If a notary charges more than 55.05 Euro and the registry office charges more than 24.04 Euro for the signing and inscription of a Spanish mortgage cancellation, it is officially classed as abusive and illegal. Fact! (Not to be confused with the costs to process a purchase sales agreement “Escritura de compraventa”, at the time of selling your Spanish property)
After having finally found a buyer for your property in Spain, having had to endure the pain staking wait for the buyers’ mortgage to be approved, after every factor that you have against you to sell your Spanish property, you finally get the appointment to finalize the sale and cancel your mortgage in front of a Spanish notary.
It appears that many Spanish notaries and registrars have actually been pulling the wool over our eyes and abusing the trust that is deposited in them. Tut tut tut.
Many Spanish mortgage holders have had to pay a bill of 200 Euro or more in order to process the cancellation of their mortgage at the notary and get it inscribed in the land registry. How Much?!!!
Since 2007 Spanish notaries and registrars have been taking advantage of unassuming mortgage holders (Both Spanish and foreign nationalities) at the time of cancellation.
The good news is that the Spanish board of consumers rights “Organización de consumidores y usuarios”, brought the matter to public attention in September this year by presenting a report that left many completely gobsmacked.
Of 80 mortgage cancellations monitored in different notaries and registrars around Spain, it was revealed that consumers had been overcharged in excess of 10,000 Euro. If this statistic was then to be generalized, notaries nationwide will have overcharged and earned just over 90 Million Euro.
Between that and the convenient fee that gestorías are now charging in order to present and pay the modelo 211 (3% non-resident sellers tax that is presented in exactly the same building as the buyers taxes!), property sellers with mortgages are incurring abusive costs that they could really do without.
Do not stand for it! Get your legal representative to check it out and make sure that all of your selling costs are detailed and charged within the legal limits.
Such limits applied to honorary fees for Spanish notaries and registrars, are known as (Aranceles) and are strictly established by the state.
Many mortgage holders before the approval of the new law will have had to pay for fees such as 30 Euro for a fax to the registry office in order to notify them of the cancellation (illegal), obtaining bank certificates 60 Euro (illegal), informative note 9 Euro (Nota informativa de notario) again illegal, land search (Búsqueda de antecedents) 60 Euro (Illegal)
A limit has also been applied to control the amount of official notary paper (Papel timbrado) that can be used to draw up a Spanish mortgage cancelation (approx. 4-5 sheets on both sides) and is contemplated in the indicated figures of the opening paragraph.
That is not all. Spanish registrars have also been very naughty and have applied similar abusive charges such as Cadastral certificate (Certificado gráfica y catastral) 24 Euro (Illegal) Change of ownership 24 Euro (Illegal) The list goes on.....
Do these concepts look familiar?
Report them immediately to the “Dirección general de recursos y de notariado”. And demand a refund.
http://www.mjusticia.gob.es/cs/Satellite/es/1215197982464/Estructura_P/1215198295156/Detalle.html
With more than 10 years experience in the Spanish property industry, Gareth can provide recommendations and also offer professional assistance with all the technical aspects of buying, selling or renting a property in Spain.