A real estate lawyer or abogado will assist you and give you legal advices. The procedure to buy a property in Spain is complex enough only a good abogado who know how to deal with the Spanish law will be able to have your right respected.

Alicante and the Costa Blanca have their share of law firms with multi lingual staffs speaking English, Italian, German and French. Let see what work the abogado can do for you.

Your real estate lawyer (abogado) can make arrangements for signing the Escritura and provide guidance on legal matters, content of contract and payment methods.

Make the necessary arrangement to obtain Power of Attorney, it is common practice in Spanish property transactions to give power of attorney to the real estate lawyer taking care of your affairs, if you are not in Spain to avoid you to make numerous trips to Spain during the purchase process. This not only allows him to sign on your behalf at the various stages of the purchase process, including the final Notarised Escritura, it also allows him to set up electricity, water, gas, telephone contracts etc. This can be a very convenient way of ensuring all aspects relating to the purchase of the new house can be dealt with correctly and without effort. You can sign a Power of Attorney in a Spanish Consulate.

Your real estate lawyer (abogado) can draw up contract if asked to. He can also obtain your NIE (Numero de Identidad de Extranjeros) for you, if you cannot do the procedure yourself. The NIE is necessary to make a purchase of a house, car ownership and taxes payment.

In some case your real estate lawyer (abogado) can help you to get a mortgages at better condition, often foreigners pay higher interest rates, arrangement fees and got a reduced loan periods. The lending entities want to minimize risk with foreigners not being able to pay for the *second residence*.

In some case, you can be interested in a property that may have debts, encumbrances , not registered. Your real estate lawyer (abogado) should be able to do something for those issues.

The real estate lawyer will ensure that the purchase is legal and conform to all norms of the Spanish real estate laws. Always check the documents you must sign with him.

The real estate lawyer fee is around 1 to 3 % of the purchase price of the property when he complete the conveyancing of a property.

How to choose your real estate lawyer (Abogado)

As a rule do not choose a lawyer recommend by your seller, estate agent or builder. Your lawyer must work to protect your interests and must be as independent as possible. Your lawyer must point out defect in conditions offered by the seller side and negotiate better terms for you.

Check that your lawyer is a Spanish lawyer (abogado) or English Solicitor. You can verify this at the local law society for the area of Alicante / costa blanca , you can check at :

ICALI (Ilustre Colegio Provincial de Abogados de Alicante)
C/Gravina 4.2
03002 Alicante
Tel: 965 14 51 80
http://www.icali.es/

Spanish Lawyer are covered by professional liability insurance, if he made a mistake you are protected. the professional indemnity insurance cover any liability arising from this negligence.