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Post by nik on Oct 14, 2003 21:20:30 GMT 1
I am currently in the process of buying a flat in Istria.
Things seem to be moving along ok but there does not seem to be much involvement from a solicitor/conveyancer/laywer.
The draft contract I have been issued with was sent (and presumably drawn up) by the estate agent.
Is this normal? I understand that the notary (in court) only authorises the signatures on the contract and does not check the terms or content of the contract.
By this stage of the proceedings I would have expected more involvement from a legal professional.
Can anyone shed any light on this?
Thanks
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Post by Giles on Oct 15, 2003 8:18:36 GMT 1
I can only tell you of my experience. Everything was being drawn up by lawyer recommended. Everything going very smoothly until I cottoned on to the fact that I was using the same lawyer as the vendor. When I insisted on using my own lawyer funnily enough everything slowed down and a lot more investigation was needed. Get a lawyer who is acting in your interests. The agent wont like it.
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Post by Nick L on Oct 15, 2003 18:38:24 GMT 1
I am also in the process of buying in Istria. My experience, based on the fact I am also using the same legal professional as the vendor is that this is quite common. It is also the way things are done in Spain most of the time. This person would not be able to act on either of your behalf if it came to dispute. Their job is to make sure that papers are clean etc. If you want advice then you will need your own lawyer. If not and you are happy that you have asked all the questions this shouldn't be a problem. It has taken me a long while to get my head around this, having studied law it goes against everything I learned re conflict of interests. But my friend at work who is Craotian and also works as a UK lawyer assures me that this is normal. SLOWS DOWN - not suprising considering the postal service. With the same lawyer things are much quicker and if you have bought in England recently then you'll know that our system is not exactly the quickest either!!
The biggest thing seems to be that you are confident in the person / company you are buying from and have reasonable grounds to base your decision on. Recommendation, multiple visits etc.
Having said that, in England you wouldn't be allowed to use the same lawyer and if you wanted to I'd say you were mad! Out there it's a different system.
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Giles
Junior Member
Posts: 24
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Post by Giles on Oct 16, 2003 8:09:47 GMT 1
I suppose another factor to take into account is whether or not you feel confident that you know all the questions to ask. In my situation I was being told that the ownership was clear. It turns out that this is correct, however the actual building itself is not in the land registry. I was cruising along quite happily until I got my own lawyer on board and he raised this. Nick is right, it does slow things down. However, as a natural pessimist (just ask my business partner!!), I would rather risk losing the deal than finding out several years later that I have a property I cannot easily sell. Any investor will tell you that one of the downsides of property invstment is that it is illiquid (does that word exist?). There is no point in making it even more so.
Also worth bearing in mind: I wonder how many of the Brits who bought in Spain and are now fighting with the Spanish Govt to stop their illegally built houses being bulldozed used the same lawyer as the vendor?
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