Property Owners
property investment - property for sale - legal services spain

In the case of owners, the difficulties that may arise are many and varied. The job of our legal advisers is to be properly prepared to minimise the impact of any such problem, the most common of which are the following:

Insurance claims for damage at home

Damage to property is very common, but it is easy to forget that such damage may be covered by one's insurance policy, which can and should meet the costs of certain payments. It is important to be fully aware of the extent of your policy, what it covers and the pertinent legal aspects. Each country has its own laws to protect consumers from delays in payment on the part of insurance companies.

The risks that are most often included in general insurance policies are as follows: fire, water damage, death or incapacity, smoke damage, third party civil liability, electrical damage, damage from fire extinction, wind, hail and snow, explosion, lightning, inhabitability of dwelling, theft, robbery, vandalism, costs of clearing rubble and debris, damage to decoration, breakage of windows, plate glass, mirrors and bathroom sanitary ware, attendance by firemen, and replacement of locks. All these risks should be duly covered by your policy, so that any claim to the insurance company will be fully protected under Spanish law. We recommend in any case that you should pursue any claim you might have to make through your legal adviser, so as to ensure that it is properly formulated as regards the grounds, basis, form and time limits. In this way, you will be guaranteed to receive any compensation due by law.

Defence of off-plan buyers

After buying off-plan we can find that the contracts were signed without the minimum required guarantees to safeguard the buyer's interests. Many contingencies can happen: delays in handing over the property, the development goes bankrupt, anticipated amounts of money not guaranteed by a bank or insurance policy houses that do not conform to the contract (false advertising), quality inferior to what the contract establishes, etc... Lexland Abogados is not only used to dealing with this kind of situations but also uses protocols to avoid them like a strict contract review policy.

Delay in handing over the property

The deadline to hand over the property can be established as an interval, a date or a maximum period of time. That is, it can appear as 'Before the third quarter of 2008', or 'during the month of May 2010', or 'on 15 August 2008'. In any case, it must be established. If the date is not established, it is breech of consumer protection regulations which can be reported before the competent institution in the respective Autonomous Community. The development company goes bankrupt: these cases are more common nowadays because of the credit crunch. Currently, 25% of tenders in our country are construction-related. These cases should clearly be managed by a specialised firm such as Lexland Abogados, because the solution is not usually simple.

On buying built property

You must be provided with legal reports that detail encumbrances and the condition of the property. Advice on property owners' community, rights, obligations, attendance to neighbour meetings, etc.

Claims to the building company because of defects

There are certain guarantees that the Building Standards Law establishes in favour of newly-built property buyers: your legal advisor must know the different types of defects that it covers, the periods of protection of each one of them, and above all the best way to exercise the buyer's rights to make them effective and solve the problem in the least time possible.

Delays in commencing construction

Those people whose purchase contract includes the date for commencement of construction will be able to claim in the event that this date is not met, you can request that they refund the amounts advanced plus legal interest. In this sense, Lexland Abogados is pioneer in achieving a favourable judgement as, although it was commonplace to receive compensation for the delays in the hand over of the property, it was not so for delays in commencement.

The property does not comply with the contract or the sale brochures

Occasionally it might happen that after buying a house, the building qualities, the equipment or the facilities do not comply with the contract or the sale brochures: the garage is much smaller than expected, the pool hasn't been built, the community gardens are not as they should be, etc.. In Spain, case law confirms that publicity and sale brochures are considered as being an integral part of the purchase contract. This is for example the case when a house is part of an urbanisation in which they initially projected a paddle court. In that case we can whether demand the actual construction of the paddle court or you can claim for compensation. We even have the right to claim for compensation if the views of the house end up being worse than the ones you could have expected from the sale brochures. In general, every modification to the detriment of the consumers with regard to the promised project is a breach of the obligations of the developer and is therefore repairable or subject to compensation.

Attendance at meetings of the Proprietors' Association

Requires time, effort and experience. This is a task that may usefully be delegated to a specialised team who will be there to look after your interests and steer any problems that may arise towards the most beneficial outcome.

Problems with the Proprietors' Association

Life together in communally-owned buildings or complexes may present a number of difficulties, most of which arise due to faulty communication and understanding between the various different proprietors and lack of knowledge of applicable law. These kinds of disputes can easily turn into serious problems with neighbours if they are not properly dealt with.

The most common sources of such conflicts are disputes over activities that are prohibited in the Association's Articles, such as those that damage communal property or are insalubrious or cause nuisance or annoyance to others, or complaints about communal services, adapting zones for handicapped people, setting internal regulations, owners who fail to pay their dues on time, etc.

Proprietors who fail to pay

For instance, may cause grave difficulties for peaceful communal life. In such cases, before initiating legal proceedings, the Owners ' Association ought to try to reach agreement with the owner in default on how he or she proposes to settle the debt, so that they are given a last opportunity to pay up. If these negotiations fail, the next step is to lodge a judicial claim to recover the debt in the courts. It must be remembered that, once the court has determined that the co-owner has not paid what is due, he or she will not only have to pay the debt but will also be liable for the costs and expenses caused by the proceedings (solicitor, court attorney, etc.)

In Spain, owners of real estate property are obliged to pay local taxes such as the municipal property tax ("IBI"). It is therefore essential for the purposes of keeping good accounts that the payments of these taxes and the applicable time limits, tax refunds, etc. are properly calculated and borne in mind.