Blog on Spanish law

Author: AntonioGuillen

  • The fast and the furious- New speedy eviction laws in Spain

                  An unoccupied property is a lost opportunity to make money. After the summer, thousands of holiday apartments are vacant until the following holiday season. Many of the British who have purchased Spanish property are not using them for the rest of the year.  A good option for them is to rent…

  • Catalonia to boost legal confidence in real estate

              The Catalan Regional Government announced yesterday a new initiative to improve legal confidence in real estate. The initiative is mainly thought for foreigners who may buy properties in the coast. Although the specific measures have not been decided yet, it is important to improve protection to avoid the legal problems…

  • Can I buy my Spanish property in sterling?

              This week a client who lives in the UK asked me if he can pay in sterling the purchase price of a house he is buying in Spain. The truth is that this is not an impediment. On the day of the signature of the purchase deed, the Notary will…

  • When will there be any good news?

      Well, it appears that Santander has changed its mind and will not be selling its portfolio of properties for a discounted price as it was unable to find suitable buyers. It appears that some of the offers were made by foreign investors who were pushing for discounts of up to 60% on the properties.…

  • A matter of degrees: icons, branding and a follow up on Santander’s stock of properties

        This week let me talk about the new branding at the firm where I worked: DWF LLP. For those who don’t know the firm, DWF LLP is a top 40 law firm with offices in Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle and Preston. The firm has grown considerably in recent years and such…

  • Here we go again

          I am a usual reader of the news bulletin from Idealista.com. I like it because it comes every Friday with a summary of the most relevants news in respect of the property market. The interesting thing about this news bulletin is that it does not have any alliances and you can easily…

  • Wills, wills, wills…

    As one of the few Spanish lawyers living and practising in this country, I often come across international probate matters where the deceased had assets both in Spain and in the UK. In certain occasions, the deceased is a Spanish national who moved to the UK for work and ended up owning assets in this…

  • To value or not to value? That is the question.

      The other day a client was in the process of filing an Inheritance tax form and he asked me which value he had to give to a Spanish property he had just inherited. In England the answer is quite simple: you must use the open market value. This generally means getting the property valued.…

  • The Neverending story

    That’s it! I had enough of it this week. My colleague and I have been dealing with something that should be so simple but in the end can become a real nightmare. I am talking about changing the name in the utilities. The change of name should be something simple, something like “hello I am…

  • Some good news, for a change

                    This article was written with Alejandro Yufera, lawyer from Barcelona, during his stay in our Manchester office. Dear bloggers: We have good news fromSpain. A buyer has recovered the deposit paid to a developer when he didn’t get the mortgage. This is the second resolution of the Civil…