The Importance of Having the Right Lawyer
Article supplied by Welex Lawyers & Accountants
Day-to-day economic activity in Spain is not immune from suffering setbacks, delays, and, in many cases, breaches in orders or contracts agreed between parties to provide a service or goods. What was expected to be normal service, or purchase/sale, without any delay can sometimes end up becoming a real headache, especially if the service that has been paid for is unsatisfactory or the goods that have been purchased do not comply with the conditions previously agreed in the business agreement. In order to recover an amount paid in Spain, the first thing to do is to determine
the nature of that amount, and the second is to choose a respected law firm that is an expert in quantity claims in Spain and has the solvency to contribute to quick management of the conflict, says Welex lawyer Rafael Andrades. “Depending on where this obligation arises we can find ourselves before one procedural path or another; article 1089 of the Spanish Civil Code says that every obligation consists of giving, doing or not doing something; and article 1090 states that obligations arise from the law of contracts or legal agreements of these obligations.”
These obligations cannot be contained – except on rare occasions – by force (coercive means). Obliging a person to do what they don’t want to do can be contained by “imposing” a certain legal consequence, generally the payment of a certain amount of money. “We also have compensation for non-material damage… a person’s morale is the consideration, the esteem that others may have for us or what we have for ourselves. It is something that cannot be restored, there is no ‘restitutio in natura’ that can be returned to a person who has been falsely accused of committing a criminal act or a crime of slander. Let us say that this consideration of others cannot be restored in a material way,” notes Rafael Andrades.
One of the most common and frequent defaults is related to the contractual rental relationship in Spain, which can lead to legal complaints and costly lawsuits. In this regard, Andrades points out that the emergence of the obligation is the existence of a previous lease contract and, as a result of non-payment by the lessee, the lessor can exercise different actions in Spain. “It is something that is very usual. In these cases it leads to a special nondeclarative ordinary or verbal procedure for the eviction for non-payment and the claim of rent and similar amounts.” Welex provides services to both tenants and landlords. They can claim unpaid bills for electricity or water – and sometimes there are contracts in which it is agreed that each pays half the Wi-Fi connection or telephone line. Community of owners expenses are not usually subject to lease conditions; they are linked to the ownership of a property and are the responsibility of the owner. “If the landlord has a lease contract that is not fulfilled, they come to Welex so that we can exercise, in their interests, actions to claim the rent or other amounts. We request eviction and recovery of the property.”
On some occasions, however, the tenant is the one who contacts Welex, “because they are in a situation of crisis or economic precariousness, and they want to use an extrajudicial route to reach an agreement by offering to hand over the rented flat in exchange for remission of the debt”.
Welex Lawyers & Accountants
C/ Ramón Gómez de la Serna 23, Local 7, Marbella
Tel. (+34) 952 775 521 · info@welex.es · www.welex.es
