal services who are in fact not legal themselves or are little more than real estate agents who in Spain have no regulation.  In fact unless they are an actual Spanish registered abogado or at a push a registered gestor then I would avoid them like the plague.

If something goes wrong a solicitor has professional indemnity insurance, the others do not, it's not worth it just to save a bit of cash. It could cost you a whole lot more.

Thank you!

Hi

We have just completed our purchase today in Villamartin!  We found our solicitor (who is British trained lawyer and Spanish abogado at A Place in the Sun exhibition last September.  He has been brilliant. He advised us to visit notary in our home town to grant him Power of Attorney which we did.  He has then done absolutely everything on our behalf - NIEs, searches, Land Registry checking, Licence of First Occupation  check (very important doc!).  We completed today without even having to sign a contract (we did see all the papers on the place) or paying anything other than 3,000 euros reservation fee to the agent and 500 euros to solicitor to start process!  We sent all the money to complete on Monday and got an email today to say job done with the notary in Spain and now solicitor is paying taxes for the sale, setting up our bank account, arranging direct debits for utilities, transferring utilities into our names, the list is endless.  We have probably paid a little more to do this safely but there has been no stress and it was so easy doing everything by email/scanning docs!  You can find solicitor Alex Radford by googling MLS (My Lawyer in Spain) or contact me for details if interested - he is based in Malaga but has offices in La Zenia I believe.

Good luck!

Bernice

As above I have just completed on a property in Playa Flamenca and used (My lawyer in Spain) above.  Everything has been arranged for me and has gone very smoothly.  The lawyer dealing with my purchase is always available via email if I have any concerns and always answers my queries promptly.  I heard about them by visiting  A Place in the Sun.

Hi

yes we did the same process - got a spanish lawyer and they told us where our nearest Public Notary was in England so they could process the Power of Attorney for our Spanish Lawyer. All went very smoothly too. The Spanish Lawyer set up all necessary direct debits for utilities etc., sorted out all payments and sorted the NIE number required to purchase a property.  We didnt use My Lawyer but there are 2 good recommendations for them so my advice is always go with  somone who has recommended them.  It was a bit more expensive but for peace of mind and not having the hassle of sorting it all out ourselves, it was worth it - my husband was a Teacher as well so we had the same problem with restrictions on when we could get over to Spain to sort things out for ourselves.  We took early retirement and moved here permanently 3 months ago.  It was absolutely the best decision we ever made. Love it here!  Good luck with your purchase.

kind regards

Jan

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply.

Whereabouts are you?  We are buying in Los Balcones