Purchasing Property

Do you have a query about moving to Andalucia and buying property in Andalucia. Find out by posting questions and reading about other peoples experiences.
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Fincaman
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Re: Purchasing Property

Postby Fincaman » Thu Jan 12, 2017 6:29 pm

I agree with what everyone has said, and in Spain you should be cautious about trusting anyone without getting a second opinion (and yes, even include registered estate agents, mayors and solicitors in that category). There is even an organisation, SOHA (Save Our Homes in Axarqia) to support all those who bought properties in good faith (often with correct licenses and other documentation) and who gave since discovered that they are illegal according to the regional Junta, who can overrule local town halls - take a look at their website. The best advice is to keep your UK property but rent in Spain until you really get a feeling for the lie of the land.Everything is so very different to the UK. It's a great place to live, but it takes some time to understand exactly what that entails.
Restoring an old finca near Colmenar.

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costakid
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Re: Purchasing Property

Postby costakid » Thu Jan 12, 2017 8:11 pm

Im getting the feeling that Loopy Lisa is letting her heart rule her head.

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Loopy Lisa
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Re: Purchasing Property

Postby Loopy Lisa » Thu Jan 12, 2017 11:57 pm

I think you have hit the nail on the head.
It is only now that we are at the point of handing over Euro 30000 as our 10% deposit that our heads are saying - all that we have said is an issue is still outstanding!!!

We have a long and no holds barred email going off to the agent either this evening or first thing tomorrow. When this is all over, I may share it with you!

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Re: Purchasing Property

Postby Beachcomber » Fri Jan 13, 2017 12:02 am

Does this mean that the purchase price is three hundred thousand euros??? You need to let your head take over now before you do something you will regret for the rest of your life.
Let's go Brandon!

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Loopy Lisa
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Re: Purchasing Property

Postby Loopy Lisa » Fri Jan 13, 2017 1:13 am

Not quite, but the property was the top end of our budget!!!

I have read and re-read the comments and my feet are firmly on the the cold british soil and my heart is heavy.

Thank you everybody for your comments and taking the time to share your opinions, experiences and knowledge. It is a tough lesson and I hate not having what I want but for us it is back to searching for a property again ............

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Re: Purchasing Property

Postby Unicorn » Fri Jan 13, 2017 1:24 am

For what it is worth, Lisa, that is a correct decision.

You must love living in Spain, not spend your time being embroiled in a nasty load of problems.

There is always something else better around the corner, better and a whole less hassle, so you can get that relaxed life you are looking for.

Please take our comments as being the kindest of advice and not bitter spoutings. Believe me, we only want to let you benefit from fortunately was maybe not our experiences but one we have heard a hundred times over.

Good luck and I am sure we all hope to hear from you again with a positive story.

A small price to pay Lisa, but I'm sure it will all come right in the end.....

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Re: Purchasing Property

Postby Beachcomber » Fri Jan 13, 2017 8:37 am

Feel free to check back with us when you find another property. It is impossible to give a 100% informed opinion without knowing all the details but there are enough experienced contributors to this forum to know when there are alarm bells in the air.
Let's go Brandon!

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costakid
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Re: Purchasing Property

Postby costakid » Fri Jan 13, 2017 9:27 am

Lisa, Look on the positive side. The next property that you buy and are happy to pay lets say 293000 euro after negotiation push them a little bit harder for another 3000 discount and you will have had your money back that you lost on this experience. It may make you feel better.

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gerryh
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Re: Purchasing Property

Postby gerryh » Fri Jan 13, 2017 9:32 am

I would have thought there should be a good chance of getting the €3000 back.
As Beachcomber has already pointed out the property is probably built illegally.
Point this out to the estate agent and the seller and tell them that unless you get your money back you will denounce them for trying to sell an illegal property.
I very much doubt if they want the property brought to the attention of officialdom if it is illegal.
Cheers
Gerry
Gerry Harris

yesSi
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Re: Purchasing Property

Postby yesSi » Fri Jan 13, 2017 10:00 am

Hi Loopy Lisa

Another 'newbie' here. I feel your pain!! But do take heart...as I read through your post I kept nodding, as our initial purchasing experience was very much the same and with heavy hearts and much to the disgust of the Agent and Seller we chose to walk away. But it was the right thing to do and 6 months later we became the proud owners of another property, not what we were looking for at all, but suits us very well. You will find that your attitude to all things Spanish will mellow and you do learn to understand that the processes that we take for granted are not the same in Spain...but that's the way it is and no point getting upset about it, just embrace it.

Best wishes and good luck in finding your new home x

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chrissiehope
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Re: Purchasing Property

Postby chrissiehope » Fri Jan 13, 2017 2:42 pm

Lisa -I have sent you a pm (private message)
Alexandr for President (Squire for PM !)

Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.
Inside of a dog it's too dark to read (Groucho Marx)

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costakid
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Re: Purchasing Property

Postby costakid » Fri Jan 13, 2017 6:45 pm

gerryh wrote:I would have thought there should be a good chance of getting the €3000 back.
As Beachcomber has already pointed out the property is probably built illegally.
Point this out to the estate agent and the seller and tell them that unless you get your money back you will denounce them for trying to sell an illegal property.
I very much doubt if they want the property brought to the attention of officialdom if it is illegal.
Cheers
Gerry
I wouldn’t hold your breath.That is giving them false hope Gerry and you know it. You ever tried getting blood out of a stone let alone an estate agent or solicitor.

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Wicksey
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Re: Purchasing Property

Postby Wicksey » Sat Jan 14, 2017 11:14 am

Why not come here and rent for a bit Lisa? Get a feel for the place before committing yourself.

Although we bought over 20 years ago without knowing the area very well, it was supposed to be just a holiday home and it was only after coming here on holidays for a few years that we really fell in love with the place and chose to move here permanently.

We learned an awful lot from that first very fraught purchase (took us 8 years to finally get all our paperwork .... not recommended!) and we had to leave the country for a while to get over the stress of it all before coming back and realising how much we wanted to settle here again!! We walked away from 2 purchases before buying this current house, and as I have said, even this one had potential problems too.

And Gerry, we had a huge argument with the agent over our deposit - a well known and long-established one in Nerja. He refused to repay it even though there were problems with the land which we said made it illegal.

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Loopy Lisa
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Re: Purchasing Property

Postby Loopy Lisa » Sat Jan 14, 2017 2:44 pm

Renting is an option that is fine with us IF we can find something to rent!!! We've looked for the last couple of year and definitely is fine for us but I am giving up my job to move and the sale of our UK home will be finding our new life until we get to pension age. So renting has to be a short term option, we first considered it when we thought of buying a wreck or building new .... that was quickly rejected as risky and difficult.

I know it isn't the same very but we've holidayed in Andalucia and always stayed at a country villa. In fact one of the villas we have stayed in is in the market and we would be tempted if it had a bath!

At the end of the day our house in the U.K. Will be sold and we will need to live somewhere - if we haven't found a property to buy then it will be a question of where to rent and for both of us we feel that the sale of our home here is the end of our UK life so it will be renting in Spain.

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Wicksey
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Re: Purchasing Property

Postby Wicksey » Sat Jan 14, 2017 4:36 pm

Loopy Lisa wrote: I know it isn't the same very but we've holidayed in Andalucia and always stayed at a country villa. In fact one of the villas we have stayed in is in the market and we would be tempted if it had a bath!
No room to install one?? We have managed to fit a small one into our shower room as that was something we really wanted.

Is it too much hassle to rent out your UK home to give you an income in the meantime?

elusive
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Re: Purchasing Property

Postby elusive » Sat Jan 14, 2017 5:02 pm

People always advise to rent first. Obviously thats not a long term option for you if you need the money from the house and dont want to spend longterm on a rent. But staying on holiday on a campo house is very different to living in one especially if you are going to have to travel a distance to get anywhere. Driving up and down dirt tracks and winding country roads can get very tiresome. even more so when you are there in the winter and putting up with tracks disapearing under a down pour.something you dont think of when enjoying a summer holiday The novelty can wear off very quickly. Location is very important as you just cant up and sell if you fancy a change a year down the line or think we need to be nearer a town etc.

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costakid
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Re: Purchasing Property

Postby costakid » Sat Jan 14, 2017 6:35 pm

Driving up and down dirt tracks and winding country roads can get very tiresome. even more so when you are there in the winter and putting up with tracks disapearing under a down pour.something you dont think of when enjoying a summer holiday The novelty can wear off very quickly.

Totally agree with that statement. We rented in Alhaurin years ago and i got so fed up with driving down to the beach every day in the summer. 20 sets of traffic lights and stop start in heavy traffic, it drove me mad. When we bought our place we knew it had to be on the coast.

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Fincaman
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Re: Purchasing Property

Postby Fincaman » Sat Jan 14, 2017 6:37 pm

Wicksey wrote: The land has been surveyed and topographical maps drawn up and signed and agreed by him and our assessoria is in the process of getting the plans changed on the main register although it can take years to go through.
Yes, many years. Our land is correctly stated on the escritura, correctly surveyed and the plan bound in with it. We have been assured that is legally ours but getting the main register (cadastral?) updated is indeed taking years. Fifteen so far....
Restoring an old finca near Colmenar.

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Wicksey
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Re: Purchasing Property

Postby Wicksey » Sun Jan 15, 2017 11:58 am

Fincaman wrote: We have been assured that is legally ours but getting the main register (cadastral?) updated is indeed taking years. Fifteen so far....
:crazy: I won't hold my breath then ......

I was going to say about driving over tracks all year around - quite different to the dry months when just one heavy downpour can make a very good track turn into a riverbed. We like to suss out the possible local nuisances and noises too. We know that an innocuous-looking shed in the next field may contain a load of dogs that sleep all day when you are viewing the house but bark all night long. Or it may be a favourite route for the local scrambler bikes :thumbdown:

Unlike in the UK, when we once only lived in a house for 6 months before putting it back on the market, selling it and being out again within the year, such transactions rarely happen here particularly when campo houses are concerned.

I'm not trying to be doom and gloom, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else, but the buying/selling/living experience can be a bit of a culture shock and things are often done very differently here.

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Loopy Lisa
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Re: Purchasing Property

Postby Loopy Lisa » Mon Jan 16, 2017 12:17 pm

We've sent a long (4 pages!) letter to the agent stating that we do require the access to be settled ahead of moving forward and proposed that he contact the owner of the strip of land about transferring it to us by way of either a swap or an outright purchase at a reasonable price. The letter contained considerably more information than that.
The agent has come back and said our lawyer will need to negotiate that and he thinks it will be problematic and difficult. So I think the best we can hope to achieve is an easement to cross over etc. And having a good understanding of UK law and the difficulties a land owner can create if he wants to do so to anybody enjoying rights and the difficulties of getting it resolved; my feeling is that it will be almost impossible to force a difficult owner to comply with the rights enjoyed.
The second point that has been raised and this was only raised in the past month is that we are expected to pay our 10% (assuming we go ahead with the PPC) directly to the owners of the property. The agent has never stated that to us and in fact the guidance from the Spanish Land Registry is that it is paid and held in escrow (quite happy with with this).
The whole thing is a bloody nightmare and at the bottom of it all is the completely useless estate agent.
Oh and another thing I forgot to mention the agent copied in the seller to an email response to us and so we have been bombarded with emails from the seller directly!!! And although we haven't yet completely pulled out the property is back in the market with another agent and has been for since tail end of last year!
Rant over, feel free to comment and slap me around the face for getting this far, imagining ourselves living in the house and letting our hearts rule our heads!!!
As I've said before thanks for all your replies and for helping us to keep sane in this crazy process


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