4-Is the property you just bought, really yours?

In February 2014 I thought I had found the apartment of my life! It was right in the heart of Madrid (Huertas/Las Letras).

This where I found the apartment of my life. It still hurts to walk past the place

The apartment had old tiled floors, high ceilings, views to a beautiful patio and great posibilities. Oh, a full renovation was needed but that is what I also wanted; there were no kitchen, no bathroom and some walls needed to go. But wow what a place!

So, I negotiated the price form 200-thousand euros to 171-thousand euros and we were all agreed and the bank had promised me the money I needed to borrow. Perfect.

I was about to pay the 10% required to reserve the apartment, but at the last moment some friends stopped me and told me to check the registry for any debts connected to the property.

"Debts connected to the property", I thought? What the hell? A debt are personal, even if you have used a house as security, right? Not so in Spain it turns out!

Anyway, I call my lawyer, who did some initial checks. He came back to me saying that there actually was a debt connected to the apartment.

I call the real estate agent, who now turns out to also be the ex wife of one of the sellers. She explains to me that yes, indeed there is a debt connected to the property, but only 2000 euros, so no worries.

Ok, I think that is not to much and they can easily pay that with the money I need to give them in order to reserve the apartment.

However... my lawyer tells me to sit thigh, he wants to investigate some more. He does and it turns out that the debts on the property exceeds 200 thousand euros! more than 10 times the money the real estate agent told me about, and roughly 30-thousand euros more than the agreed price.

Meanwhile I had also asked a friend of mine to try to talk to the president and the administrator of the neighbor community, in order to see if there were any debts to the community. This is also quite common and can be a lot of money too. They both refused to answer.

Considering all this, what would have happened if I had paid the 17100 Euros to the owners? Does anyone really think they would have paid me back, considering the huge amounts of money they owed the banks and probably also the community of neighbors? I wouldn't think so!

To get the money back I would have had to go to court and that, my dear friends, can take years and will also cost you dearly. So please be aware, be cautious and, above all, do not trust anyone, with the possible exception of your own lawyer!

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