Help on building reform licence

[ChrisNerja]

Obviously, if its a major reform you´ll also need an architect´s project.

[Julz21]

Thanks for the info I shall make a note of it on my web page and make people aware that an architect may be nessesary.

[Aunty Val]

Julz

I have just taken a quick look at your website (the bit that I'm interested in at least) and I have to say the following which is copied from your site, scares the hell out of me.

Tax on property here in Spain Is high, because the Spanish people don’t want to pay it. The Spanish people work with what is called black money. Lets say for example you want to buy a property for 100,000 euros. What you pay when you sign for the deeds will be between 50% and 100% of the value of the property( this will depend on how new the property is or when it was last valued) and you will pay this in the Notaries office. After you pay, and before the deeds are given to you, you must pay the remainder in cash (Black money). Say, for arguments sake, you pay 80% of the property value at the Notaries office. This will be 80,000 euros , this is the sum that you and the vendor will be taxed on. The remaining 20% or 20,000 in this case will be paid in cash and you and the vendor will not pay tax on it. The Government knows this happens and to compensate for this, property tax is high.
Don't be put off buying a property because of this. This is how the system works here.

Firstly, this is utterly misleading and is encouraging novice buyers to break the law - whether you feel this is ok is up to you but I feel it is outrageous.

Secondly, the quality of information about "new builds" is pathetic to say the least - you are happy to raise the issue of kitchens rather than warnng people of the problems that can be encountered when buying off plan - non completion, lack of proper licenses, no management companies set up etc etc.

I would suggest that you do some more research before taking your website live and offering people poor quality advice (there's enough of that around already!).

[Julz21]

Hi Auntie Val,
Thank you for your comments, Im sorry you think this article is misleading and I do realise that black money is a law breaker, but this is from my experience here.
If you have information you would like to contribute then please feel free to pm me with it and I shall amend the article.
Maybe you noticed the buyers check list this tells people to get a good english speaking spanish abagado, to take care of the issues you are concerned about.

[Aunty Val]

Hi Julz,

I just feel that people should be responsible when creating a website which is meant to guide/help people considering a move to Spain.

As for suggesting content for your website? No thanks, I have enough trouble keeping up to date with mine and trying to eek a living out in these uncertain times.

The current content is probably doing you more damage than removing it until you've been able to change it.

Anway, its your site and you may be quite happy with it.

[Julz21]

Hi Aunty Val,
You may be glad to hear that I have taken your advice and replaced the article in question with this.

Buyer beware of the Black Money. It is still common practice here in Spain for the vendor to hide the real sale price of a property. This usually happens on second hand properties and is done to defraud the Tax office.
Some estate agents will encourage you to pay the black money in cash because they may have a deal with the vendor that they will get paid their commission in cash when the deal is done.
The payments made in cash are invisible and are not shown on the deeds this is why it is called black money.
If you go along with the purchase of a property using black money you will gain nothing. The vendor gains by not having to pay so much capital gains tax.
When you sell the property you lose by paying more capital gains tax unless you are willing to break the law.
Over the past few years the laws have been changing and new restrictions have been put in place to counteract money laundering. These laws and restrictions have been targeted at Tax advisors, lawyers, Spanish Notaries, bankers and financial advisors in relation to advice given on setting up companies and the property market.
The fore mentioned professionals are now duty bound to notify any underhanded dealings to SEPBLAC (Servicio Ejecutivo para la prevencion del Blanqueo de capitales - Bank of Spain) Failure to report these dealings these professionals can be prosecuted and even sent to jail.