John
06-16-2010, 11:39 AM
I have recently managed to get the tenants of a property I own in Malaga successfully evicted following persistant non-payment of rent totalling 20 months. For this I employed the services of a lawyer who did all that was necessary to get the eviction through the courts successfully. This I am extremely happy with, although I have some concerns with the associated charges and their validity. I admit that at the outset no fixed charge was agreed but correspondance was entered into about fees via email where i was quoted a charge of 500 - 800 euros plus 10% of the amount of overdue rental recovered. This seemed quite reasonable and we continued. Throughout the following 18 months I handed over a total of 900 euros to cover various expenses and incidental fees. This is fine. However, once the eviction had taken place and I recieved the final bill I was somewhat dismayed to see it totalled 6400 euros. This is somewhat higher than anything I was expecting and a long way off the initial quote. No money has been recovered from the tenant but 10% of the outstanding amount would still only amount to 1500 euros which is a lot less than this bill reflects. Upon querying this figure and the reasons for it being so different from the initial email I have been stongly advised to pay it quickly or I will be taken to court myself. Any information and advice you could provide to help me with this difficult situation will be greatly appreciated.