Among many things that I consider to be unprofessional of this company, I think the best way is to send a copy of the email that I sent to Collegio de Abogados as follows:

Dear Sir / Madam,

In the first place I must apologize for not writing to you in Spanish and I hope you can correspond with me in English. Thank you.

I have recently sold my apartment in La Cala and arranged for the following company to complete the sale for me:

Lawbird
C/ Ricardo Soriano 19 - 4º - 29601 Marbella
Tel: +34 XXXXXXXXX

The completion day was on February 13th at the notary office in Marbella. I flew into Spain for this completion the day before and so far had not received any kind of breakdown or any statement as to how much would be deducted for utilities etc. After the meeting at Notary office I had a flight booked out of Spain that same evening.

Lawbird read out all of these items to me in a hasty 10 minutes prior to the Notary meeting. I objected to one or two of the items but Lawbird just hurried it along with very little patience for my queries. One was concerning an agreement I had with the Community to settle with them for 177e and which I advised Lawbird of this weeks before. But Lawbird took it upon themselves to ignore this and proceeded to pay them 217e. Having no option to change anything at this stage I had no alternative but to accept. I was also told that I had to pay an outstanding water bill for 238e but was not given anything to substantiate this by way of a bill. The same applied to the rest – all just scribbled on a piece of paper! They have still not provided a copy water bill?

However, my main objection is that at no time prior to the sale when I gave them instruction to proceed or during the transactions nor even after the sale told me of their intentions to withhold a further 10,472e in addition to the 3% already agreed and understood. The first I knew of this was when 3 weeks later they emailed me and advised they were transferring the balance but withholding the 10,472.01. Only then did they send a statement showing this balance of 10,472.

Had I been advised in the first place of their intentions this would have given me time to seek an alternative lawyer, so I feel that I have been tricked here! It is now May and after many months of emails they are still refusing to pay me the balance of the sale of my property = 10,472.01 as per their statement sent to me on March 12th?

Now, nearly 4 months later they are agreeing to make a transfer and have sent me an alternative statement but now only showing a balance of 9,974? I have told them that this is not acceptable and I want what was on the original statement dated 12th March which concurred with everything discussed and agreed at the notary, but they will not agree.

I am afraid I have no idea where to turn to. I think it would be very difficult to find an English lawyer who would want to get involved in Spanish law? So, I would appreciate it if you can help me in this matter please? Thank you.

Sincerely,

John Raftery

I hope this makes sense?
Regards,
John Raftery

Did you get my last question 4 days ago?
More details of contacts that you suggest. Thank you