PURCHASING PROPERTY

Started by JOJOG68, February 01, 2017, 11:58:32 AM

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JOJOG68

Hello, Could someone please give me a guide on how much to add to the purchase price of a property for all extra fees etc.
I have read a lot of conflicting information.
Many thanks.


decho


Johnrgby2

Quote from: decho on February 01, 2017, 12:51:09 PM
9-10% is what it cost me
[/quot

I confirm that I paid a little extra so our solicitor obtained our NIE,s Residencia and Registered with the Island Social services, came to 10.5% in total

decho

It's a little bit more if you are getting a mortgage.
Goldacre Estates have a very good leaflet about the costs.

spitfire58

Quote from: Johnrgby2 on February 01, 2017, 13:33:54 PM
Quote from: decho on February 01, 2017, 12:51:09 PM
9-10% is what it cost me
[/quot

I confirm that I paid a little extra so our solicitor obtained our NIE,s Residencia and Registered with the Island Social services, came to 10.5% in total

I can second that. We were approx 10.5% & got NIE's, power of attorney etc in with the deal with Fuerteventura Law. Great service

Snowdrop

Very expensive buying and selling property on the island so make sure you get it right first time.

spitfire58

Quote from: Snowdrop on February 01, 2017, 23:10:27 PM
Very expensive buying and selling property on the island so make sure you get it right first time.

I agree it is expensive Snowdrop but that is compared to U.K. Don't think it is anything unusual to the rest of Europe. I suppose it is what you are used to !!

Can the Man


F1REFLY999

La luciérnaga

Please visit www.costacaleta.co.uk

Lexeus

I am trying to buy a property in Fuerteventura and I was wondering if anyone who has paid for the fullworks at around 10% could breakdown exactly what was done for that money.
I have been going through all the different offices to get all the information about the property and I have calculated all the taxes etc, I am trying to work out whether perhaps there is something I have missed, as the prices that I have been quoted seem outrageous in relation to the small amount of work that I have done my self.

The biggest part is 6.5% ITP of course, then I would be interested to hear what people have paid for Land registry and notario fees; I would think 1.5% max, making a house purchase cost perhaps 8% in fees/taxes. Apart from that almost everything else is free, with the "package prices" you are just being charged to do that leg work as far as I can tell, but as much as 2% is an awful lot of money, depending ont he cost of the propery of course? :)

Thanks in advance :)

Logitechtom

10% is the average cost, as others have already said. A little more if your also asking the solicitor to arrange your NIE registrations (ONLY attempt this yourself if you speak really good Spanish!!) and you may also want Spanish wills completed, which will be extra.

Please don't try to save money by finding a cheap solicitor or conveyancing service - they need to do LOTS of checks and you don't want them cutting corners to save a few euro.

Tom.

Johnrgby2

Quote from: Logitechtom on August 10, 2017, 12:10:36 PM
10% is the average cost, as others have already said. A little more if your also asking the solicitor to arrange your NIE registrations (ONLY attempt this yourself if you speak really good Spanish!!) and you may also want Spanish wills completed, which will be extra.

Please don't try to save money by finding a cheap solicitor or conveyancing service - they need to do LOTS of checks and you don't want them cutting corners to save a few euro.

Tom.

Totally agree with Tom do not attempt to cut corners, it is never worth it, we paid precisely 9.954% of the purchase price and then paid our Solicitor a set fee for which she completed the property sale within 7 weeks obtained NIE,s and residency for both of us, arranged and set up direct debits for water, gas, community fees, both local taxes and obtained our social security numbers with out us doing anything other than answering the odd question over the phone.

spitfire58

#13
Quote from: Johnrgby2 on August 10, 2017, 12:27:06 PM
Quote from: Logitechtom on August 10, 2017, 12:10:36 PM
10% is the average cost, as others have already said. A little more if your also asking the solicitor to arrange your NIE registrations (ONLY attempt this yourself if you speak really good Spanish!!) and you may also want Spanish wills completed, which will be extra.

Please don't try to save money by finding a cheap solicitor or conveyancing service - they need to do LOTS of checks and you don't want them cutting corners to save a few euro.

Tom.

Totally agree with Tom do not attempt to cut corners, it is never worth it, we paid precisely 9.954% of the purchase price and then paid our Solicitor a set fee for which she completed the property sale within 7 weeks obtained NIE,s and residency for both of us, arranged and set up direct debits for water, gas, community fees, both local taxes and obtained our social security numbers with out us doing anything other than answering the odd question over the phone.

Couldn't agree more. We have all heard how corrupt the Spanish system is. You need to be confident in your choice of solicitor, this is without doubt the most important choice you will make. You will pay (as has been said) approx 10% on top but well worth it for a smooth & legal process

Globetrotter

Quote from: Logitechtom on August 10, 2017, 12:10:36 PM
10% is the average cost, as others have already said. A little more if your also asking the solicitor to arrange your NIE registrations (ONLY attempt this yourself if you speak really good Spanish!!) and you may also want Spanish wills completed, which will be extra.

Please don't try to save money by finding a cheap solicitor or conveyancing service - they need to do LOTS of checks and you don't want them cutting corners to save a few euro.

Tom.
Only spoke a few words of Spanish and managed, no problem  :)

Lexeus

sorry for the rather slow reply....

I was hoping someone may have an idea what they had actually paid for in the 10%, does no-one ever get a detailed breakdown of where their money went?

Speaking Spanish isn't an issue for me, my issue is lack of experience with the Spanish legal/planning/conveyance system. On the whole, for someone who hasn't ever bought a house here I am probably something of an expert having spent a very large amount of time researching it all. My question is, what do they do for this 10%, as it is an awful lot of money for what appears to be relatively little work. If you read about the disjointed situation with the various different Spanish authorities, with many properties, even the best Spanish lawyer may just carry out a spotless and legal conveyancing of a house that doesn't even exist, as they probably wouldn't ever visit the actual building; it is only relatively recently that existing laws have been enforced to the extant that you can have some confidence in the paper plans matching what the builder did, not long ago many architects would take their fee and sign off on anything as long as it wasn't dangerous.... and maybe even then you never know.

There is definitely some work involved in that 10%, as I know having been backwards and forwards with the planning office several times, and nothing happens in August which is FRUSTRATING! If 7% is taxes, then has no one ever asked for a breakdown of what was actually done for the 3% fee? For a start, the planning office doesn't charge any fees, just lots of lost time! :)

Johnrgby2

#16
When we purchased our property I was given a breakdown of the costs, and I could not find anything untoward, you could argue as you say some of the % appear over the top, but that is the system, I was told before we came here buy a good friend who lived on the mainland for many years, that 9/10% was the charge to purchase, and so it was, unfortunately after we completed and I had the deeds etc etc I did not keep the breakdown, but as I and others have said if you try to cut corners, you are going to end up with issues, but at the end of the day that is a decision for you.
If you intend to purchase you are going to need a solicitor, so select one and ask him/her for a breakdown, I am sure most would be happy to oblige, or as decho said some time back ask Goldacres for their leaflet.

I have just found this on the web, will give you some indication.

Taxes and Costs
The various taxes and legal and administrative costs usually add up to around 10% of the sale price. These costs are paid by the buyer (on top of the sale price) and break down roughly as follows:
6.5% transmission Tax for a second -hand property or 5.75% (sales tax and stamp duty) for a new property.
Notary Fees
Land Registry Fees
Plus-Valia Tax
Translation Fees (obligatory for non-Spanish speakers)
Mortgage opening commissions and fees (if applicable)
Lawyers Fees

Jazza64

Can I ask are the fees payable on the completion date or will the notary / solicitor etc invoice you for the various charges.

Johnrgby2

Quote from: Jazza64 on August 31, 2017, 17:08:30 PM
Can I ask are the fees payable on the completion date or will the notary / solicitor etc invoice you for the various charges.

In our case, we were told the overall cost and made the payments as and when we were asked, I do know a friend of mine who was not at the time living on The island gave his solicitor temporary Power of attorney, and she handled it all for him.

Lexeus

Hi John,
that is the sort of summary which you commonly see, but beyond 6.5% ITP, what does the fluffy description actually mean?

In the UK the system in buyer beware, and there is an onus on the buyer to research everything beforehand and normally this means take out indemnity insurance by employing a solicitor who has it to do the work for you.

The Spanish system on the other hand requires the owner to make you aware of everything about the property, now it would be naive to ignore all the obvious cases where this doesn't happen, you need to do your research, but unlike the charges in the UK from places like the land registry, just for doing that research, here in Spain it's all pretty much free to access, you just need authorisation from the owner. Further, given the dodgy legal system, do you really fancy relying on a solicitor and then falling back on suing your solicitor when he does a bad job? :)

For example, this BOE excerpt details maximum prices for Land Registry Escritura  registration charges, it starts at â,¬24!!!!: https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-1989-28112

1. Por la inscripción, anotación o cancelación de cada finca o derecho, se percibirán las cantidades que fijan las siguientes escalas:

a) Si el valor de la finca o derecho no excede de 6.010,12 euros, 24,040484 euros.

b) Por el exceso comprendido entre 6.010,13 y 30.050,61 euros, 1,75 por 1.000.

c) Por el exceso comprendido entre 30.050,62 y 60.101,21 euros, 1,25 por 1.000.

d) Por el exceso comprendido entre 60.101,22 y 150.253,03 euros, 0,75 por 1.000.

e) Por el exceso comprendido entre 150.253,04 y 601.012,10 euros, 0,30 por 1.000.

f) Por el valor que exceda de 601.012,10 euros 0,20 por 1.000.


I understand Plusvalia in Fuerteventura is pretty much negligible, just like the IBI it's eye poppingly cheap compared to the UK.

Notary fees are to some extent dependant on the man you pick, but 1% would be high.

My thinking is 3.5% of say â,¬200,000 is â,¬7,000, so I don't know about you but, I want to know how that 2 or 3 thousand notary/land registry fee gets topped up to 7

I don't know about you but I got time to do a little work my self for the sake of missing out on 4 grand :)

Anyone have an itemised number breakdown? It would really help me out. None of my spanish friends can help, because they haven't paid for it lol.

By the way, Gold acre may do some good work, but my experience with them is that of absolute crooks!! I went to view a house with them,and they turned up with keys that didn't work, and after being very patient with them over weeks, they tried to get me to make an offer on the house without looking inside, and it pretty much definitely has squatters living it!!!!  :o
And don't get me started about the fees that gold acres quotes, they are one of the few offices that are actually quoting 10% buying costs plus more on top! It's crazy but when you don't speak the language I know it's just much easier to pay.

Lexeus

Quote from: Jazza64 on August 31, 2017, 17:08:30 PM
Can I ask are the fees payable on the completion date or will the notary / solicitor etc invoice you for the various charges.

In order to buy a house you hand over a bankers draft and get the escritura (deed to the house) in a meeting at the notary (key hand over day if you like). He will probably want paying beforehand, but they are private companies so it's all negotiable, pick who you like and negotiate :)

In spanish law, from the date the escritura is signed at the notary, you have 30 days in which to file the paperwork and pay the 6.5% ITP at the tax office.

Additionally, you are not required by spanish law to register the signing of the escritura (buying the house) but to protect your investment everyone wants to, and you can do this at the land registry any time you like after the notary signs the escritura, and obviously you pay them when you go to do it (I hear the can be some months before you actually get the registry updated, it's slow...)

Johnrgby2

Yes it is slow, we saw the house 24th August made an offer the following day, got the keys 2nd October, all paperwork completed on 15th January

Jazza64

Here is a typical breakdown of a house valued at 200,000 euro
Purchase Tax 6.5% = 13,000
Notary & Registry = 1,200
Solicitor = 1,284
Total 15,484
or 7.7%

There will be fixed fees in there therefore on a lower value property the % will be higher.


Lexeus

Thanks Jazz, it's good to know there is atleast one person out there who admits it may not cost 10% above the purchase price.
7.7% sounds more realistic to me, I am working on worst case figures that only just tip over 8% and I am looking at a house closer to the 150,000 mark.

Anyone out there with an actual listing from a house purchase, I would love to hear about it! :)

Jazza64

Maybe the 10% figure is historical when some buyers would pay the plus-valia tax. Nowadays the vendor would normally pay this your solicitor should hold this back from the purchase price & pay it on behalf of the vendor.

spitfire58

Don't know what you all call "historical" we bought last November. Property price was 47.5k euros. Purchasing costs in total (property + costs) were as far as I remember approx 51.5k euros, I did work it out & it came to approx 10.5% of purchase price. We did get 450 odd euros back at the end as "unused funds". I was shown the costs but when I asked for a written breakdown I was told that they would then have to charge x amount of hundreds of euros extra (as I understood it, a "cash" sale rather than an invoiced sale). Didn't like it but our costs had already mounted up so let it go which is what I assume they are pushing you towards !!!

Windermeregolfer

An update re our experience Tax on our purchase 7% other legal costs 2.04% of the purchase price of the property (excluding the 7%tax), included in that was getting our NIE's, all the purchase paper work, will preparation, notifying local authority and utilities companies and setting up direct debits for these & 2 trips to notary, one to give lawyer POA for the purchase process and one for signing our wills.

We were told the fee before we appointed our lawyer and felt it was very fair price compared to UK.

Lexeus

#27
This is the pitfall 'fair price compared to the UK' is how they fleece foreign buyers. Many of the the things that are chargeable in the UK are virtually free here, and apart from the ITP tax all other charges are much cheaper in Spain, on top of the fact that the labour rates for a solicitor are cheaper too, a 1 hour consultation with a decent solicitor in Fuerteventura is no more than â,¬50, in the uk that could easily be â,¬150.

They seem to really try and pad out what they are doing to earn there money, I mean a NIE is nothing to do with buying a house really, I already got mine, it cost me two trips to Peurto and I think a 20â,¬ processing charge, so including petrol my NIE cost me 50â,¬

Lexeus

Digging this up, anyone got any recent updates on their buying experience? Any recent purchase costs summary would be interesting!  :)