# House being repossessed?



## seasonprater (Mar 9, 2012)

Hi

Wonder if anyone has any advice / thoughts. We have been renting a property in the Valencia region for coming up to 3 months now on a long term rental contract. 

We had a visit yesterday from the local magistrates court and police asking for the owners. They now live back in the UK. We were told by the magistrate rep that the owners are defaulting on their mortgage payments and that they really need to speak with the owners asap and that they are looking at repossession. She advised us to start looking for another place to live.

Does anyone have any experience of this - do you know how long a repossession takes, can we be evicted with little notice, how do we stand with our posessions?

Any advice / thoughts really welcome!


----------



## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

seasonprater said:


> Hi
> 
> Wonder if anyone has any advice / thoughts. We have been renting a property in the Valencia region for coming up to 3 months now on a long term rental contract.
> 
> ...


I can't answer your questions - but I know someone who was renting a house when it was repossessed by the bank

the bank has allowd the family to live there rent free for something like 3 years now - they just have to look after it & let the bank know if they ever hear from the 'owners'...... who no-one has ever been able to get in touch with, for some reason


----------



## xicoalc (Apr 20, 2010)

xabiachica said:


> I can't answer your questions - but I know someone who was renting a house when it was repossessed by the bank
> 
> the bank has allowd the family to live there rent free for something like 3 years now - they just have to look after it & let the bank know if they ever hear from the 'owners'...... who no-one has ever been able to get in touch with, for some reason


That sounds encouraging for the OP

I know that on Spanish news some months ago a lot of people facing repossession were drawing up rental contracts to family members so that on paper somebody else was a tenant of the property and although this did not stop the repossession it gave the tenant the right to stay – in other words the "talent" was granted the right to stay after the repossession in the original owner was of course the person that was living there. Clearly the authorities were aware of this and probably cracking down but it does highlight the fact that there must be some kind of protection in place for tenants of properties in the event of a repossession.

I am also unable to give you specific advice but I would advise that you take a copy of your rental contract to a lawyer and explain exactly what happened and find out what your rights are in Spain and of course in your local province. This is one of those things that really does require expert advice more than "I think…" Which you are likely to get from the forum but please I would be very interested to know the outcome and keen for you to let us all know what your lawyer says.


----------



## Karen58 (Aug 1, 2012)

Having a Spanish friend working for a bank here dealing with many repo's the average time for the final process to take place (bailiffs and police seizing property) is currently 2.5 years due to the amount of property and the administration to take it's course.


----------

