The Spanish property purchase is not overcomplicated but there are a couple of things that can get complicated at times. For example when you're buying a property you buy it with clear title. What does that mean? Well, it means that the property has no debts on it when it is sold.
This of course means clearing the old mortgage. So the process is as follows. You get in touch with the bank a couple of weeks before the property purchase and you say;
"We are signing for a property on such and such a date how much needs to be cancelled on that date?"
And this is very important because interest payments are calculated on a daily basis. So the bank then gives you a certificate with the amount to cancel on the day and they also say who will be there to collect the check for the payment from the buyer.
.
Now let's get into details. Citibank are absolutely useless in every respect. I had a previous rant about them on this blog in the summer. They actually spent three months without approving a mortgage and giving any information as to why they didn't approve the mortgage and why they had taken so long. This is the same sale but the buyers have actually got a finance from a different place. However what happened now is we have asked Citibank for the cancellation certificate and on the day of the signing the buyers will have to pay a certain amount to cancel the current mortgage. Citibank have refused to give the certificate for the date of the signing. They will give a certificate for the 5th of December but not the 14th of December.
Now apart from the fact this makes no sense whatsoever, why can they give a certificate from the fifth and not the 14th? It is actually illegal. They have a legal responsibility to provide the information to the mortgage holder of how much is needed to cancel on any specific dates. As they have absolutely refused to provide this information they are acting in breach of the law. However how do we inform them about that?
All they have is a call centre and you cannot use Citibank in order to get information Citibank and Citifinancial are now two separate entities even though the original mortgage was done in Citibank. Citifinancial have a call centre will you phone up and speak to a different person every time who doesn't know the situation from the previous person and is not allowed to put any information through to the person who needs to sort it out.
Therefore I am nominating Citibank and Citifinancial as the two worst companies in Spain currently ahead of Telefonica/Movistar and ahead of Vodafone and you know what I think of Vodafone and various others.
Related Rants
1) Buying Spanish Property - A Case Study
2) Dead Germans etc..
WhatsApp us
