Selling by Power of attourney

Has anyone allowed/is allowing their solicitor to sell in this way? We are thinking of doing this to save going out there just for this purpose.

Interested in peoples views/exeriences.

Hi Roger - this is a very popular way of completing on a purchase or sale in Spain.  I did it myself when I bought here and we have many clients who use this facility.  Some people prefer to come over to go to the Notary in person but there can be last minute delays - in my case it took three attempts before the sale went through.  You also would need to arrange accommodation after the sale as the house would no longer be yours to return to that evening.

Be very ,very, very careful.

5 years ago hubby and I bought a villa. When the date of completion came I was unable to go due to work commitments. Hubby had power of attorney to sign on my behalf...so off he toddled  to Spain with all relevant papers etc and bought the villa in both our names. Approx 8 weeks later the escruitura arrived...all seemed OK. Both of us joint owners, no mortgage etc.

BUT , our abogado, although not corrupt, was a little bit slapdash and he hadn't completed the boring, extra bits of work to finalise everything.

To cut a long story short,  2 years after the purchase we employed another abogado for a different problem who accessed the Land Registry. It turned out that hubby owned half the property, the vendor still owned half and the mortgage of 135,000 euros was still outstanding!!!!!

It took us 3 trips to the Notary office and 3,000 euros to sort it out.

Bottom line = Only use people you trust. ( I repeat....our abogado was not corrupt...just lazy!).....check all the paper work yourself ....then use someone else to check it over!!!!

Jo

Thanks. I am encouraged to sell this way because the buyer has to provide the money transfer to my bank account at the time of completion (at least that is what I am told by my solicitor). So my solicitor (who has power for my bank account) rings up my bank and checks the transfer has happened. I just want to be wise about the process and therefore the level of risk I am taking. We haven't given our solicitor POA yet but thinking of doing this soon. One thing I am wondering is what my solicitor would expect from me to trigger the sale or have I given him the power to sell to anyone who comes along and annoinces themselves as a buyer (e.g. would I be expected to give the "last minute OK")?

Hi Roger - I take it from your last post that you are not using an estate agent? 

Here in Spain the estate agent checks all the paperwork and the lawyer then checks it again - giving you two levels of security, as long as they are independent of each other.  I know many people do without an agent or without a solicitor but I would always advise people to have both.  It is one of the largest transactions you will ever make and I think it is worth the extra money to have the extra security.  There is still so much potential for things to go wrong in Spain that I would not cut corners on this one.

So...why not ask him?????? He will know!!!!

And once you have...and he has given you all the reassurance..........check again!!!!!

PLUS from our experiece -everything happened 'last minute' .With hindsight I think we were mugs. We did not know enough to contradict the local professionals. We paid a fair price for the villa we wanted - but the paper work was not correct . It is now (finally). But the problem was not our fault or the vendors fault  but all the 'professionals' inbetween.

We were not duped but  we were hassled into doing things too quickly because it suited the abogado, vendor and notory. The devil was in the small print.

Whether you  are a vendor or purchaser - the same pitfalls apply...you are at the mercy of the abogado and notary and their  dedication to tie up all loose ends.

And - in our case the money to pay off the vendor's mortgage was given directly to the bank's rep at the notary's office. It was paid to the bank..not the vendor .It is all 'done and dusted' on the day. No way would anyone pay in advance for a property.  We were desperate to buy our villa - but not that daft

I do not want to rain on your parade - as a seller you are far more safe than a purchaser - but I hope I have given you a hint of what questions to ask.

Jo

This message was last edited by randolph on 08/06/2009.

Yes, of course you can grant Power of Attorney to your solicitor to sell the property on your behalf.

Best regards,

Maria L. de Castro

Well we have "nearly" sold and here are our worries:

1. At the "last minute" our solicitor told us the property was not registered as completed. They have to employ an architect to complete (the buyer insisted on a properly registered properly). EXTRA 1K euros.

2. On completion our solicitor (doing it all by power of attourney) has emailed us to say it is done - they have handed over the keys and taken a payment). BUT are they holding "secured" funds or is this just a Bankers Draft (which theoretically be a dud)? They say they will credit our account and let us know. It hasn't happened yet (1 day ago) so I guess we will have to fret until it appears in our account.

3. Anyone used the procedure to transfer funds to the UK from their Spain bank whilst being in the UK? FAXes exchanged maybe?