Tax and fees an other things

[nightrider]

re agents

I have bought & sold a number of properties in both London and Lisbon over the years, and the estate agent has always proved invaluable.
They should actually cost you nothing! Here’s the trick: get your property valued (you know how much you want for it anyway) then add on the agents commission… so the buyer is the one who pays

Hi Digs,

I quite understand and agree with your above comments and by what you say your obviously very street wise.

But time an time again, you hear of people being ripped off out here by people selling properties and/or plots of land (some based in the UK) and more than not unregulated anywhere. Then the purchaser is put in touch with a builder who is not a registered company (LDA) in Portugal...and who more often than not is connected to the original seller......and then maybe a lawyer pops up on the scene. The purchaser is given what he or she thinks is a good price to build and told something like, once we start building, it will only take say 6months and so on and so on. The price quoted at the end is nothing like the one originally quoted. Sometimes even the purchaser is talked into saving tax....i.e cash in hand....only to find when things go wrong, that the purchaser cannot address the problem to any regulatory body etc.
In addition to which when the purchaser in years to come goes to sell... if the correct price of purchase has not been stated on the deed, the purchaser finds himself with a nice 25 per cent Capital Gains Bill. Likewise any payments paid to the builder, Estate Agent/Seller and Lawyer....the purchaser should always insist on receiving a factura (receipt) these will be required to off set tax at a later date.

Pitfalls....they are never ending if the purchaser does not do their homework, or better still get someone to look over the paperwork who speaks Portuguese. I have even known of Promissory Contracts being supplied in English to the purchaser but an altered Portuguese version signed at a Notary (POA). It is the law in Portugal that when an Estate Agent is involved the Company Name must be entered on the Deed and Number.

Nightrider...