la hague apostille

I was going to put this in the Spanish Lawyer forum, but it doesn't really pertain to anything solicitory except this question.

We want to give our solicitor power of attorney which needs to be witnessed by a UK solicitor. Apparently this then has to be legalised with "la hague apostille" to allow validity outside of the UK. I am in Leeds, does anyone know of anywhere locally to get this service please? I have Googled it, but all the companies require the paperwork posting and ridiculous amounts to return it safely. Special delivery only costs around £5 and the cheapest I can find is £12.

Thanks

Mark

Hi Marksfish

Not sure if this is any help, but  we had to do a similar thing when buying property in florida . We had to get a notary  solicitor to witness & sign the paperwork here, he cost us about £50.  Solicitors with this title can charge whatever they want, considering we were only with him for about 10 -15 minutes we felt robbed, but it had to be done! Have you checked to see if any of your local solicitors are recognised Notaries, Im afraid we dont live near Leeds to suggest anyone but they should be registered.

When we gave our legal reps power of attorney in spain, we signed over there in front of the spanish notary, not sure how much that was now, it was deducted from our client account, but I dont believe it was as costly, if you are going over there soon would it not be easier to sign in spain?

Sorry cant be more helpful but might give you a better idea where to look!

best of luck

Jackie

Hi Jackie

Thanks for the reply. I have just deciphered what my Spanish solicitor really wants us to do which is sign in front of a notary and not a solicitor! There is a public notary in Leeds but at £70 for 20 minutes and then another £100 or so to send it to the Foreign and Common Wealth Office I think it may be cheaper to go to Spain for the day!! We could have done it over there except it was a weekend that we went .

Talk about money for old rope!!!!

Mark

Hi Mark

Yep, know the feeling -  thats why these people are so well off!!

Depending on how urgent it is it probably would be easier to do it out there, they should deal with everything if theyre a good firm so you wont have to send it off anywhere - one thing less to worry about. I must admit it is worth doing, it takes a lot of the pressure off of you when things start needing signatures and you cant be there to do it, the only thing we did go out there for was for the final signing on completion - but then who wants to miss out on that, its the best bit when you get your keys!

all the best

Jackie

Found the Yellow Pages today, only three public notaries in Leeds, one of which is the expensive one  . One of them doesn't want to answer the phone  and the last one will do it for £80 +vat all in , oh of course, then there is the Foreign and Commonwealth Office charge of £27 . Booked in for Monday afternoon.

Mark

Hi Mark

I suppose £80 + VAT isnt too bad considering we paid our £50 quite a few years ago, 1998 I think it was, so with inflation thats probably about right! Glad you managed to find someone.  Have you actually got a property yet, you dont say on your profile and I remember other threads you posted on you were still looking?

Best of luck with it all and hope everything goes smoothly for you,

Jackie

Yes we did buy a property on the Costa Almeria. Funnily enough it all fell into place on arrival. We were expecting to be viewing in the Murcia region but were taken to Mojacor which is a beautiful part of Spain. We bought an apartment, but have been keeping it quiet as I don't want to tempt fate (contracts haven't been seen by our solicitor yet). Once he gives the go ahead and releases the reservation deposit to the builders (nothing then until completion as it is key ready ) I will shout about it from the rafters, but until then I still have my fingers crossed!! That said, I have seen some of the "teething" problems that have occurred to others on the development, but am hoping that they have all been sorted now.

Mark

Ha ha , dont blame you not wanting to tempt fate, you hear too often of things coming to a full stop halfway through the build, have you been given an estimated completion date - emphasis on the estimate, theyre very rarely ready when they say they will be!

Glad to see youre doing things properly and getting a solicitor to check things over, too often people jump into purchasing a property and then find the owner/or builder doesnt own the land or havent the building license etc, then cant get their deposit back..........

Jackie

Apartment is finished and furnished. What we saw was what we get . Apparently (don't know how true, can't check) an off plan investor couldn't/ wouldn't complete and it was back on the market. The complex is inhabited, the people below are from Manchester and live there all the time, next door are a Spanish family. Gives us some confidence if the paniards will buy there .

We are hoping for completion in time for the October half term, assuming all goes well with NIE application (which our solicitor is doing for us in Cartagena) and getting this bl**dy apostille!!

Mark

Great, didnt realise you were that far ahead, thats encouraging as well if you already have neighbours.  Not having the hassle of having to buy furniture, assuming its to your taste, is also a godsend, we had to wait forever to get ours installed, it seemed  nearly everyone on our urbanisation bought from the same furniture company and with us all completing at the same time you can imagine the convoy of furniture trucks back and forth over the weeks!!

Well hope it goes well for you, the worst bits over with, the NIE is fairly straightforward, although we had to go with our solicitor to the local police station to get ours sorted, have you done that bit already?    Fingers crossed for October then, weather should still be nice too I hope (it wasnt when we came over last october, it rained most of the time - I think the CDS does get rained on a bit more than further along the coast anyway!!)

Have a good weekend

Jackie

>Great, didnt realise you were that far ahead, thats encouraging as well if you already have neighbours.  Not having the hassle of having to buy furniture, assuming its to your >taste, is also a godsend, we had to wait forever to get ours installed, it seemed  nearly everyone on our urbanisation bought from the same furniture company and with us >all completing at the same time you can imagine the convoy of furniture trucks back and forth over the weeks!!
>

Will post some pictures once everything is certain. The furniture is okay, basic but useable. We thought we had a settee, but it turns out to be a bed/ settee so double the occupancy. We will change the bed eventually for two singles and a zip up mattress.

>Well hope it goes well for you, the worst bits over with, the NIE is fairly straightforward, although we had to go with our solicitor to the local police station to get ours sorted, >have you done that bit already?
>

We went at the weekend so unable to sort the NIE. We are giving our solicitor power of attorney and opening a bank account in Cartagena That way our solicitor can apply for the NIE for us as it is still allowed there (Trying to get in quick before it catches up with the rest of Spain).

> Fingers crossed for October then, weather should still be nice too I hope (it wasnt when we came over last october, it rained most of the time - I think the CDS does get >rained on a bit more than further along the coast anyway!!)

They reckon about 320 days of sunshine down there, so fingers crossed

>Have a good weekend

Just going for a curry. Couldn't find any of them last weekend!!

Mark

I like your style!

Enjoy your curry - just back from pub/meal - hope you enjoy your curry!!

buenas noches

Jackie

Mark,

only just picked up your post and assume you have had your POA sent off. We recently did the same thing.

One word of advice. Turn around at the F & C O is currently three to four weeks. However, if you travel to London you'll get it in a couple of hours. If I was doing it again and time was of the essence I'd travel to London on the Monday morning and arrange for DHL to pick it up from me at the F & C O. They'll gurantee delivery in 24 hours for little over £35 if you book on line. That way your POA is with your lawyer not long after you get back home.

Good luck

JB-DB

Bummer!! The notary we went to in Leeds said they would DX it to them overnight and they are usually back in 5 days, could that be a bit of a porkie?? All three companies that I spoke to said that if it was sent to and back to the same notary it is quicker than sending it your self, not sure how true that is either! We've been relieved of our £115 now (POA notarisation and FCO charge), so there isn't a lot we can do about it except wait, thanks anyway.

Mark

If you go the F & C O website and click on legalisation you'll see the date of receipt of applications they are working on at present.

you'll see the current one I have posted below.

Postal Application Update - Monday 23 July 2007. We have currently opened all mail received up to 5 July 2007, applications received after this date will be processed as soon as possible. To confirm that applications sent by registered or special delivery have arrived in our office please contact Royal Mail. Please visit this page on Monday 30 July 2007 for a further update

We sent ours just before the last holiday weekend in May and got it back in the early 20's of June..and that was from and to our solicitor as you describe.

Seems that it is quite a slow process. Hate to be the bearer of bad news but it is better to know the truth than to wait expectantly for the post everyday.

good luck.

It's back already, is that a record? Sent on Monday night back with the notary today!! Just need to find the time to collect it now.

Mark

Is that all it is? How much money for such a small piece of paper ????? I thought it was going to be some sort of super fandango certificate with 24 carat gilting .

Just need to get it sent off now.

Mark