David Laver
For most people who arrive in Spain with the intention to purchase a new home perhaps the single most important thing they will need are contacts. These can be schools, solicitors, doctors and estate agents. Who regulates these essential bodies? For estate agents this is a very easy question to answer.
In 2005 the Junta de Andalucía created a new piece of Legislation called the Decree 218, which was designed to make the buying and selling of property more transparent.
With all of the horror stories regarding the mis-selling of property here in Andalucía the Junta introduced a best practice series of rules which must be adhered to or the agent will be fined. These fines start at 6000 euros for a first breach of the law and ultimately in closure for repeated failure to adhere to the rules.
The Decree 218 applies to any business wishing to sell property here in Andalucía and it simply states that the selling agent has to supply the true information about the property which they are showing.
This requires the selling agent to be able to show the potential buyer when asked, a selection of paperwork to support what is being sold.
For every property an Estate Agent has for sale they need to have a copy of the Escritura, Nota Simple, copy of the IBI payments, a Ficha Informativa (written in Spanish) and photographic ID that the owner is the person who signed the paperwork allowing the property to be sold. This means that each time a property is shown the potential purchaser knows what is being sold and by whom.
Don’t be put off by a lack of Spanish as there are just a few words which you need to look for and these words are certainly the most important and possibly cost effective Spanish words you will ever learn. On the Nota Simple, which is the document from the Land Registry office, the house should be registered as vivienda. If you are buying a house (vivienda) with a pool you are looking for the word piscina (pool). Certainly any Estate Agent selling property inland should be able to speak enough Spanish to translate these documents.
The reality is that as a buyer the paperwork is as important as the property itself. Remember, if your agent tells you that the house you are buying is a two storey property with a pool but the paperwork (Nota Simple) says it is in fact a single storey house with no pool mentioned, then you will have a problem in the future.
Junta de Andalucía
Every registered Estate Agent will be visited by a team from the Junta de Andalucía once a year. They will arrive unannounced and request to see the all of the paperwork for properties selected at random. If the agent fails to supply the required paperwork they are fined and given a grace period to correct the missing paperwork.
To be sure you are using an Agent who has been inspected successfully is Decree 218 compliant, all you need to do when you meet your agent for the first time is ask to be shown their compliancy paperwork.
For each property you shown, ask to see a copy of the Nota Simple and if you are unable to read it at least look for the words, vivienda and piscina. If the agent cannot do this the best advice I can give is to leave the office and look for another agent.
and making it the first branch to open in the province of Málaga.
