Advice on notary procedure when selling house

[teralin]

Hello again

I am in the process of selling my house and my estate agent is handling my side of the transaction whilst the buyer has a lawyer. My buyer wants to pay in £sterling which I have agreed to. My question is about what happens at the notary as I would like to be prepared. For example, if my buyer hands me a bankers draft, will I have the opportunity to phone the issuing bank to verify it's authenticity. When would my estate agent expect to be paid? Do I pay plus valia at the notary or does this come later? Sorry for all the questions but I would like to be armed with knowledge before I ask the same questions of my agent.

[costakid]

It can be hard to verify a bankers draft because of the data protection act. Not all banks will give info out as its not from your account. Saying that I can’t see someone using a stolen or snide draft to buy a house. Its not like they can cash it out in a few days before you find out.
I am not sure you can be paid in Sterling as the details of payment have to be recorded and i guess it would have to be in local currency. Beach may be able to confirm tis.

[Beachcomber]

Under certain circumstances it is possible to be paid in sterling but only if both you and the purchaser are non-residents and the notary agrees. You will not be able to verify the sterling bankers draft.

Estate agents usually take their commission from the deposit paid by the purchaser. The amount of the plus-valía is very likely to be withheld by the purchaser because, as a foreigner, if you fail to pay it the debt will fall on the property and the purchaser will be lumbered with the bill.

[teralin]

Thanks to you both. Since my buyer's lawyer is agreeable to the payment in sterling, I am assuming that he knows that his choice of notary will have no objections. Hope this is the case.

[Miro]

The amount of the plus-valía is very likely to be withheld by the purchaser because, as a foreigner, if you fail to pay it the debt will fall on the property and the purchaser will be lumbered with the bill.

Is that the case, even when the compra-venta clearly states that the Plus Valia is for the account of the seller? I've never had a buyer retain the plus valia to pay on my behalf (I wouldn't trust them to!) - but maybe if the seller is non-resident it's something buyers are wary about? These days, would it be worth the risk of skipping town (Spain) without paying it? (just planning ahead here!)

[Beachcomber]

In the event of a foreigner selling whether resident or non-resident and having no other property in Spain it would be stated in the escritura that the amount of the plus-valía had been withheld by the purchaser. If the purchaser does not the pay it the debt falls on the property anyway so he would gain nothing by not paying it.

If the foreign seller returns to his country of origin without paying the plus valía the purchaser, despite what is stated in the escritura, would have great difficulty in recovering the amount of the plus-valía so any wise purchaser, if he is buying from a foreigner, would insist on withholding a provision of funds to pay it.

[Miro]

I'm still a little puzzled by this. I haven't sold a property for a while so may be out of touch, and the most recent sales were not my primary residence; I did indeed have another address. However, the last time I sold my primary residence (2003) I didn't have any other address in Spain (I wasn't even sure I was going to stay in Spain) - but there was definitely no suggestion by the buyer of retaining the plus valia and paying it on my behalf.
Now today, my gestor, who I usually trust to know his stuff, told me by law plus valia is always for the seller unless otherwise stated in the compra-venta - but even in this case, in the event of non-payment, the town hall will always sue the seller for the outstanding amount, and the seller then has to sue the buyer, citing the clause in the sale stating that the buyer will pay it.
Discuss!

(P.S. this is interesting / important to me, since we've just landed ourselves a buyer, who has voluntarily provided a contract for us to sign, which clearly states that she, the buyer will pay all costs/taxes/fees etc., specifically including the plus valia. We didn't protest!)

[Beachcomber]

The Town Hall will pursue the seller for non-payment of the plus valía which is easy if he is Spanish or a foreigner with another property in Spain which can be embargoed at the drop of a hat but pursuing a seller who has returned to his country of origin is a totally different story and in this event the debt will fall on the property.

The purchaser withholding the estimated amount of the plus valía is a matter of expediency rather than law and is perfectly well provided for in the wording of the escrituraa.

Notwithstanding, if you have a purchaser who is willing to pick up the tab for the plus valía I would bite his hand off

[Miro]

Duly bitten!

[Pamela1]

Congratulations Miro on securing a buyer, I remember when I first joined the forum a few years back that you were hoping to sell your house...It seems that a few other members have also been successful.I hope you and the others who have sold and moving on will keep popping into the forum now and again .

[baroness]

I always have a quick look to see how others are doing, Jeff (sold in mid October)

[peteroldracer]

Our sale is still moving forward and we took all the papers to the abogado today. He agreed that as we are tax resident there would be no retention, and that as pensioners selling our principal residence there would be no CGT/Plus Valía to pay, but then came up with something new to me, "plus valía municipal", which apparently we must pay to our Ayuntamiento? Is this right, and is there a way of knowing how much this might be?

[Enrique]

Hi peteroldracer,
A example of a Calculator................

http://www2.malaga.eu/inter/plusvalia/i ... ramite=642

[Beachcomber]

Plus valía is the subject of previous posts within this topic. That link is only for the municipality of Málaga not the province generally. If Comares is administered by the Patronato you can check it here:

https://portalweb.prpmalaga.es/opencms/ ... ionIIVTNU/

If not, and if Comares town hall does not have an online calculator, you can get a good idea here:

http://www.foro-ciudad.com/plusvalia-municipal.php

Otherwise contact the town hall directly and ask them for a quote.

[Miro]

Did your abogado tell you that you will need to obtain fiscal residency certificates from Hacienda, to prove you are tax residents and avoid the 3% retention?

[peteroldracer]

He did not need to, I already had them....
If you use the Agencia tributaria website to submit tax returns you can download and print them.

[Miro]

Just checking! Last time I needed one, Hacienda decided to play silly buggers with me. The whole story is somewhere on A.com - I'm just hoping they don't try it on again with us this time