Alheza Properties - Andalucian Inland Country Properties for Sale Inland Andalucia

After months of searching friends of ours found their dream home with an asking price of €240,000 and made an offer of €215,000 through the agent. They were delighted when the agent phoned back to say that the sellers would drop to €219,000 and they agreed to buy at that price. Months after the sale they learnt the true situation. As friendly as he’d seemed the agent had lied to both of them and the sellers: they were only asking €195,000 and, without their knowledge, he had loaded €45,000 commission for himself onto the price. Due to their offer lower than the asking price he didn’t get away with such an outrageous sum but he did get €29,000 after forcing the sellers to take a totally unnecessary €5,000 cut in price. He was able to get away with it because they were in the dark as to the real asking price and the sellers were never told about their true offer. Subsequently we’ve heard of even worse cases of inflated commissions, the record so far being a commission of €48,000 on a €70,000 house (69%!).

Moral: You might think that you don’t have to worry about commission because the seller pays it out of their share. In practise you should be aware that the asking price is made up of two components: what the seller has asked for and whatever the estate agent sees fit to add on for himself. For various reasons commission levels here are somewhat higher than those in the UK but be aware that there are sharks in these waters. Every effort is made at Alheza Properties to exclude agents with greedy commission rates from our network.

Without a Prayer

Before we found our current house we had a very close escape. We’d found a lovely property which had been a church school and came complete with a spire and 360º panoramic view of the surrounding hills and mountains. We thought the asking price was very reasonable but tried an offer €10,000 below it anyway. We couldn’t believe our luck when the agent phoned to say that the owners, who seemed to really love their house, had not only agreed to our offer but that they wanted a quick sale. We decided to have one last look round before paying a deposit. Alarm bells began ringing while we weaved along the mountainous tracks to the property and saw lots of signs by the roadside protesting against a motorway project. The agent reassured us that the new 8 lane motorway was being built several valleys away and would not be a problem. Erring on the side of caution we secretly made a trip to the Town Hall to investigate and learned that the planned route was right through our valley and even over our land. No wonder the owners were so keen to sell!

Moral: always take estate agents’ reassurances with a pinch of salt. Prepare to do some private research (or ask someone else like a lawyer or a surveyor to do some for you) if your suspicions are aroused.

Plunged into Internal Darkness

Fortunately we avoided the nightmare of buying a house without electricity but know of plenty of unsuspecting buyers who have fallen foul of the “don’t worry about electricity it can be easily reconnected” syndrome. Here are a few examples: one couple were promised electricity within 2 months of moving in but despite three years of meetings, petitions and bureaucratic wrangling are still waiting, even though the mains pylon is only a stone’s throw away. Another property buyer was assured before he bought his house that electricity could be connected cheaply but having paid the purchase price and moved in he was presented with a quote of €45,000 from the electricity company. Finally we have family members who are still living in darkness. Their problem is that the estate agent (not us!) quoted €3-4,000 as the price of connecting to a mains pylon about 1,200m away. Our family members, having bought the house, immediately got the electricity company in to assess the situation and were advised that connection would not be possible at all because it would involve getting the permission of several landowners between themselves and the pylon, all whom know your predicament and thus can hold you to ransom for a sum of their choice. They are currently considering putting in a generator.

Moral: Connecting up electricity to an old house or ruin is not always impossible but invariably will be more time-consuming, stressful and expensive than you expect. If it’s so easy why didn’t the owner get electricity connected in the first place and raise his asking price?

Evil Deeds

Luckily for us the next tale of woe happened to somebody else but is a true story and a warning nevertheless. This couple couldn’t believe their luck when they found the cottage of their dreams for sale at a mere £40,000. It was doubly convenient because the lovely English chap who was their estate agent also happened to be the owner of the house in question and had another friend who was a lawyer who could handle the sale process. What could possibly go wrong? In fact, over the next 18 months, everything went wrong. The friendly lawyer drew up a sale contract (“compraventa”), our trusting couple paid over the money and the sale went through without any deeds having been seen. This was a mere formality the lawyer and the seller assured them and they would be forwarded as soon as possible. In fact it took over a year of interminable wrangling to obtain the deeds and when they did arrive they contained a nasty shock. They had paid for the house with a small plot of land but the deeds only showed the building and not the land where they had already established a garden. When they confronted the now less-than-friendly estate agent (and seller) they were told that they could only have the land if they paid and extra €18,000. He then proceeded to fence off the land in question and locked them out. The couple are now trying to sell up (not easy with no land) having decided to return to the UK, their dreams of a new life in Spain in tatters.

Moral: Don’t even pay a deposit on a house unless you have seen a copy of the deeds and have shown them to an independent lawyer. It may seem convenient if an estate agency has their own lawyer you can use but remember these lawyers are looking out for the interests of the agent and not necessarily your’s. GET YOUR OWN LAWYER!

The curse of Track-ula

Anyone who has looked for a country house in Spain will have had their bones juddered out of their sockets and their teeth rattled by some pretty ropey dirt-tracks. It’s all par for the course and often the price you pay for that rural dream. However take time to read these cautionary tales and you won’t be led down the tracks of your tears.

- A couple bought a house with a steep, worn and windy track but were convinced a bit of patching over the worst bits would resolve the problem. However when they called in a building contractor they were advised that the whole track needed re-surfacing (1.2km so very costly). They asked if they could just patch up the worst bits but were advised that this would make matters worse as the unrelenting rain of an Andalucian winter would glide over the repaired patches and decimate the unsurfaced parts making the track more uneven and treacherous. The couple’s budget couldn’t stretch to such a major project and they are now facing the autumn rains with some trepidation.

- A country-lover bought a remote ruin in a beautiful valley and set about asking local builders to quote for the job of re-building. Every one said the job would be nigh-on impossible because the track was far too narrow for their lorries to access with materials. He is now faced with having to pay for a 2km track to be widened.

- Even owning the land up to the main road nearby your house is no guarantee that you can create a new access route. Friends of ours’ bought their house with access via the neighbour’s track. They thought they could easily put in a short track through their own land to the main road which is only 200m away but have been told that this requires permission because it is a public highway. They are currently battling bureaucracy and still have to come through their neighbour’s yard to access their house.

Moral: It’s easy to convince yourself in Summer that any track is passable but fastforward to the winter when the rains can be torrential and the ice treacherous. Don’t underestimate the cost of repairing a bad track and consider any permissions required. Perhaps use our “pint of milk” test i.e. imagine you’ve just unloaded your shopping and realise you’ve forgotten to buy milk. Realistically how would you feel about going back out again?

Water Torture

You may think that having confirmed that you have to access to mains water you are quite safe from the threat of drought. However we know of several cases where buyers hit troubled waters so as to speak. One couple asked the estate agent whether the house they were viewing had mains water. He turned on a tap to demonstrate a healthy flow of water, with him pointing out a meter at the beginning of the long track leading to the finca, they thought no more of it. They bought the house and moved in months later only to find the water ran dry after a couple of days. It turned out that “the demonstration” used water from a holding tank which was now as dry as a bone. The tank was meant to be replenished by the mains supply but it came to light that this had disconnected years ago and that the meter at the foot of the track belonged to another property. The couple are currently attempting to reconnect and going through a lot of bottled water!

Another couple bought their finca with a confirmed mains water supply and a meter on their property so thought they were safe. On moving in however their daily shower turned into a dribble at most, filling the kettle took an age and the washing piled up. After asking around, a local informed them that Farmer Pedro up the track had somehow tapped into their water supply for his olive grove. They have had to pay for a holding tank and water pump to be installed and are in touch with the water company about their naughty neighbour.

Moral: Before buying a property with mains water ask to see a recent bill to confirm the connection is active. Low water pressure is not uncommon in many areas and holding tanks with pumps are popular but water pressure is an issue worth considering when buying a rural property.

The Phantom Garden

An Englishman saw his dream property, a tiny finca at a bargain price, on the edge of an olive grove. Being a keen gardner the small plot that came with the property was ideal for the herb garden and rose growing he had in mind. He went ahead with the purchase but before he’d even had time to get to the local Garden Centre was dealt a nasty blow when he picked up the deeds from his lawyer. There it was in black and white: the house came without a scrap land and his dreams of a beautiful garden were in tatters. The owner had promised to section off a sliver of his olive grove but this is forbidden by law and he failed to tell the buyer that he would never be the legal owner of the land outside his front door. He is in the uncomfortable position of having use of the land in front of his house but no legal ownership of it and thus a giant headache if he ever wants to sell.

Moral: Farmers often say they are willing to section off parts of their land to go with old fincas they are trying to sell. However the law often doesn’t allow for this so it is wise to check it all through with a lawyer prior to purchase.

What Lies Beneath

Unlike many English property buyers our knowledge of the building and construction trade goes no further than putting up a shelf. We thus felt very exposed and nervous when viewing old properties where we had to gauge whether the building was sound. In the end we bought a completely re-built house with no problems but friends of our’s were not so lucky. They thought they had bought a finca which, while old and decrepit on the inside, was a sound shell. They began redecorating but noticed some nasty looking cracks in the small extension to the rear of the property. A highly-recommended builder was asked to quote for patching up the offending cracks but, after taking one look at the problem area he threw up his hands in horror. He explained that the newer part of the house had been built with inadequate foundations on a downward slope and that the extension was literally sliding down the hill. A complete knock-down and rebuild with proper foundations was necessary.

Moral: In the UK structural surveys prior to purchase are routine but this is not the case in Spain . Even a non-builder can spot some obvious warning signs e.g. cracks in the wall (particularly if you can see daylight!) normally indicate weak foundations. A thorough roof inspection, inside and out, is another obvious thing to do. Risks are increased for houses built on sloping land. If you have doubts, however small, call in a professional, perhaps a surveyor or a reputable builder.

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