Got a bill for the re-valuation of our house.?

[Finpat]

Hi
I am new to this board so any help would be appreciated. We bought a house in La Florida in March 02'. There was a value put in the Escritura of 60K Euro. We got a registered letter today - entitled Notificacion del Tramite De Audienca' from Oficina Liquidadora Orihuela.

It is of course in Spanish however it seems to be details of a re-valuation of our house now for 96K Euro. This letter now seems to be billing us for 7% of the difference. i.e. over 2500 Euros.!!!!

Has anyone else ever received this type of letter.? Are we obliged to pay this difference and can they revalue the house at any future date and thus bill us again.?

[harry]

never heard of this before, when we bought our property the price that appeared on the Escritura was the figure we (ahemm!!!) bought the house for - it was certainly never valued by any Spanish authority!

Sounds like a scam, but this is the best place to ask these sort's of questions!

[siobhan]

Hi,
This may not be a scam. Revaluations and late tax bills are part of the on going arguement about black money and under declaring on the deeds. If you under declared you "saved" 7% VAT/TVA at the time of purchase. According to the "You and the law in Spain" book the tax authorities are checking declared values more and more and can issue bills (and sometimes penalties) for any shortfall. Needless to say this is all payable by the buyer not the builder. I'd bring the bill to a solicitor as it could be a scam or it could be real - either way I wouldn't ignore it!
Regards
Siobhan

[jacpops]

If this is not a scam I would imagine that it could begin to concern a lot of people. This is just the sort of thing that could bite you on the bum at a later date if you under declare. If Finpat has to pay this money plus penalties for late payment over 2 years if the authorities see it that way it could indeed be a hefty bill. We fought hard not to under declare and have paid the full amount and have it declared on the deeds. Thank goodness we did. Let us know the outcome as I am sure many people will be interested.
Good luck

[Doc]

There is another issue here as well. How are the authorities to know that black money was or was not paid? It may be that an individual purchases a property at a knock-down price legally and above board declaring the full purchase price for the purpose of paying IVA. There is then nothing to stop the authorities deciding that the property is worth more than has been declared and demanding 7% IVA on the difference between their perception of the property's value, and the price actually paid.

In this example, those that will lose are those that have paid the full price (and I'm not criticising anyone here - I admire Jacpops for her stand with the builder and solicitor).

The authorities, in Finpat's case, appear to be demanding an IVA payment on the VALUE of the property, not on the purchase price. The two can be very different.



There must be an appeals route, or some sort of evidence trail involved surely?

Chris.

[Buckets]

From whom did you buy

Do you think they are saying that the declared value in 2002 should have been 96k. If not how were you to know then that the value today in 96k.

From whom did you buy?

Buckets

[siobhan]

Finpat, Doc
Certainly a tricky one. If the authorities can decide a value without an appeals system then it seems like a lose/lose situation even if you declare full value on purchase. I signed up late 2002 but are only completing next week so the market value would be different regardless of declared value. Please let us know how you get on Finpat (after all it may not be genuine!). Good luck!
Doc - what is the other forum you mentioned?

[Finpat]

Here is the latest on this. We contacted the company we purchased through and this is the first one they have seen. IT IS Genuine!
According to them more and more people are now going to see this . The thing is the value they are putting on it now is about 10K MORE than we actually paid. The company have sent it on to the solicitor involved. They have said they can appeal it and hopefully win however they will charge for this. So do we pay the bill as is, or go with appealing , lose and then have to pay them as well.??

Regards