It's why I ALWAYS SUGGEST NOTARIOS. Like I said earlier, they'll question anything out of the ordinary.

I'm not an expert by any means - but worked long enough doing the IT for a franchise chain of "agencies" ( the one with a balloon ) to now have an idea where to expect trickery. Many franchises are run by ex-IT folk btw.

One is INSIST the property is transferred with all dues/taxes etc paid in full by the seller to the date of sale. Legally you can be obliged to pay but have a public document where the seller accepts responsibility - so have the law on your side to get it back. Useful if your seller has not paid his community dues - VERY COMMON on Urban estates. And if in doubt visit the town hall and and get a CATASTRAL as well as Local registration edict. This of course can fail if the Town Hall is bent!. Seen folk buy places (whilst here at the town hall) thinking they can build extensions - and they cant.

I've had recourse to use NOTARIOS twice - once in a property deal, where they questioned the details of the mortgage (we'd negotiated a rather good one and he asked the bank if it was correct or a typo). He also questioned the price. We'd insisted on full value in the document for reasons of mortgage - but it was still low for the area. the Builder explained why (basically the garden did not exist). He'd suspected "Black Money". If they do they often "leave the room" for a while when you exchange money. We asked him to stay and witness. He agreed to do so.

We've a lawyer called FELIX on here that's always offering advice. So far I cant fault anything he's said. He's never pushed his services either.