Help with Copia Simple

 Hello there,

A friend of ours who is an old English gentleman and now lives in England, is trying to sell a property he owns here in Spain.  We have said we will do what we can to help him as we live nearby in Spain and often get asked by people if we know of anything for sale in the area and we do believe that his property constitutes a good buy for somebody. 

Anwyay, I posted a while back because he said that he didn't know where his Escritura was and I was kindly given advice on here which has resulted in the Copia simple now being in my posession.  And this does indeed prove that he is the legal owner.

However, as far as I can see, there is a huge mortgage on it of around 90+k euros plus costs, interest etc.  This gentleman, let's call him Don, says that he did have a mortgage but that it has been paid off now.  However, he can't show me/find any bank statements which would prove this. 

What I would like to do is to find out for myself if this debt has been paid off because the last thing I want to do is help sell a property that is largely, (if not entirely) owned by the bank.  By the way, when I collected the Copia Simple at the Registro, they did tell me that there is a debt of around 350 euros to a plumbing company, but of course that is small so no problem. 

Is there a way that I can do this because as far as I can see the Copia Simple says that there is still this debt and that, worse still, the time period for it to be paid back in has just run out.  

I'd be really grateful for any help. 

This is an excerpt from the Copia Simple:

Cargas

Hipotaca (Prestamo) a favour de Banco Santadner central Hispano SA formalizada mediante escritura otorgada en … (sitio)… a 22 abril, 2001, ante el Notoario Don Pedro …(nombre) ... , en garantia de

90.150,82 € de capital,

de 10.818,22 € de interes ordinaries,

de 48.681,98 € de intereses de demora, y

 22.537.95 € para costas y gastos, plazo de duracion: seite años. 

Asi resulta de la inscription …. Numero … 14 junio, 2001.  

After which follows five headings:  Afecicon

As  far as I am aware after a mortgage has been paid off I think you have to go to the Notary so they can detail that the mortgage has been discharged. Maybe your friend was'nt aware of this and failed to finalize the transaction with the Notario, perhaps he just paid off the bank and thought that was the end of it.

 Very many thanks for the helpful post.

I wonder if this means that I have to go to the Notario now as he is not able to do so himself.  And what that would entail ie if I should approach the bank first and take paperwork from them with me.

. 

The bank maybe able to help you but I would think that you would need his power of attorney before you would be able to do anything on his behalf.  If he is now living in the UK you maybe able to find a Notario there that could do the power of attorney for you. 

 Many thanks for pointing out that it is in fact a Nota Simple - you are of course quite correct.  I had it in my head that it was a Copia Simple but it does indeed say Nota Simple on the front.  Slack of me not to notice! 

But the good thing is that if I had got the Copia Simple and not the nota simple, I would not have know about the existence of this debt. 

I just don't know if there is going to be an easy way for me to find out about this debt still being upnpaid or not and I don't think a power of attorney would work, even if he would give it to me.  'Don' tells me that it is paid off but won't or can't prove it.  But I am of a suspcious nature when it comes to these things added to which I don't think he can be guaranteed to know what is correct and what isn't.

What happened is that the debt is in fact in his son's name, as his son was at the time resident in Spain and he wasn't.  Don tells me that he has always provided his son with an allowance (son used to be poor and father rich but I think these roles might have been reversed!) and this allowance was uped to pay off the debt and some more besides.  Now father and son have fallen out and son won't tell father if the debt has been paid off or not.  

In conclusion, the debt is not even in his name but, I believe, on the property itself - so I could do with an easy way to find out the current status of any debt. 

My advice would be to steer clear of it all.  It sounds as though you will have to spend a lot of frustrating  time and effort and the people you are trying to help don't seem to be helping you. I would tell them to enagage a lawyer to sort what appears to be a complete shambles out.

 Most updated Land Registry information is always the first document to start with. From there, the rest of the work is carried out.

Remember.  Not all debts are shown on the Nota Simple. only those which have ben registered.  

 It is for this resaon I was surprised to see that a plumber had registered a debt of 350€.  For me that would 'start the alarm bells ringing.'

   When I saw that the poster is a legal assistant to a solicitor!!!   Thus, whilst the advice may be sound, it is not totally unbiased advice.