If you don't want to experience any legal surprises with new-build projects, will certainly not be able to avoid experienced legal advice.
Whoever needs a lawyer usually already has legal problems that need to be solved. For both property purchases and new projects, however, legal advice serves as a sensible preventative measure for potential difficulties that may arise, particularly when drawing up contracts or declarations of commitment.
What to consider when buying a building plot?
It is important to find out exactly to what extent and with what type of property the plot may be built on. Where is the plot located: urban or rural? „Often there are strict regulations as to what the property may look like. In these cases, it is important to be clear in advance about what you want to build and to have its implementation on the desired property checked accordingly," explains lawyer Sonja Willner from the law firm Lozano Schindhelm in Palma. „In many cases there are full-bodied and of course purely oral assurances as to what the buyer can do with the property. However, a buyer should never blindly rely on these“.
Property consolidation:
Tempting but often not practicable
In the outdoor area, for example, a minimum area must be available in order to be allowed to build at all. „The idea of simply acquiring two plots of land and then combining them often seems tempting. However, it must be carefully examined whether this is legally permissible at all so that the desired goal can be achieved," says Sonja Willner. Great care should also be taken with properties in nature conservation zones or close to beaches and coastlines.
In some circumstances, it may not even be possible to build here despite sufficient space.
Collaboration between lawyer and architect
As a general rule, clients should always work with a lawyer and the architect when building a new home to avoid unpleasant surprises.
Clauses can already be included in the private preliminary contract in which the buyer can protect himself so that he does not necessarily lose his deposit completely if the supposedly ideal dream property is not built on with a stately villa and stables as advertised, but only with a flat-roofed bungalow,
says lawyer Sonja Willner.Beware of overly glitzy brochures!
„Dazzling brochures, dreamlike sample properties and impressive 3D animations have already led one or two buyers to enter into an unpriced contract which - to put it mildly - was not worked out to their advantage and was rather brief and superficial,
Lawyer Sonja Willner knows.
In her opinion, buyers should always take a very close look, both at what they are promised and at what is set out in the contract. A new-build project simply cannot be dealt with in three to four pages. At the latest when even a project outsider cannot recognize from the contract what exactly is to be built and how, you should get support," advises Willner.
What should future builders on Mallorca pay particular attention to?
„Detailed building descriptions and quality levels as well as important deadlines and safeguards for down payments are essential requirements without which a buyer should not sign anything, otherwise trouble is inevitable,
Lawyer Willner knows from experience. If, for example, the contract states that white ceramics and taps are to be installed in the bathroom, these can of course also be very simple, plain models that the client neither imagined nor wanted. There are considerable differences in price and quality, especially when it comes to tiles. Not all kitchens are the same.
This list could go on and on,
says Sonja Willner.
Private contract and notarization: Dilemmas for builders
In addition to these disappointments during building acceptance, there is often the problem of notarization. In private contracts, it is often agreed that notarization must take place within a short period after acceptance of the building work - otherwise the buyer loses the instalments paid. The developer then finds himself in a dilemma: if he has already paid a large part of the purchase price, but the property does not meet his expectations at all, he must act quickly. In case of doubt, he must provide expert evidence of defects. For this purpose, it must also be precisely explained what was actually agreed and why the building company's delivered performance does not correspond to this.
Solid contract drafting in advance is worth its weight in gold here, because a legal dispute is not only costly and time-consuming, but also casts a shadow over what is actually a wonderful event of taking delivery of a new building. I can only advise prospective buyers not to save money at the wrong end and to get expert help right from the start,
says Sonja Willner.
