Sold the house in Andalucia. Here's how it went.

Do you have a query about moving to Andalucia and buying property in Andalucia. Find out by posting questions and reading about other peoples experiences.
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Re: Sold the house in Andalucia. Here's how it went.

Postby Beachcomber » Mon Aug 19, 2019 7:56 pm

I am glad everything has gone well for you.

Further to Free at Last's post, sixteen months is a grossly excessive time to have to wait for the refund of the retention but there is now a facility on the form to elect to have it paid back into a foreign bank account although the exchange rate may be less favourable than the prevailing rate and you may have to pay bank charges for the transfer which you would have to pay anyway to transfer it from your Unicaja account to your UK account.

You will need to balance this against the cost of leaving the bank account open and you would really need to sort out the online banking in order to know when the retention funds are credited to you account and to carry out the transfer back to the UK. Did you manage to explore my suggestion in our PM exchange as to why it may not be working?

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Re: Sold the house in Andalucia. Here's how it went.

Postby Devils Advocate » Mon Aug 19, 2019 9:38 pm

FAl, many thanks for that and the info. provided. We have kept the Unicaja account live but honestly thought the retentions would be paid via the Currencies Direct account if we supplied the details. I'll now have to look in to this. Again thank you.
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Re: Sold the house in Andalucia. Here's how it went.

Postby Devils Advocate » Mon Aug 19, 2019 9:44 pm

Thanks as always Beachy and also for your kind words.

Yes, your advice and reasons why the online account may be locking us out was lodged in my mind and I asked the lady at Unicaja if this was indeed the reason. She told us the password did not need changing after first use and that we must simply have tapped in the wrong user details or password......which we are convinced we didn't. So it's still a mystery.

As I said to FAL I honestly thought the retentions could be paid in to our Currencies Direct account which is also still active. I fear from what I'm hearing this may now not be the case.

Again Beachy thanks for your input, appreciated.
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Re: Sold the house in Andalucia. Here's how it went.

Postby Devils Advocate » Mon Aug 19, 2019 10:11 pm

elusive wrote:Very intresting read. Thanks for taking the time D.A.Best wishes for the next stage of your adventure!
Appreciate that very much and many thanks indeed for posting.
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Re: Sold the house in Andalucia. Here's how it went.

Postby chrissiehope » Mon Aug 19, 2019 11:00 pm

Hi DA, very interesting to read your post :-) When (if !!) our casa finally sells, I will be going to the FAQs to refresh my menory (thanks to Sid for putting it there - I was going to copy & print it til I read your post !)
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Re: Sold the house in Andalucia. Here's how it went.

Postby Miro » Tue Aug 20, 2019 12:12 am

Devils Advocate wrote:...honestly thought the retentions would be paid via the Currencies Direct account if we supplied the details. I'll now have to look in to this. Again thank you.
There's a good chance your lawyer hasn't submitted the 210 form to reclaim the retention yet, since they will have to wait for the reference number of the 211 filed by the buyer when they pay the retention to Hacienda; they have 30 days from the date of sale to do so. If that's the case, you may still have time to check with your lawyer which account they were planning on using - and to nominate an alternative if you prefer. I suppose you could give the Currencies Direct account, but I wonder if it has to be an account in your or your legal rep's name? We nominated our UK bank account for simplicity. I think the exchange rate we got was good, and we didn't pay any bank charges. And since they missed the 6 month deadline, they actually paid more interest than we would have got if the money had been in our account all along - bonus! The only slight worry was that our UK bank decided to arbitrarily change our sort code before the money was repaid - but did assure us that the old one would still be valid for three years. So far I think FAL's friend's 16 month wait is about the longest I've heard anyone wait!

Regarding closing your Spanish account: we were (are?) with Sabadell, and Unicaja may have different rules, or maybe for non-resident accounts it's different, but we were told that we could only close our account in person. We also wanted to keep the account open for any unforseen circumstances, and when we explained that we wouldn't be returning to Spain, our branch manager told us the easiest thing to do therefore was just to empty the account when we no longer need it and it would become a dormant account. I wish we'd asked for that in writing, although I doubt if we would have got it. We did empty the account, and as a result, last time I checked the account was in the red due to maintenance charges racking up (maintaining a zero balance obviously costs). I stopped checking a year ago or so, and stopped losing sleep over it around the same time :)
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Re: Sold the house in Andalucia. Here's how it went.

Postby 1bassleft » Tue Aug 20, 2019 4:32 am

Sorry to read that you're now only in one neck of my woods, DA. Just flown back tonight (my Euro-trekker still parked here) after a fortnight in UK. Unfortunately, my tooth removal (injection hurt more than the mild tug needed) snowballed into swift appointments and even an overnighter for everyone else in the household (only 3 of us, fer cryin' out loud) so I got no hellos done; not even my brother. I shall at least wave at your junction with the trees as I fight my way back through post-Brexit Blighty with International Driver's Permits, Green Cards and inflatable cushions following the enthusiastic orifice fondling I expect will be my due.

I know what you mean about owning a place tending to limit your explorations, which is why the trekker is so worthwhile. Mrs 1BL's family is quite concentrated around the Freiburg-Mulhouse-Italy area (she really ought to get her dual citizenship put in) and we're always told we should swerve that way sometime - I'd be interested to hear of your experiences (and, indeed, any other posts you continue to make here).

Not in the same league as yours, but I had a huge clear out before decorating last year and had a word with Juan The Man who likes a scavenge. Told him it was all free and he was welcome to it. Oh yeah, when can I take it? 4pm tomorrow, outside my door. I'll help you cart it all to your place. He didn't turn up. Of course, why help me yoink all that stuff when he lives between me and the skips? Sure enough, as I sweatingly dragged stuff single-handed next day, his wife appeared immediately, "Oh why don't you bring that down our path, it's nearer than the skip?"
Sticking to polite Spanish, I told her that Juan didn't appear to be interested in any of my gear. She got very flustered as I carried on carting everything and others took an interest (gone in 60 minutes).
Was I being petty? I could have formed a band called The Heartbreakers, been Free Fallin' whilst Learning to Fly and, however much she insisted, I Won't Back Down. That's how Petty I was, but they weren't getting my stuff after pulling that stunt.

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Re: Sold the house in Andalucia. Here's how it went.

Postby Trooperman » Tue Aug 20, 2019 8:23 am

Was I being petty? I could have formed a band called The Heartbreakers, been Free Fallin' whilst Learning to Fly and, however much she insisted, I Won't Back Down. That's how Petty I was, but they weren't getting my stuff after pulling that stunt.
Bet you said "I'm Travelling, Will Bury it deep in the skip"


Love it :thumbup:
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Re: Sold the house in Andalucia. Here's how it went.

Postby Devils Advocate » Tue Aug 20, 2019 8:48 am

Chrissie.

Thanks for that and remember that everything sells at some point. There were moments when we thought that we'd never sell ours but at the end of the day every property we know of over there no matter how long it's been for sale has eventually sold.
It was one of the reasons we stuck with our price as we noticed that houses that get reduced every few months seem to create a stigma about them and languish maybe a tad longer. I really hope to see a post shortly from you containing the details of how your house sale went. All the very best with the sale.


Miro.

Thanks once more for this additional info. I know it is very early days yet with regards to seeing our retentions returned but I'll make that call today seeing if they can be paid in to the Currencies Direct account or indeed our UK account when the time arrives.

It is pointless them being paid in to Unicaja and I'm hoping they don't insist on that, in fact it now makes me wonder if we should have closed the account then it would not have been an option for them to pay it in there.

Amazing how they are racking up charges on your zero balance too..........surely they realise you are not there any more or give a hoot about it, why don't they just close the thing as you asked the manager to do in the first place? I'll be ignoring them too if they start that.
Cheers


1BL,

The Juan the Man story was very, very funny, I wonder if he did ever climb in to the skip on a rescue mission? :mrgreen: You did the right thing there lol.

When you drive past ours now you'll struggle to recognise where we are as we had all the big conifers removed a while back.....call in instead next time for a brew!!!!

I may also be picking your wifes brains re. Freiburg, As I say I've not been since I was about 10 but loved it then. I've promised the OH we'll go there so will be collecting info. shortly on where to stay etc, when we do drive across.
Speak soon.
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Re: Sold the house in Andalucia. Here's how it went.

Postby BENIDORM » Tue Aug 20, 2019 9:57 am

DA,
Thank you for taking the time to add your exceedingly helpful , useful and informative account of your house sale etc..

Good Luck with your future travels and adventures....

Best Wishes,
Gordon

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Re: Sold the house in Andalucia. Here's how it went.

Postby Wicksey » Tue Aug 20, 2019 10:09 am

That was a very interesting post DA. Being in the campo myself I do always wonder how this place will sell when the time comes and with all the worry of the DAFO etc. I'm glad it all worked out for you.

When we bought this house the furniture was available by separate negotiation but like your buyers, we already had our own houseful so didn't need it. Unfortunately we got here on completion day they had left everything here anyway, and although all very good quality stuff, most of it apart from the washing machine and dishwasher and a few decorative things had to be sold by us before we moved in. The previous owners had only taken their clothes, so there was everything left to dispose of from food in the cupboards to bed linen. It's all good fun once it's all over, but moving house is quite stressful isn't it? I hope you have many enjoyable travel adventures now you're no longer tied to Andalucia!

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Re: Sold the house in Andalucia. Here's how it went.

Postby Devils Advocate » Tue Aug 20, 2019 10:22 am

BENIDORM wrote:DA,
Thank you for taking the time to add your exceedingly helpful , useful and informative account of your house sale etc..

Good Luck with your future travels and adventures....

Best Wishes,
Gordon
Much appreciated Gordon and thank you very much indeed. Hope all is well with you and the family.
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Re: Sold the house in Andalucia. Here's how it went.

Postby Devils Advocate » Tue Aug 20, 2019 10:48 am

Wicksey wrote:That was a very interesting post DA. Being in the campo myself I do always wonder how this place will sell when the time comes and with all the worry of the DAFO etc. I'm glad it all worked out for you.

When we bought this house the furniture was available by separate negotiation but like your buyers, we already had our own houseful so didn't need it. Unfortunately we got here on completion day they had left everything here anyway, and although all very good quality stuff, most of it apart from the washing machine and dishwasher and a few decorative things had to be sold by us before we moved in. The previous owners had only taken their clothes, so there was everything left to dispose of from food in the cupboards to bed linen. It's all good fun once it's all over, but moving house is quite stressful isn't it? I hope you have many enjoyable travel adventures now you're no longer tied to Andalucia!
Thanks very much Wicksey for that. I'm going maybe against forum protocol here and quoting the whole of your post but I think you've hit on an important and interesting issue that I'd not yet mentioned which is very much worth mentioning.

Yes our buyers after making the offer relayed to the lawyers that they wanted the house clearing of all our items, except for a white kitchen appliance that was all but new.

They also wanted completion in August which was very awkward and as it turns out costly for us to do at a moments notice.

We did wobble on these 2 points but to be fair to the buyers they were genuine people who just wanted to move in and who had made a great offer on our house. They also paid the 10% early on our request to give us the motive to make this all happen and reduce the chances of deal falling out of bed. We liked their attitudes so obliged..........right down to scrubbing the house out thoroughly after emptying it....which they appreciated.

A few local expats when they saw our plight with 3 days to go suggested doing what your sellers did.........ie leaving the lot there for them to sort out.
However we are not like that and a deal is a deal............they played fair and so would we.

Anyway the point I'm getting to and it is quite important I feel and could scupper a deal if you are not aware is the removal of all contents and the completion date was written in to the pre completion contracts.

We honoured the contract and it is a good job we did. What then happened and we only found out the day before we left is the buyers would be escorted to our vacated property a couple of hours before completion to inspect how we had left it.

We had cleared it out as promised and had left the appliance as also promised in contract. Now what if we hadn't have done this?

We reckon there was a good chance of them pulling out due to breach of contract and us paying a double deposit back to them.
Obviously we played it exactly as requested and the people thanked us at the Notary which added to the nice feeling of the deal.

Were you not offered or did you mention a pre. purchase visit Wicksey? I'll admit I'd not heard of it before and we certainly never did it on our house buys.

I wonder if anyone else is aware of this or has experience of it? It would/could certainly catch the more dishonest people out who feel it is ok to break a promise as your sellers did. It must have been a right chore for you to sort it.

Many thanks.

PS Wicksey, in yours and ours area I reckon it's a 90% certainty a DAFO will be asked for when you sell it. Nobody seems to care, mention or acknowledge what a license of first occupation is, it's a taboo wording.........yet everyones first word out of their lips seems to be DAFO. There's a business in itself for some advocating these useless bits of paper...........just build the cost in to your sales price and forget about it.....even though the retention on it hurts lol.
Last edited by Devils Advocate on Tue Aug 20, 2019 11:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Sold the house in Andalucia. Here's how it went.

Postby Miro » Tue Aug 20, 2019 11:07 am

Devils Advocate wrote:It is pointless them being paid in to Unicaja and I'm hoping they don't insist on that...
It really should be up to you, so assuming they haven't already submitted the claim, I wouldn't let anyone insist on anything you're not happy with. I think some lawyers/gestors arrange for the retention to be paid to their own account (probably unbeknownst to the client) and then sit on the dosh for months, giving excuses and blaming Hacienda for any delay. The 210 form (assuming it hasn't changed) has spaces at the bottom to nominate either a Spanish account or a foreign one - either EU or, err, non-EU :?
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Re: Sold the house in Andalucia. Here's how it went.

Postby Devils Advocate » Tue Aug 20, 2019 11:08 am

Thanks Miro, I'm on to it now. Appreciated as always.
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Re: Sold the house in Andalucia. Here's how it went.

Postby katy » Tue Aug 20, 2019 11:29 am

Hi DA. So pleased you had a good outcome. Moving out of a house for the last time is never easy in any country.
A really useful post too for others considering selling. Didn't know we had a budding writer on the forum :D

We closed down our bank account the day we left Spain. Stopped on our way to the airport, but left a small amount with our trusted lawyer and friend just incase. It was a good feeling to get rid of that bank forever. Did feel a moment of sadness on the last day when I stood outside on the terrace as dawn broke over the sierras, remember it really vividly.

Realised reading your first post how long we have all been around (where did all the time go :lol: ) What you said about different expats coming and going etc. and things changing. Of course we change too along the way too, took me a couple of years to persuade OH to sell up. Clearing the house was a nightmare. Hangers on saying what are you doing with so and so. We did take some of the Ronda furniture back to UK as it went perfectly with the farmhouse kitchen here. Everything we didn't want we placed in the basement and called an expat who did house clearance.A really pushy obnoxious person with greedy eyes, wandering around where he shouldn't and offering to buy other things for a pittance. We had a house clean after we left. Better than what we were faced when we moved in, a half eaten curry and some awful looking liver in the fridge!

Enjoy your future travels, we do 3 or 4 times a year. Have some short visits to Spain but not too close to where we lived. Went back once and had dinner with our old neighbours next door and it felt very strange not popping back to bed. :mrgreen: BTW our old house is back on sale and has been for a couple of years. I think they thought they had a bargain (we knew they hadn't). Went back on the market over 400,000 more than they paid but has gradually been reduced.

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Re: Sold the house in Andalucia. Here's how it went.

Postby Miro » Tue Aug 20, 2019 11:30 am

We had verbal agreements regarding items of furniture etc. with both our buyer in Spain and sellers in the UK.
Our Spanish buyer had asked us to leave the 2/3 sofa set in the lounge, and also a quite expensive sofa bed in the second bedroom. The sofas had been purchased a couple of years earlier, a rather cheap set which we never intended to last very long or ship to the UK, so were happy to include it in the sale. The sofa bed was a monster to move, so we were also happy to use it as leverage in our negotiations! We also left (by agreement) the fridge/freezer, washing machine (both in excellent condition), and an unused from new built in dishwasher - none of which we wanted to ship. So we were rather surprised to find out that after the sale, she got rid of everything and literally gutted the place and totally reformed it! We knew she planned to do some (un-needed) renovations, but nevertheless spent the day before the notary scrubbing the place clean, and left a bottle of cava in the fridge for her too. We had (before and after the sale) a very good relationship with her, which certainly helped smooth the sale.
Our sellers in England sent us a list of items of furniture & fittings which they offered to leave for a certain price. Although it was all good stuff, and some of it, like a nearly new washing machine for example, we would be happy to have, we felt the price they wanted was excessive, and also really preferred to start out with our own new stuff, so made a polite but cheeky offer, which they politely declined. So we were surprised again to find that in the event they left a few items from the original list (including the washer!) and a few others (like curtains and light fittings) which were not on their list but we were very happy to get for nothing! Again, we were lucky to have great sellers who really did make our move so much easier and less stressful than it might have been. They'd even left a bottle of bubbly in the fridge for us :thumbup:
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Re: Sold the house in Andalucia. Here's how it went.

Postby Wicksey » Tue Aug 20, 2019 11:53 am

DA we didn't do a compra venta or pay a 10% deposit but just went through straight to the sale asap. The owners were long gone and the house had been empty a year at least. It was only because the details had said that the furniture was available at extra cost and we had said we didn't want to buy any, that we never really pursued the matter. We did ask to go on the morning of the notary for a presale visit and then found it all fully furnished! It was a bit of a rush but we still had 2 weeks left at our rental house to clear out most of their stuff and we got about 1000€ for it all in the end. Plus we acquired a Bosch washing machine and dishwasher, plus some other nice decorative stuff, so it didn't work out too badly.

In the UK we bought a house where everything had been taken out, including the light bulbs, so I think I'd rather be left with some stuff than have the place stripped bare!

I do know of a few people that have sold their campo houses without having to get a DAFO, but that was a couple of years ago and perhaps people (or their agents) are now more savvy about it.

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Re: Sold the house in Andalucia. Here's how it went.

Postby katy » Tue Aug 20, 2019 12:00 pm

Just saw your last post DA re. clearing the house in the contract. Interesting, never came across it in Spain although it is strictly applied in UK. Our sellers were loopy eccentrics. He was quite old and she about 20 years younger. They left a note saying that a cranky single bed and some grotty light fittings still up they would collect another time! We did keep them in the basement for some months and not having heard from them e chucked them out. Two years later they just turned up and asked for them and tried to kick up a fuss, OH told them where to go :lolno:

They also left some pictures on the wall. one of them together. . A third one, a bit weird but very good I kept and brought it back to Uk. Clearing out one day I decided to google the signature, not anyone known to me but his paintings were selling. I sold it for £600.

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Re: Sold the house in Andalucia. Here's how it went.

Postby markwilding » Tue Aug 20, 2019 12:15 pm

Great post DA, it made interesting reading. It was a pity we couldn't meet up last week while you were here. Murthy's law I was in the UK while you were here. I hope Bilbao came up to expectations. At least we were able to update each other via WhatsApp..


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