If you own a property in Spain with a spouse, relative or friend and wish to transfer or sell the share to the joint owner or take full legal title to the property then read on.
Many problems can arise post completion of a purchase of a property in Spain such as divorce, disputes between the joint owners or potential heirs as a result of an inheritance proceeding or even dissolution of a business relationship and Spanish law is on hand to assist in these situations. Continue reading
The CEE – Certificado de Eficiencia Energética – regulation was finally published on Saturday and came into effect on Monday (15th April 2013). As from the 1st of June 2013, no property transfer, by sale or lease, will be registered by a Notary without a CEE. This results from an EU regulation that’s been in effect from 2002 and the equivalent CEE’s have been required for many years in other countries. New property in Spain has had to have the CEE since 2008 and the new regulation brings that requirement to resale properties.
The property owner is obliged to get the certificate by instructing a suitably qualified property professional. They then inspect the property; note the many relevant points of location, construction and condition; enter the information into a highly complex computer formula; and the bar chart ‘banding’ of the property will be produced. This is then submitted to the appropriate Comunidad’s office (eg Junta de Andalucia or Murcia or Valencia) for ratifying and then the CEE is issued to the owner. Continue reading
Whilst Spain may be behind UK in introducing the requirement for Energy Certificates for property, it gives us to benefit from their experience. Here is a recent article that was aired on the RICS Chartered Surveyor’s website. Author is a specialist in Energy Performance Certificates in England.
The 10 years from 2008 to 2018 are seeing a profound transformation of the regulations relating to energy efficiency and, importantly, their impact on properties. Sam Parkes explains: Continue reading
It is advisable to make every effort to settle disputes and disagreements out of Court. If that can’t be achieved, it’s the Court that will decide on the basis of the information provided, so the next best step is to make sure that your professional team has a good record, attitude and experience.
With many couples and individuals now owning property all over Spain and it’s islands and prices having changed so much over the past 10 years, it’s not surprising that agreement can’t be reached on market values. So an independent expert has to be appointed. The Court Procedure Rules now encourage the use of a sole joint expert witness, to avoid the situation of multiple values being discussed in Court. Most Courts aren’t keen on discussing numbers! Continue reading
When companies based outside Spain are called upon by their clients to comment on or oversee important property negotiations in Spain, a lack of local knowledge can make them reconsider their competence to adequately work to their client’s full benefit.
The rules and regulations governing property vary from country to country and in Spain, region to region and town to town. It is impossible for overseas companies to give their clients the very best service and advice without already having gained hard won experience in that particular geographical area. The learning curve is just too steep, time inefficient and economically prohibitive for most transactions. Continue reading
Anyone who either owns or is planning to buy property in Spain needs to know about the Catastral value of the property (or Cadastre to use the French term). Unlike the Land Registry, which records legal ownership and with which it is often confused, the Catastral is not a legal record of ownership, but is an estimate of the capital value of the property, which is used as a base figure for a number of property taxes. The easiest way to find the Catastral Value of a property is to check the amount listed on the IBI (local property tax) invoice or to visit the Catastral office in the town hall. However, note that the value should only be given to someone who can show a registered interest in the ownership of the property or their representative, which can make comparison with your neighbour’s difficult. Continue reading
Campbell D. Ferguson of Survey Spain Chartered Surveyors, recently had an article published in ‘Spain is Different’, which looked at the importance of using a surveyor when buying property in Spain. There can be issues such as incorrect legal paperwork, where a property owner may have carried out improvements legally or illegally that could be recorded inaccurately. Physical defects with the property may not appear to be problems at first, but can often result in serious implications further down the line. Concrete decay, damp, insect attack, subsidence and earth tremor are just some of the problems that affect Spanish properties. The variable climate means that it is very important that property is adequately maintained. These are some of the issues that can be evaluated by a surveyor. Continue reading
As a RICS Chartered Surveyor, resident and valuing residential property in Spain for the past 10 years and involved for many years before, I’ve taken a professional interest in all that’s been happening with regard to property price trends in Spain. Since so many of Spain’s unsold (and repossessed) properties are held by the country’s banks, they play an important role in the price determination of Spanish real estate.
The big question has always been: “Who is going to occupy these properties?” It’s not just price that’s the problem. For too long, there was just too much superfluous construction funded by speculators and land buyers, with little thought as to whether anyone would actually want to live there. That’s the real overhang of the market. Now some banks are continuing the immoral practices of high loans by offering to lend sometimes more than 100 per cent of the valuation of properties they have taken ownership of – presumably because it helps them to offload properties at inflated prices. Continue reading