Escritura problem

[USINSPAIN]

When we bought our house in 2002 seemingly there was a small Mortgage still outstanding the seller did tell the notary that they would settle it and they did. But the Bank they had the Mortgage with has not had it removed in the notary so it is still on my Escritura, my new solicitor (old solicitor well gone with his commission) has told me to have it removed I will have to pay €1200 to €1500 is this figure correct what needs to be done to get this removed.

[Jool]

I was going to write unbelieveable....but.......This is sadly all too believable but the mortgage should have been removed when you signed for the house at the notary originally and the notary and your first solicitor were negligent in not getting this done....it should have been removed and a new escritura drawn up in your name with NO mortgage at the same time....what does the actual copia simple or nota simple say about the mortgage as presumably you did not sign a mortgage deed for mortgage transfer?

You will need to go back to the notary with the relevant bank manager and proof the mortgage was fully paid up and do a whole new escritura, fees quoted seem about par for the course...... if the old solicitor is still registered in the Colegio de Abogados I would contact them via there and ask why this was not done and suggest they contribute to the fees, if not ask for the complaints book and make an official complaint against the negligent solicitor. I think you also have a case against the notary myself but no doubt Beach or Julian or someone will correct me if i am incorrect......

[Beachcomber]

If the mortgage has actually been paid off the cost of obtaining an escritura of cancellation should not be that much.

You do not need a whole new escritura. The escritura of cancellation of the mortgage in conjunction with the original escritura is sufficient. More important is that the cancellation is registered in the property registry and that it shows clean title.

When you eventually sell, the new escritura will not mention the mortgage.

The function of the notary is to ensure that you are aware of the contents of the escritura, nothing more, but if he did not speak English he had a responsibility to ensure that its contents was translated into English and during this translation you should have become aware of the fact that the mortgage was being included in the escritura.

However, it is the translator not the notary who is responsible for the accuracy of the translation and if it was translated by your lawyer he probably skipped over it because all he wanted to do was get the transaction over and done with and walk away with his fee.

[USINSPAIN]

Thank you both very much for your replies I will go to the notary now with this new advice and see what I can do.

[julian]

if you do this direct through the notary it shouldn´t cost that much, I did read recently that notary and registry chrges will go down by 20% in january, and possibly up to 70% reduction by next summer, so it might be worth waiting a while before going ahead.anotherthing to remember is that you do not really need to do this until you come to sell if you want to avoid the hassle and cost now, just ask the bank for a certificate that the mortgage is paid off, and keep it with the escritura until you sell, it can all be done then.

[USINSPAIN]

Not thinking of selling as yet and if there might be a charge reduction in the future happy days thank you all