Buying a property

[Canela]

Would appreciate advice and opinions please.

A friend living in Denmark is about to buy a property and has been told everything is ready. He asked me to check the Nota Simple before booking his tickets to fly down.
I have no idea what this means - comes under CARGAS,

Relativo a la Nota Numero 1 al Margen de Inscripcion/anotacion 3 de fecha 9 de Septiembre de 2013.

Esta finca queda afecta durante el plazo de CINCO AÑOS, al pago de la liquidacion o liquidaciones que, en su caso, puedan girarse por el Impuesto de TP y AJD, quedando liberada por la suma de seiscientos setenta y cuatro euros con noventa y tres centimos, satisfechas por autoliquidacion.

The sellers have only recently registered the property and I`m afraid they have not paid all the taxes that they should have done?

Thanks very much for any advice (I thought about going to a gestor but then - if the sale doesn`t go through who will pay the bill:-)

[Unicorn]

I believe it is a charge on the property. I am not going to risk translating it, that is for someone to do who is qualified to do so.

Frankly, a gestor will cost very little in the light of buying a property.

[Canela]

Thanks Unicorn. That is what I think also.

[knowal]

€674.93 charge on the property to be paid to free it up.
Who to pay it to and how - I don't know.

[Unicorn]

I would also be wary that it was registered so recently. I advise you check again to see if others have been posted since. Just a suggestion.

[Canela]

Thanks White Horse - If that is the case it is not as bad as I feared. I`m sure the seller should pay that - I was afraid it might be because they had not paid the transferencia tax which could be about 12000 or more. I will go back to the Registry tomorrow and see if they can confirm it.
Thanks again.

[Beachcomber]

It is usual for a nota simple to contain this warning and it refers to the payment of transfer taxes and tax on legal documents. The period stated runs from the time the tax is paid not the date of registration.

If you can ascertain the value shown in the escritura and the valor catastral multiplied by the municipal coefficient for the year of the transaction, take the former away from the latter and apply the tax payable you will probably find that it is the amount shown. The tax has to be paid on the official fiscal value even if the real amount paid for the property was much less

The debt is on the property so if a new sale goes through before the tax office catches up the new owners will have to pay.

This applies to all property transactions and if I were the purchasers I would retain the amount until the period during which AEAT can challenge the declared value has expired.

[Canela]

Thanks Beachcomber - that is what I was afraid of and I am pretty sure that the value has been underdeclared. The sellers are being difficult and say that they will state in the new escritura that they will pay if necessary but don`t agree to have any retention. The purchaser would have to pay about 15000 transferencia tax if the sale goes through so the amount paid by the sellers is very low.
Thanks very much for your advice. Will let you know if everything turns out ok.

[Beachcomber]

Just putting in the escritura that they will pay if necessary isn't going to be much use if they have totally sold up and left the country.

I suppose it comes down to the age old question, 'are the sellers more desperate to sell than the purchasers are to purchase?'