26th Aug 2009
At the start of this blog I stated that I would not be naming names and shaming people, except when I felt it was necessary. Well, surprise, surprise, today we seem to have got that far.
Today I buried my best friend so, as I am sure you can appreciate, I am not in the best of humours. But be that as it may, the OH and myself decided that a few days away might not be a bad idea and what better use to put the time to than a jaunt over to Almeria to look at the few properties that have caught our eye and to visit the wonderful people (yes, I do mean you Bruce, Marion, Dennis, et al) who have helped us not waste our money thus far.
So, I fired off a few emails to various agents that I had had contact with about their prospective properties to let them know we were going to be in the area and wanted to ‘take a look’.
Imagine my surprise when one of them, Homes Almeria, responded with the reply that the one property that we had expressed great and sincere interest in was ‘subject to contract’ as per next Monday. The first I’d heard of it!
I had contacted them back at the beginning of August expressing an interest in one of their properties and , having had an exchange of telephone calls and emails, shortly afterwards I had sent them the following:
4/8/09
I have spoken with my lawyers and their advice to me is the following:
I will need to make an appointment with the architect at the town hall to discuss whether they will allow the house to be legalised.
For this meeting I will need ALL of the documentation on the property (escritura, IBI reciepts, licences, utility bills and other receipts, drawings/plans etc.) including an up to date Nota-simple.
If the town hall is agreeable and there is no open file of infraction on the property there is a reasonable chance that the property can be legalised.
Are you able to supply the necessary documentation for me to do this?
Can you let me know as soon as possible so that I can then arrange the meeting and, of course, view the property at the same time.
Subject to all of this I will then be happy to proceed with the purchase and we would then need to discuss the terms and conditions of this.
Now slap me with a kipper if I’m wrong but I think that that is a pretty positive, unequivocal message of interest in the property, however ‘illegal’ it may be. The response from the agents was that any available paperwork, reading between the lines that meant not very much, would be made available to me when needed and I replied with the requested, expanded, definition of ‘terms and conditions’ as follows:
5/8/09
I am surprised that there are no IBI payments, these should be made on any plot of land, built or not. If these are outstanding, as will be shown on the Nota-Simple, your client will be responsible for paying them and any fines that may have accrued.
By terms and conditions I mean the following:
I am quite willing to pay the asking price. However, at the moment, all that legally exists is a plot of land with illegal buildings on it.
If given the go ahead from the town hall I would propose this:
We draw up a private compraventa whereby I place the purchase price in an escrow account with the Notary and the release of this money to the sellers will be dependent upon me obtaining full legal paperwork on the plot and the house.
I will cover the cost of the paperwork needed to legalise the house. I will also cover the demolition/reform costs should such be necessary.
Should the seller wish to pull out of the sale before completion they would refund ALL costs which I have incurred on the property.
Should it turn out that the property can not be legalised for any reason the escrow account will revert to me, the seller will reimburse me for my legal costs but I will absorb the demolition/reform costs that I have incurred.
Should I wish to pull out of the sale before completion the escrow account will revert to me, I will absorb both the legal and demolition/reform costs and will pay the seller a fair rent for the elapsed time period.
In the event of completion the seller will be responsible for paying the Plusvalia.
This message met with no response whatsoever, until today when, in reply to my email requesting a viewing of the property, I received a message stating that it was likely to be sold within the week and furthermore that my proposal (above) was not an offer nor was it accepted, this is of course true, but they, not having responded to it, in any way shape or form, gave me no idea that it was, or was not, being considered. Until today.
Do I have recourse? I’m not sure. I can certainly write about it, and next week visit their office to express my disgust in person, I can, even, contact the owners of the property, having obtained a nota-simple myself via the net, and question them as regards the actions (or lack of them) of their appointed agents, but that’s about it.
All in all it’s not been a good day.
And one last thing, for those of you who have read the rest of this blog, the quote from the real estate agent that I posted in Early August was from this selfsame agent, if it doesn’t make you wonder then it sure does me!
And one last ponder before the sun sets, if agents, such as this, have neither the interests of sellers nor buyers of property at heart then what are they there for?
I´m sincerely starting to wish that I had never opened this can of worms, but guess what? Next week I´m going to be looking at Bank Repos as well, God help me!