Schlagwort: urban plan

ARE YOU THINKING OF BUYING A HOME IN SPAIN?

Geschrieben von admin am 27 März, 2018. Veröffentlicht in Andalusian, english speaking solicitor.

When thinking about purchasing a property in a different country, there are many doubts and uncertainties that may arise.

We’ll try to give you the basic information you must take into account as well as a few tips.

WHAT ARE THE EXPENSES WHEN BUYING A HOME IN SPAIN?

The legal costs of a sale are usually around 10-12% of the purchase price for a secondhand home or 13-14% for a new home.

The highest cost is the tax on the purchase of properties: The property-transfer tax for secondhand homes –8% in Andalusia– or VAT at 10% plus document duties at 1.5% when purchasing a new home. Other costs to be taken into account are notarial fees and the Property Register.

The fees of the property agency are usually paid by the seller and included in the purchase price.

I ALREADY FOUND THE PROPERTY I WANT TO BUY. WHAT NOW?

Once you have selected a property, the agency will ask you to pay a deposit, usually around 5,000 euros, to remove the property from the market and provide enough time to sign a private sales contract where the seller will be paid 10% of the purchase price.

This holding document is usually a simple document that must include: the details of the sellers and buyers, the purchase price, the payment terms, the date of signing the private contract and the deed of sale.

For more information about the entire purchase process, click here or have a look at this video:

HIRING A LAWYER

If you’re thinking about spending a significant part of your savings on buying a home, it seems logical to hire a lawyer to advise you and make the sales process less stressful.

Beware of people who advise against hiring a lawyer to save costs or those who seek to provide legal advice and are not lawyers. If what you’re looking for is a lawyer, you can ask for a certificate accrediting his recognition and/or a professional liability insurance policy.

You should take into account that the average cost of a lawyer is around 1% of the purchase price plus VAT. Is it really worth saving 1% considering all the money you’ll be spending?

The lawyer you find should be independent and be very familiar with property law, being able to demonstrate some experience in this sector is always important. It may be helpful to review the public information available on the lawyer’s website as well as customers‘ reviews.

WHICH DOCUMENTS SHOULD I HAVE IN MY POSSESSION?

The most important ones are:

“Nota Simple”, this is a short information of the property from the Property Register
Copy of the IBI or property tax for the home
Utility bills

If they also provide a copy of the licence or deed of the property, even better.

REGISTRATION IN THE PROPERTY REGISTER AND CADASTRE

The short information from the register – nota simple- and the cadastral reference appearing on the property tax bill can be used to verify that the property is duly registered in the property register and the cadastre, as well as that the persons selling it are its owners.

STRUCTURAL SURVEY?

It doesn’t seem unreasonable to have an architect visit the property and carry out certain checks, such as measuring the built area –this way you’ll know that the register and cadastre are accurate– and you’ll also get a professional opinion about the state of repair of the property.

Obviously, the architect will only be able to see defects that are apparent but at least you’ll be able to rule out certain flaws within the property.

URBAN PLANNING INFORMATION

If you’re going to buy a home on urban land, it is important that you ask the council if it has a licence for construction and first occupation licence. The licence of first occupation is requested from the council once construction work on the home is completed.

It is important to keep in mind that older homes –built before 1977– did not have a first occupation licence as this did not exist. It is also true that some recently built properties do not have that licence either for different reasons. Even though, in theory, the property cannot be occupied and used without that licence, this is actually possible and this is not necessarily an obstacle to buying the property.

Verify that the development where the home is located is free of debts towards the council and has been completed, in order to avoid paying additional costs in the future.

COUNTRYSIDE HOMES

If you’re going to buy a home on rural land, in this case the urban-planning situation is very different from the one explained for properties on urban land. The most important thing is to get information about when construction ended, whether the land has any type of special protection or if the council has started proceedings to re-establish lawfulness. In Andalusia, a regularization process has been created.

CHECK FOR POTENTIAL DEBTS WHEN BUYING A HOME IN SPAIN

With the information from the Property Register, the one received from the Council and the community of owners, you can see whether there is a debt on the property that could affect you as its new owner. This refers to debts such as a mortgage, liens, property taxes, community fees, etc.

If there are any debts, the best thing to do is to have the seller pay them before signing the Deed of Sale or withhold the amount of the debt from the seller so that you can pay it yourself.

DEED OF SALE AND YOU’RE THE NEW OWNER

For you to become the new owner of the property, you’ll have to sign a Public Deed of Sale before a Notary and pay the seller the rest of the price agreed, receiving the keys to the property.

Once you sign the deed, you need to start the process to record the home in your name in the register and cadastre, as well as pay all taxes.

After this, we hope you enjoy your new home.

Author: Gustavo Calero Monereo, lawyer at C&D Solicitors Torrox (Málaga, Andalusia)

DRAFT OF THE DECREE ON THE LEGALIZATION OF HOUSING ON NON-DEVELOPABLE LAND OF ANDALUSIAN REGIONAL GOVERNMENT

Geschrieben von admin am 13 August, 2011. Veröffentlicht in Property law, Unkategorisiert. Keine Kommentare zu DRAFT OF THE DECREE ON THE LEGALIZATION OF HOUSING ON NON-DEVELOPABLE LAND OF ANDALUSIAN REGIONAL GOVERNMENT

Three weeks ago, we received in our offices a copy of the draft implementing Decree of 20^th of June 2011, which regulates building and scattered rural settlements on non-developable (non-urbanizable) land in Andalusia.

This draft is supposed to be created as an attempt to regulate the situation of a large number of properties located on non-developable (non-urbanizable) land in Andalusia, where criminal or administrative proceedings cannot be filed against them for land development liability, because the offense or infringement is extinguished by prescription. The Andalusian Regional Government is partially responsible for this situation, as they have not protected or controlled the legality regarding land developments of municipalities for many years. Meanwhile, they have collected the profits from the transfers of title ownership by means of the transfer tax.

Regarding the draft of the Decree, the concept of constructions assimilated out of ordination is not understood. The use and enjoyment of these constructions can be exercised, but a complex administrative procedure is established, so that the city councils certify the security and necessary facilities for the use and enjoyment of these properties. However, the resolution to this procedure shall never mean the grant of the First Occupancy License, neither the owner’s rights shall be recognized to be exercised before any administrative or criminal proceedings (article 7, section 6 of the Decree).

If the use of housing is recognized and regulated to preserve the rural area, the environment and the scenic value where the construction is located, then, why the First Occupancy License is not granted when the owner is enjoying the property? What does “non-recognition” mean before any court proceedings? As a result, it could be understood that in the event of court proceedings, this recognition of assimilated housing shall not have any legal “value” for these proceedings, that is to say, legalization or regulation does not exist.

Maybe, the problem is based in the creation of the concept “assimilated to out of ordination”, which was incorporated by the Decree on Urban Discipline of Andalusian of 2010 and its implementation.

Furthermore, an additional problem arises, as the Land Registry jurisdiction belongs to the Spanish Government. As a result, the State legislation should firstly include this legal concept of “assimilated out of ordination” within its rules in order to authorize the registration in the Land Registry of any administrative action which establishes a construction under the consideration of this concept. Nowadays, the only existing concept is “out of ordination”, but nothing is referred to constructions “assimilated” to these ones. Then, the Regional Government is not authorized to establish the access or registration in the Land Registry, as this jurisdiction belongs to the Spanish Government.

Lastly, in many Andalusian municipalities as the Axarquía region, thousands of isolated houses have been built on non-developable land under the corresponding construction permits. Then, it does not seem coherent that differences in treatment are not considered for these owners acting in good faith, regarding these municipal permits they were granted. This draft of the Decree does not include any reference to them; therefore, the legal situation of the constructions with permits equates with these other constructions without permits.

In conclusion, regarding the content of the draft, legalization or regulation of properties located on rural land is not incorporated; no legal novelty is provided to solve out the problem resulting from the lack of control of Public Administrations regarding the use of land; this law only complicates even further the current situation of this issue.

Author: Gustavo Calero Monereo, C&D Solicitors (lawyers)
Torrox-Costa (Malaga/Costa del Sol/Andalucia)

THE DEMOLITION OF THE BUILDINGS IN THE RUSTICS LANDS OF ANDALUCIA

MALAGA, AXARQUÍA AND URBAN PROBLEMS.

Geschrieben von Gustavo Calero Monereo am 2 Oktober, 2010. Veröffentlicht in Featured, Property law. Keine Kommentare zu MALAGA, AXARQUÍA AND URBAN PROBLEMS.

I recently read an article in Diario Sur talking about Alcaucín Town Hall. It is still bogged down with the properties built in non building lands.

Consequences arisen from the urban corruption existing in Alcaucin (Malaga) since 2009, has resulted in a lack of legal security for part of the owners and people who are interested in investing in a property around this area of Malaga, provoking, as main conclusion, an important loss on the buying and selling property market, and a horrible publicity abroad of our local institutions and our legal system as well, for a non response in view of the abuse competence of some Town Halls in urban matters and, in the permission of the Andalusian Government, who has looked the other way for many years while the many urban irregularities happened; of course cashing up thanks to taxes and prices for the usufruct and enjoyment of the properties and for asset transfers.

Some of the professionals that work in this area, we wonder why so many legal proceedings are opened where the owners turn out accused. Most of them are not responsible of this illegal urban activity, but they can be seriously affected.

From a legal point of view, most of these procedures would end into nothing because of the prescription of many of the charged urbanizing crimes and because of the possibility of regularization of buildings, as it has been stated by the doctrine. Passing of time in the resolution of these judiciary procedures only provokes an overextension of this chaotic situation.

I do agree in the fact that town halls should be meticulous in the fulfilment of urban rules and that the Andalusian Government must closely watch private as well as local building activities. However, I do not quite understand that there should be a series of judicial procedures opened against illegal urban licenses that have enjoyed a tacit acknowledgement for years due to lack of control; specially, when these acts have been carried out in such an evident way and for such a long period of time.

The intervention line that is being carried upon the misuses of non-urban ground, not only arrives late but it does not solve the problem, thus causing the situation to worsen by overextending the resolution to the problem within the eternal judiciary channels. In many of these procedures the solution will not only be the least adequate but it may not even be possible to re-establish the original status to the illegally urbanised ground, which would be the desired thing to be done in this last instance. All this without taking into account the patrimonial responsibility that this will mean to the city council already in great debt and what’s more, the nullity of the illegal local licenses as well as the prejudices that may arise among those property owners who were counting on the city council to achieve a building permission.

In such a time of chaotic urbanism and autonomic and local irresponsibility associated to periods of growth, it would have been logic to establish a strict action line to be followed from now on, being categorical to all the illegal behaviour and conduct, reaching a consensus on the different competent institutions with logic and coherence by the assumption of responsibility over these illegal acts from those truly responsible. There are always solutions and technical means to be applied if both parts are implied in it.

We finally hope that coherence finally imposes itself. However, if this long period of uncertainty were here to stay, the image of the real estate would be irreparably damaged and the efficacy of the public and professional institutions in question. It will be difficult to overcome this situation because of this feeling of judicial insecurity and chaos in the criteria due to the arbitrary decisions that weaken us all.

Author: Gustavo Calero Monereo, C&D Solicitors (lawyers)
Torrox-Costa (Malaga/Costa del Sol/Andalucia)