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OXFORD BLUES
Some reflections on the firm´s annual conference in Oxford, the legal profession and the importance to treat clients as guests.
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How to prepare the completion of a client´s property purchase in Spain in less than 5 days (and not die in the attempt)
A powerful title that could easily be the title of a book or a film. What was the name of that film with Simon Pegg “How to lose friends and alienate people” ? Something along those lines. Well, last week’s work for a client who only had 5 days to prepare for the purchase of…
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Who pays the estate agent´s fees in a property transaction?
There is no better source for the creation of an article than life per se, or at least, a lawyer´s daily practice. This week I wanted to talk about a practice within some estate agents that upsets me substantially. I am talking about the charging of the real estate agent´s commission to the buyer. There…
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Who pays the Spanish inheritance tax in a Spanish estate?
A question I get very often, both from executors dealing with UK estates and from UK solicitors who find themselves handling the affairs of a deceased client who also happened to have assets in Spain. Before diving into the core of the question, let’s start with the basics. One thing is the UK estate and…
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Can a UK charity inherit assets in Spain?
Sometimes clients get upset with their lawyers. Its something inevitable, like rain in September or Germany classifying for the world-cup semifinals even when they have an average football team. Sooner or later a lawyer needs to tell the client that what he/she wants to do is not practicable or could create unnecessary liabilities. This week,…
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Lawyers acting for their friends (and the blurred lines in between)
This Friday, while being at the birthday party of one of my best friends in Barcelona, I had the opportunity to put closure to one of the most difficult cases that I had in my legal career. My friend was turning 49 years old and since 49 is the new 48, or so my friend…
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Three deaths, one Spanish property and a bookstore story
As some of you may know, we have an office in the rainy city of Manchester. In fact, this office was Gunnercooke´s first office. Fifteen years down the line, we now have offices all across the UK as well as in other countries. However, Manchester is where everything started. It is normal that when some…
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Ahi te dejo Madrid
So it says Shakira´s famous song. There I leave you Madrid . However, in my case, it was not due to a bad love story (poor Shakira, she does not seem be very lucky with men, does she?) but to the fact that I had to return back home after completing a property transaction for…
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A Swiss story (or how a Swiss Will and testament ended up applying to a Spanish estate)
Being a dual qualified Spanish Lawyer and English Solicitor who is used to deal with the administration of Spanish estates of British citizens, the norm for me is to to deal with either Spanish Wills or English Wills. However, I have been recently instructed by the beneficiaries of a Spanish estate where there is an…
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Completing the purchase of a Spanish property on behalf of a UK Company
This week I had the honour of completing the purchase of a Spanish property on behalf of a client. The interesting thing about this completion, which as you may know needs to take place physically at the office of a Notary Public in Spain, is that my client was a UK company buying a commercial…
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