# escritura incorrect



## dg754 (Feb 9, 2015)

My mother lived and owned a house in Spain for 19 years. She sadly died 4 months ago. I found a buyer immediately for the house through friends. For various reasons we never signed an initial contract and got a deposit. My sister and I accepted the inheritance, paid all the taxes, had a lawyer working for us who arranged for the architect from the town hall to prepare the energy efficiency certificates, etc, etc.

Last Friday we were sitting round the table with the Notary ready to sign the papers. The buyer was looking at the escritura that his lawyer had and noticed that a room at the top of the house was not on the escritura. It had been built over 20 years ago illegally by a previous owner. None of us had known this and I doubt that my mother had realised this.

The buyer withdrew from the sale although my lawyer did offer to draw up a document saying that we would get the escritura changed right away at our expense.

My question is - Shouldn't our lawyer have checked the escritura? Shouldn't the buyer's lawyer have checked it? How could this happen? I asked my lawyer a few times if all the deeds were correct and she was "yes, yes, all fine" and the buyer's lawyer was very particular about everything being done properly and in our names before we could sell which is why it took us almost 4 months to get to the Notary's table.

I wonder whether to find another lawyer to correct the escritura and act for us when/if we have another buyer? My faith in the present lawyer is at a low point!


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## larryzx (Jul 2, 2014)

I am not sure what one might expect of a lawyer, just what should they personally check?

I have never employed a lawyer in Spain either when buying or selling, but if I had, I would not have expected them to go personally and inspect every detail, including measure every room, the garden, the pool, the garage, the drive etc etc.

Having said that, I lost a sale in UK because the Land Registry had wrongly measured the plot on which my house of 18 years was constructed. It was the surveyor employed by a prospective buyer who spotted the error. The plots of 18 houses were all shown wrongly by the Registry, many of which had changed hands without the errors being spotted. So not only in Spain !


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## Pazcat (Mar 24, 2010)

I think it's a bit hard on the lawyer, ultimately they have to be informed of what needs to be added and a quick glance at the escurita should easily pick it up. Maybe they could of walked through it a bit better with you and pushed to make sure that was correct with nothing missing.
It's an easy enough mistake though but you really should know what is on your paperwork personally.

Sounds like you really dodged a bullet by not signing an initial contract too.


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

dg754 said:


> My mother lived and owned a house in Spain for 19 years. She sadly died 4 months ago. I found a buyer immediately for the house through friends. For various reasons we never signed an initial contract and got a deposit. My sister and I accepted the inheritance, paid all the taxes, had a lawyer working for us who arranged for the architect from the town hall to prepare the energy efficiency certificates, etc, etc.
> 
> Last Friday we were sitting round the table with the Notary ready to sign the papers. The buyer was looking at the escritura that his lawyer had and noticed that a room at the top of the house was not on the escritura. It had been built over 20 years ago illegally by a previous owner. None of us had known this and I doubt that my mother had realised this.
> 
> ...


Hold on you are blaming a lawyer, but YOU accepted the inheritance. Should not YOU have looked and checked that the paperwork matched what you were accepting? The paperwork might have said that you own two rooms under the house next door (not uncommon with old houses) which may, at some times in the past unknown to your mother, have been incorporated into the house next door - effectively stolen.


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## dg754 (Feb 9, 2015)

Thanks for your answers. Very helpful. Have just called the estate agent I have now put the house with. He says same - not to blame my lawyer. Says it is usually the buyer's lawyer who would go over escritura with his client. 
As I don't speak Spanish it has been hard for me to understand the paperwork, and meetings with the lawyer were difficult to get, also his English is not perfect. Things always were going to be done in a few days but usually took much much longer - not only the sale but inheriting the property, paying taxes, sending documents to Madrid, etc. It really is a bureaucratic nightmare.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

If this room was added, without permission, 20 years ago then it should not be a massive problem to get the escritura corrected. A cerificate of antiquity would need to be obtained, there might be additional property tax to be paid based on the increased usable living space, but I wouldn't have thought it should come to a huge amount. They used to be able to backdate the taxes for a maximum of 4 years, but I seem to remember that was changed a few years ago.

By the way, 4 months might seem a long time to you but I'd say you have done very well to get the inheritance sorted out in that timescale. A friend of ours inherited a house here from her brother and it took over 2 years until the house was finally in her name.


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## Pazcat (Mar 24, 2010)

dg754 said:


> . Says it is usually the buyer's lawyer who would go over escritura with his client.


This is true, if it was us buying with our lawyer she would be all over it like a rash but even then the only way she would know about the room is if we told her about it but she also would push the fact to your lawyer.
The only thing I can think of is they were under the impression it was all going to be fixed after the 4 months of waiting and didn't see the final escurita until the notary. I'd always want to see it a week before just so mishaps lie this are avoided.
Probably both parties were a bit slack.

Still all should of been sorted before the house was on the market, it could of cost you double the deposit.


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## gus-lopez (Jan 4, 2010)

there's no details on my escritura of rooms & certainly no plans.:lol:


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