UPDATE RE LATEST VISIT - MARCH 2007

I bought an apartment in 2004. The escritura indicated that all community fees were paid and that there were no debts.

Yet after moving in and getting my first statement there were arrears of €1,400 going back what seems to be 3-4 years.

I raised this with the administrator of the development (well with his staff as he is like Lord Lucan) and his staff said that they would look into it and despite following up several times it has fallen into a black hole. Things are made worse now as the community voted to get rid of this administrator,  so of course the new administrator is showing this debt and the old administrator will have nothing to do with it now.

In my opinion the old administrator is liable because either there is no debt, or there is a debt in which case the letter of no debts should not have been issued.

I have been told by the new administrator that I need to pay and claim the money back from the old administrator. I am wondering if there any point in bringing the old administrator to court as it seems that court decisions are useless in Spain as there seems to be no penalty for not complying with a court order. Has anyone got any suggestions?

Might be worth contacing the lawyer you dealt with as at notary this is when provisions are made for payments of community and suchlike. It may be that whoever should have paid it on the sellers behalf diodnt pay it or it was paid and not logged in the books somewhere!

Worse thing you can do is pay and hope it sorts itself out as it wont.

Make an official notification by way of bureaufax your situation adn understanding - the escritura wont show payment of community fees - its usually a certificate presented at notary when you sign, the notary looks and checks that it is paid up to the day you take the property over and this may be lodged at notary soemwhere.

If you find that then you should be in the clear.

Check with old lawyer

Rixxy,

The cert is on the file - I have the file. It is signed and stamped by the administrator.... Doesn't seem to matter. I have referred to my lawyer but nothing seems to be happening. He said he would write to them but no answer from him when I follow up.

Lets get this straight. Have you got a Certificate from the Administrator or the Presidente stating that there are NO Community fees owing on the apartment you purchased??

If you have, then that is that, you have proof. If you do not, then you as a new owner are liable for any debt outstanding on the property.

Problem is though that I am now looking at selling the apartment, so while the debt appears on their books they will not be able to say that it is debt free.

Are any of you lawyers, preferably Malaga or east of Malaga? I am looking for someone to clear this matter up for me once and for all but more importantly I am looking at suing a developer - they have not got the building licence on a development and while they have said they would pay me back my deposit they keep deferring the repayment date. They have bounced 2 cheques. I can PM the developer name but you probably already know who they are. How hard would it be to get their assets frozen?