Recommended solicitors for house sale

It's the potential buyer's abogado who has to do all the necessary searches etc. on the sale of a property, so you don't really need to have one, as the vendor. All you need to do is to make available copies of the necessary documents that the buyer's abogado will require, such as copies of the latest bills from the electric, water, phone, internet, comunidad, IBI etc. The buyer's abogado will obtain a "nota simple" from the Registro de la Propiedad, which shows the registered details of the property, so in order to ascertain that there are no unpaid debts on the property, he/she will need to have copies of everything from you showing that all payments are up-to-date. If you cannot be at the Notary to sign the sale of the property, then you can give someone a power of attorney to be there in your place.

Thank you for this information. I wondered about the transfer of cash and sorting out capital gains tax if you don't have a solicitor and are out of the country?

Where would the money from the sale go, as in UK it is held in solicitor client account? Thanks

The Notary will retain 3% from the sale price to cover Capital Gains tax. Some people just leave the 3% and run but if there has been no profit on the sale of the property since you bought it (official price shown on the escritura) then you could make an application to get the 3% refunded. There are specialist tax gestors who can do this for you. At the sale, you will normally receive a certified bankers draft at the Notary, which you would need to pay into your Spanish bank account. Once this clears, you could use one of the currency dealers to transfer the money into £ and into a UK bank account. Obviously, you would have to get this done by someone that you trust if you cannot attend the Notary. You could use an abogado or even the estate agent that is handling the sale (If you know them and trust them) or just a friend.