[First of all some facts]:

In Costa Blanca, both people as well as private companies may ask for horrible prices for their services from the foreign-residents. The reason is not only the great demand but because the foreign-residents usually don’t have the necessary network and don’t know where and how to look for the right people. You may come in contact with people or companies who may ask for NOK 160 – 250 per hour (20 – 30 Euro) just for cutting the lawn or just to put chlorine tablets in your pool. 

Our experience also says that some of your “good friends” may also try to give you unsatisfactory information in order to gain some money out of you. These “good friends” usually tell you good things about certain builders / companies / shops etc.  who later pay them lot of commissions if they send them clients. Commissions may range from 5 – 25% depending upon the type of services. The problem arises when some “unserious companies” (which unfortunately are many of them in Costa Blanca) start creating problems for you. Then your “good friends” usually don’t know how to help you. 

Even people who are supposed to help you with their neutral advice, may also try to give you unsatisfactory information. We have the information that one of the consulates had earlier been reported to the External Affairs Ministry several times by many different people. The reason was either misunderstandings or the poor services (even if the consulate was paid considerable amount of money). 

In Norway and most of other developed countries in Europe, there are norms for a solicitor. A “good solicitor” will not work for a party who earlier had been his counterpart. But in Costa Blanca, this may not be true as here you may find solicitors who are working for the builder, for the real estate agent and for the client (sometimes all at the same time). 

So the question comes "SHOULD PEOPLE ENGAGE A SOLICITOR" before buying a property in Spain? Well .. first we shall try to share some facts with you:

When you engage a solicitor, you usually have to pay him a lot of money. In case you are not satisfied by your builder and want to bring him to a court, the solicitor will always warn you not to do so as legal proceedings in Spain are often extremely time-consuming and very costly. Secondly, a builder can always dissolve his old company and starts a new one for which he has to deposit just NOK 25 000 (3 200 Euros) in any bank. So by the time your legal proceedings are over and even if you have won the extremely costly and time-consuming legal battle, there may not be any company left who will pay you your legal amount and other damages. Remember that most of the builders finance their businesses through mortgages and even if the company still exists, the company may not have enough finance (on the paper) to pay you your damages / compensation. 

When you know how difficult is the legal system in Spain, it is not very difficult to understand that a real estate agent has a very important role to play than any solicitor when someone wants to buy a property in Spain.

Any how most of the times, you don't even know whether your real estate agent is also "serious". So our advice would be that you can sleep better if you engage a solicitor who can investigate that there is no cheating and the sale is genuine and you can build your peroperty in that area. But then you must not sign any contract with the builder before your solicitor has found everything for you and has given you a written assurance (an important thing). 

In case you want to appoint a solicitor, we shall strongly recommend that you contact someone who is from another province. This choice may turn out to be a little more costly but then you are completely sure that the solicitor is giving you his neutral advice. In our opinion, it’s better to pay little more money to a "good" solicitor in order to get things done in a proper way rather than paying relatively a good sum to a solicitor who provides you with his poor services.  

Any how, we would strongly advice you to contact only serious real estate agencies. A big real estate agency does not necessarily mean that it is a serious company. A serious real estate agency will never work for unserious builders. That way you can be very sure that you are buying your property only from a serious builder (who later will not create any problems for you) – the information of which is only with the real estate agency.  

Remember that we always recommend our clients to get a bank guaranty from a reputable Spanish bank. That way you can sleep better by simply paying a small amount for it.  

[Recommended Companies]:

On this site – which is very choosy –  we shall give you the names of some companies / private people who have provided good services to their clients. Please ask them about their service-charges before hiring them. 

Please make a note that  we don’t collect commissions from any of the mentioned companies.  

Despite of our recommendations, we shall take no responsibility for fraud or other problems of any kind from these companies. In any case we shall appreciate to be informed by e-mail in case you are not happy with their services. That way we can judge whether their names should be removed from this site - a site which is ment to be very serious.

Internet / internet connections / Web designing:

MR. ANDREAS WAHLEN	Address:	Vista Lola no.3,  Residencial Playa Flamenca Orihuela Costa (Alicante)
	Tel. no.	(00-34) 966 730 046
	E-mail address	info@wahlen.adirecto.com

Mr. Wahlen provides computer services like website designing, helping with general problems with your computer, internet connections/ internet access etc. He is originally from Switzerland and besides his native Swiss-German language, he also speaks Spanish, English and German. He provides services only in areas around Torrevieja and Orihuela Costa.

Property and pool construction / repairs / property evaluation / etc:

The company is run bu Mr. Ronald Vreysen. He is originally from Belgium and speaks fluent English, Spanish, Flamish (Dutch) and German. His wife and "assistant" Linda speaks Norwegian, Swedish, French apart from Spanish and English.

The company assists people with necessary guidance in connection with buying all types of properties (buildings and plots) in the Calpe-Altea-Benidorm area. 

The company has been used by many reputable attorneys for evaluation of disputed properties and to get the necessary docoments from different offices in the area in order to check whether sale is genuine and the area is regularized for building purpose.

Company builds also exclusive, personalised villas, pools etc. and can assist you in repairs in "Calpe-Altea-Benidorm area".

Lawyers:

Mrs. Sanz speaks fluent Norwegian, English and Spanish.

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