Would be relocators who have followed my family’s migration from
South West London to our new home in Spain, may have already been
assisted in their search for that dream home by our initial six easy
lessons to a comfortable transition to life in Spain.
We have been asked to expand on our preliminary advice. So, from our
direct – and thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding experience - I hope
you’ll appreciate these six further lessons.
Currently, servicing borrowings to purchase a property by way of a
Spanish mortgage is an attractive prospect for those of you from
Northern Europe, particularly the UK, where interest rates have risen
in recent months. The Spanish financial services market is in the
formative stages of its development – and whilst it is substantially
more advanced than the markets of the former eastern Bloc - certain
financial products which are widely available in the UK are simply not
available.
For some time the UK financial services sector has offered 100% (loan
to value) mortgages, non-status or self-certifications products. These
are counter culture to the Spanish borrowing mentality where only
relatively recently has it become usual for a purchaser to borrow to
make their purchase of a property.
It may be interesting to note that unlike the UK, in Spain a mortgage
secured against a property attaches to the property rather than the
borrower. This means that a mortgage may be transferable – subject to
status – between a buyer and seller. If you do not want to assume the
mortgage, it is important that your legal advisors ensure that mortgage
debt is redeemed by the seller before you complete your purchase.
If you are a buyer who is seeking to fund your purchase in part by way
of a Spanish mortgage, I would strongly recommend that you should work
with a recognised mortgage broker to identify your precise capacity for
borrowing in Spain prior to narrowing your property search. The Rights
Group (TRG) works with several such brokers and would be pleased to
help you to assess your financial requirements before your inspection
visit. Please also remember that you’ll need to add in the region of an
additional10% of the purchase price of the property selected to cover
professional fees, transfer taxes, Land Registry fees etc.
Lesson Seven: Check your financial capacity to buy your new home before you start your search.
Many works of non-fiction in the “Driving Over Lemons” market
have depicted a view of Spanish rural life that is charming, quaint and
stuffed full of olive oil soaked personalities who are keen to help the
newcomer settle into their neighbourhood. I wouldn’t dare to suggest
that this is rose tinted – it’s not – there is an honesty and grit to
Spanish rural dwellers that is heart warming. However, they are used to
the harshness of the conditions the extremes of the seasons and the
lack of creature comforts. Above all they speak Spanish – they will
usually have little more than a “yes” or “no” grasp of English – and
why should they!
If your dream is to redevelop a remote and ruined finca in a
more rural part of Southern Spain – and there are many - little more
than a few thousand metres off the main roads – you are certain to need
in equal measures the following:
-
More than “restaurant” Spanish.
- An experienced
Surveyor – who may be a British trained RICS member or the Spanish
equivalent, a Tasador, to provide you with a full structural survey of
the property along with recommendation to rectify any obvious failings.
- A bilingual
Project Management team who should be retained early on in the
refurbishment process to ensure that you are able to achieve the
finished property that you desire. They will handle the entire process
including the creation of the architectural drawings and seeking their
approval by the Architectural College. They will obtain the relevant
building licences and permissions from the planning department of the
local Ayutamento. They will exercise relevant control over the builders
and their progress with the aim of delivering, most importantly, on
time and on price.
Lesson Eight:
Learn good Spanish if your dream home is a Finca or Cortijo in the
Campo. Don’t be led astray by the promises of an overzealous salesman
who assures you that you can build your very own Alhambra Palace on the
site of a tumble-down cattle shed – in reality its unlikely. Finally,
if the idea appeals but the reality is just too daunting buy a sea or
mountain view apartment, villa or townhouse and drive up to the Campo
at weekends and stay at one of many great country house hotels!!
Inevitably moving to a new country brings with it the need to
preserve as much of your familiar world and possessions as possible.
What do you need to bring with you when you relocate? The answer is
invariably, the minimum.
Moving house is still, allegedly, the second most stressful activity -
next to divorce - that a family can expose itself to. Now imagine
co-ordinating prompt and efficient UK or Spanish removal teams to cart
your furniture several thousand kilometres to your new home and there
to seek to fit the contents of a suburban living room with velvet and
mahogany into a whitewashed hacienda. It’s just not going to work. That
sofa will become a roasting seat on balmy summer evenings and that
mahogany cabinet will look just out of place next too the cool cream
lines of your new limed oak kitchen.
This sounds simplistic and is not intended to offend those of our
readers who have imported their finest lounge suites it is more about
appropriate design to fit your new surroundings.
Through our work in Spain we come across properties that have been
crammed with too many knickknacks from the old Country. I am not just
seeking to dissuade you from incurring the inevitable cost of exporting
used furniture to Spain but more seeking to make clear that at some
point you may wish to upscale – or downscale – your new home.
One of the member businesses of TRG Network is “Start2Finish” a “House
Doctor” service which is active in the Marbella region of the Costa del
Sol. They visit resale properties with a view to neutralising bad or
outdated taste and “dressing” them for potential buyer interest. Time
after time “Star2Finish” is required to advise it owner clients to bin
tired or outdated furniture which has been brought over with the
purchaser, often many years before. “Unloved” or over designed
interiors are – along with price – one of the most noted “turn off’s”
for a potential purchaser.
Don’t bring all those winter woollies – just in case - they’ll get
eaten by moths. You’ll not need them. Usually, in newer properties
wardrobes tend to be built in – so you don’t need to bring hefty
wardrobes with you – and as space is usually at a premium you’ll want
to rationalise your clothes to lighter cottons and linen with the
occasional fleece for winter days.
Have a car boot sale before you relocate and sell as many of your
electrical appliances as you can. Purchasing endless UK to Spanish plug
adapters will only increase the risk of fire due to short circuits.
Lesson Nine: If you can, relocate
gradually, getting used to your new surroundings before filling you new
Spanish home with your families treasure trove of useless, albeit,
beautiful heirlooms. Move in gradually.
Whilst there are many estate agencies on the Costa del Sol that
will happily sell you a property only a relative few will offer the
necessary after sales service that is so vital for your comfortable
settlement into your new home. Following your move – a tiring
experience for many - you risk immense frustration by encountering the
bureaucracy of Spanish businesses. Telefonica – Spain’s main telephone
line supplier, Sevillana – the electricity company and Acosol – the
Andalucian water company are just three of the main deliverers of
stress overload for the new settler.
Let’s be clear. Neither I, nor any of my colleagues in the TRG
Network, hold the key to the golden door when it comes to dealing with
these utility companies. They are unwieldy mammoths who have been
allowed to become complacent and unresponsive to customer power. Being
aware that they have many non-Spanish speaking customers Telefonica has
introduced an English language service which seems only intermittently
manned. When finally answered you find yourself in a vortex of
confusion, repeated instructions and delays which only serve to fray
the nerves.
The answer is to speak to them in their mother tongue – in the South of Spain: Castellano.
Lesson Ten: Let an experienced and fully
bilingual relocation agency or estate agency try to minimise those
frustrations attendant in moving to Spain by dealing on your behalf
with the utilities.
If you are a still working relocator you will probably be looking to
conduct your business as a tele-worker by the use of ADSL or broadband.
Currently, whilst certain newer forms of satellite delivery do exist,
WiFi is in its infancy, so the majority of business conducted over the
Internet in Spain is still routed through fixed line telephone systems.
My impression is that the quality of the technical infrastructure is
good with much of Spain benefiting from fibre optic cabling but it
should be noted that there seem to be geographic limits as to where one
may receive the “super highway”. I have to couch this carefully as no
one I have spoken to seems to been able to fully explain the system,
but it appears that ADSL and broadband are unlikely to be available to
a residence which is more than four kilometres from a main road.
Working extensively over the Net suits me much better than commuting. I
spent six months commuting on a weekly basis from home in Spain to
London as I dealt with my last professional commitments there. Whilst I
know and have respect for many fellow residents who continue to
commute, I have to say that being based here now full time is much more
satisfactory.
Lesson Eleven: If you want to continue
to work via the Net you’ll either need an office in a commercial centre
or to live in a more developed neighbourhood – like most urbanisations
- with good and close connections to main roads.
As the Land Registry system in Spain is very well developed many
Spaniards do not bother to use the services of a Lawyer or Abogado to
handle the conveyancing or property purchasing process. Such an
approach for me is simply unthinkable. Let’s face it wherever you buy a
home you will be sinking into bricks and mortar a substantial chunk of
your family’s net worth and it is simply not prudent to do so without
the input of an expert.
The most basic checks that simply must be made include the
following: Is the person selling the property actually the owner
according to Land Registry records? Are they up to date? Is money owed
to a mortgage lender out of the proceeds of sale? Are local taxes or
other domestic utility bills outstanding? Is the plot subject to a
compulsory purchase order? Is there a license for the property that has
been built on the plot and does it conform with the building
regulations both in terms of density – its m2 expressed as a fraction
of the whole plot – and its construction? These and other questions of
fundamental due diligence must be asked by your legal advisor. Your
lawyer is handling a process but whilst he or she must certainly be
competent and properly bilingual they must also be responsive to your
reasonable requests for clarification.
Please don’t be tempted to save the cost of responsive and good
quality independent professional advice. Horror stories persist –
particularly in the newer development areas of the Costa Blanca.
Clients of TRG, who came to us too late in the process, had been guided
by a willing seller’s agent into signing a “Private Purchase Contact”
and paying a deposit to with a party who was neither the developer or
promoter of a new block of apartments. No bank guarantee was given to
secure their deposit and no land was ever acquired. And as for the
client’s hard earned deposit, well it was never seen again…..
Choosing a lawyer is a fraught process. For every person who
recommends a particular firm another will have a contrary view –
whether or not it’s based on actual experience. I suspect that may be
the nature of any reasonably small community.
In any event I recommend that you avoid a lawyer who is recommended by
an Estate Agent. However good they are they can not escape an obvious
conflict of interests which are not weighed in your favour.
Whilst establishing the core of The Rights Group over the last
couple of years I interviewed – and have test driven - several lawyers
in this market. I have selected a small grouping which I feel represent
the “best of breed” and whom, together with the right amount of
“driving” from my TRG team on a client’s behalf, I would now happily
recommend. They are at the cheaper and more expensive ends of the
spectrum, some are good for retail conveyancing clients and some for
the bigger developer clients requiring specialist advice. Above all we
now have many satisfied clients who have been well served by our
advisor colleagues.
Lesson Twelve: Use the services of a
reputable Lawyer or Abogado in order to properly understand the
transaction you are entering into but also ensure that they are
responsive to you. Always be tempted to question things you don’t fully
grasp on first hearing and take notes during meetings.
As the presenter of one of those TV shows that reconstructs gun crime
hold ups always says – “we don’t want to scare you into believing that
you may become a victim ” – our aim is to say how it is from our
increasing experience of the very good life in Spain.
Must slope off to the crystal pool – as my iced drink is warming up - look forward to seeing you here!!!
© Mark FR Wilkins 2005 (Marbella)
Mark FR Wilkins
The Rights Group SL
mark@therightsgroup.com
www.therightsgroup.com
0034 600 343 917