Serious Legal Problems

I think my Spanish friends were influenced by negative stories & rumours they had heard, none of them at that point had built there own home. Since then the main doom & gloom man has built hi villa using the same builder that I used and on similar style as my house! I think that the reason we didn’t get into trouble is that we chose a respected builder in the village who has a good work record. This is something that is a bit difficult to know if you are coming from the outside into a community. My wife is Spanish and from this village. The builder (Jose Dias) does not work with estate agents who charge huge commissions. Even today he has a lot of work and is well sort after (if anyone wants to build in Cox then I can recommend him but I don’t think he would consider working out of the area).

We did not use a Solicitor. This is because my wife and I have some knowledge of the building process. I don’t recommend anyone not to use a solicitor but I think it is best to find a good one. Unfortunately many are suffering the consequence of bad administration on behalf of a solicitor that has been paid do a certain job, but it has not been done properly or the correct information was not given at a crucial time in a operation which has given place to disastrous consequences which at time it is almost imposable to remedy.

A typical example of this is the case of purchasing a property in which the solicitor in all his or her wisdom does the searches but does not inform the client buying the property that it was built without planning permission. The consequences of such negligence:- No right to electricity or water supply, difficulty in reselling such a property. Possibility that the property is not registered with the rates office and subsequence fines being issued by the rates office. This is the type of issue that is facing hundreds of expats in the Alicante area and in most of the rest of Spain.

It is terrible to be cheated and many are not able to not able to get out of the situation without a long legal procedure. I have many friends in this type of situation.

As to denouncing the situation, I recommend people to go to the school of Solicitors (Ilustre Colegio de Abogados). to seek free legal aid. It can be obtained if you are on a pension, low income or just haven’t got too much money in your bank account etc. There is normally a school of solicitors in most major towns. In the south of Alicante there is one in Orihuela, I imagine there is one in Elche too.

The more people that denounce builders, solicitors, architects & estate agents the more the state starts to take notice, especially if the state is paying the bill!.