Hi all,
We're STILL househunting. Beginning to think we'll never buy a house here. Latest house: owner's father never registered the property in the Registro, though she has some form of escritura. So, either it's registered in someone else's name...in which case it's apparently a VERY long drawn out process and we'll pull out OR it's never been registered, which we've been told is fairly straightforward. According to the lawyer we saw the other day, we simply register the house in our names as the first owners. This all sounds way too straightforward to me. Anyone got any experience of buying a property not previously registered (not a new build)?
It looks like every house in our village has similar problems because the last time most of the properties changed hands, very few people in the village were literate and house sales were very informal.
Any advice?
Cheers,
kelly
House not registered
Hi Kelly
We have just bought a second (very small) house that was not registered, we went to the local registeration office and it was not a problem, they knew about the fact it had not been registered before and it was not a problem, took some weeks to finally come through but all is well now.
pwwm
We have just bought a second (very small) house that was not registered, we went to the local registeration office and it was not a problem, they knew about the fact it had not been registered before and it was not a problem, took some weeks to finally come through but all is well now.
pwwm
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We once bought a house that had three previous owners none of whom had paid the transfer taxes or registered the property.
We took the three escrituras and calculated the cost of getting the legalities in order and deducted this from the purchase price. The amount actually represented nearly 20% of the purchase price. However, we knew what we were doing and how to go about resolving the situation without having to rely on a lawyer.
Your first step, if you have not already done so, is to obtain a nota simple from the property registry.
I can't see how you could register the property in your own names as the first owners as someone has to sign it over to you. If escrituras for the property already exist they will have to be registered before it can be registered in your name.
There is also a legal process called 'tercero de dominio' for the transfer of disputed property but this is somewhat complicated and, anyway, I don't think it would apply in this case.
We took the three escrituras and calculated the cost of getting the legalities in order and deducted this from the purchase price. The amount actually represented nearly 20% of the purchase price. However, we knew what we were doing and how to go about resolving the situation without having to rely on a lawyer.
Your first step, if you have not already done so, is to obtain a nota simple from the property registry.
I can't see how you could register the property in your own names as the first owners as someone has to sign it over to you. If escrituras for the property already exist they will have to be registered before it can be registered in your name.
There is also a legal process called 'tercero de dominio' for the transfer of disputed property but this is somewhat complicated and, anyway, I don't think it would apply in this case.
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House not registered
We had the same problem when we bought our house. Our solicitor explained the procedure that would happen in front of the notoria. The owners would register the land. They would then register the house on the land. When that was done and it only took 10 minutes we could then buy legally from them. All went very smoothly.
Thank you all for your replies. I'm glad that bit of it seems straightforward (ish).
Our other problem is that the lady selling it is the daughter of the owner. The owner has died and there are apparently quite a few brothers and half brothers lurking around. She has a power of attorney for one, one is happy to show up and sign any necessary paperwork and the other three have died. The children of the three who have died have told her they want nothing to do with it (she says she will get this in writing). I presume that all of these parties will need to register the property before they can sign it over to us. If the three half-brothers died intestate, surely the matter is a LOT more complicated. The lawyer we saw last week said that the three brothers that died were only entitled to a share of one third of the property because they were not the biological children of the owner. So it follows that their children will be entitled to an even more diluted share and therefore we shouldn't worry about anyone crawling out of the woodwork for such a paltry share of a relatively cheap property. But... it's cheap NOW but we're hoping it will rise in value once we've done it up. and in twenty years' time, who knows? With such a convoluted history, what happens with the registry? Does every Tom, *beep* and Harry with a 1% share have to register the property or sign a power of attorney? we're getting to the stage where we're desperate to buy a place and it's starting to cloud our judgement. The lawyer said there is always a remote possibility with old village properties that someone will crawl out of the woodwork and that this kind of situation is very common because of the low literacy rates of the previous generation. He suggested we really needed to take a leap of faith and have a little bit of trust. Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner... I'm a bit short on trust.
Any advice?
PS: Those of you who have read my posts in the past may notice that this is almost exactly the same situation we found ourselves in with the house of our dreams a few months ago. we let that one go. So, we keep letting hosues go and every new house becomes less the house of our dreams and more the house that will do. And every time, they have the same old escritura/registro problems. It's quite easy to see how people end up getting caught out and making bad decisions. And then get accused of leaving their brains behind on the runway at malaga airport!!!
Cheers,
Kelly[/b]
Our other problem is that the lady selling it is the daughter of the owner. The owner has died and there are apparently quite a few brothers and half brothers lurking around. She has a power of attorney for one, one is happy to show up and sign any necessary paperwork and the other three have died. The children of the three who have died have told her they want nothing to do with it (she says she will get this in writing). I presume that all of these parties will need to register the property before they can sign it over to us. If the three half-brothers died intestate, surely the matter is a LOT more complicated. The lawyer we saw last week said that the three brothers that died were only entitled to a share of one third of the property because they were not the biological children of the owner. So it follows that their children will be entitled to an even more diluted share and therefore we shouldn't worry about anyone crawling out of the woodwork for such a paltry share of a relatively cheap property. But... it's cheap NOW but we're hoping it will rise in value once we've done it up. and in twenty years' time, who knows? With such a convoluted history, what happens with the registry? Does every Tom, *beep* and Harry with a 1% share have to register the property or sign a power of attorney? we're getting to the stage where we're desperate to buy a place and it's starting to cloud our judgement. The lawyer said there is always a remote possibility with old village properties that someone will crawl out of the woodwork and that this kind of situation is very common because of the low literacy rates of the previous generation. He suggested we really needed to take a leap of faith and have a little bit of trust. Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner... I'm a bit short on trust.
Any advice?
PS: Those of you who have read my posts in the past may notice that this is almost exactly the same situation we found ourselves in with the house of our dreams a few months ago. we let that one go. So, we keep letting hosues go and every new house becomes less the house of our dreams and more the house that will do. And every time, they have the same old escritura/registro problems. It's quite easy to see how people end up getting caught out and making bad decisions. And then get accused of leaving their brains behind on the runway at malaga airport!!!
Cheers,
Kelly[/b]
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Hi all
Thanks again for your replies.
Funny that you said it's a buyer's market. I wish someone would tell the people in our village that!!! Our trouble is that it's a small village and properties don't come up on the market very often. When they do, there's a Johnny-Foreigner price and a Locals price. And prices seem to be rising in the village, which I understand is a bit different to the situation down on the coast.
I'll keep you all posted. Or alternatively, you can wait for SUR in English to publish reports of a mad, laughing English woman riding a horse naked through Andalucia throwing sweets to all the children and screaming something or other about finally buying a house.
Kelly
Thanks again for your replies.
Funny that you said it's a buyer's market. I wish someone would tell the people in our village that!!! Our trouble is that it's a small village and properties don't come up on the market very often. When they do, there's a Johnny-Foreigner price and a Locals price. And prices seem to be rising in the village, which I understand is a bit different to the situation down on the coast.
I'll keep you all posted. Or alternatively, you can wait for SUR in English to publish reports of a mad, laughing English woman riding a horse naked through Andalucia throwing sweets to all the children and screaming something or other about finally buying a house.
Kelly
Good Luck
My sister in law has had a nightmare of house buying in the village where we live,all the ones they wanted had problems with family not all wanting to sign , no paperwork or incorrect paperwork, had they not used a local solicitor some of the discrepancies may not have come to light until after they had signed! Finally, after a year of looking they have just bought a house that was by far the best house they have seen and the paper work was all in order!! Well worth the wait even though the prices have tripled in that time even for the Spanish, unless you happen to be family To other posters its not always like this, after several viewings of our house over the course of a week, we agreed on a price on the Monday, (lots of haggling) and signed in the Notary on the Friday. So Good luck and happy hunting.
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