civil harassment

[joscelynk]

My friend lives in spain but his ex girlfriend lives in the UK. her name is also on the escritura to his house (even though she did not pay any money towards the purchase of it.) She has known that the relationship has been over for at least 6 months but continues to turn up at the house to stay even when asked not to come. He is then forced to move out while she is there as he obviously doesnt want to be with her. She also persists in telephoning him often very late at night and sometimes many times a day.

Under spanish law can she be accused of civil harassment and is there anything he can do to stop her actions?

[Lawbird Lawyer]

Dear Madam,

His exgirlfriend owns 50% of the property regardless of whether she paid for it or not.

She cannot be asked not to turn up at her own property.

They should both try to reach an amicable settlement whereby they both use the property alternatively 6 months each and contribute each to its maintanance.

Failing the above, they would have to resort to what is known as a dissolution of joint property ownership. Please read our article on the matter.

A DJPO is a normal conveyance procedure by which one of the joint owners buys the outgoing share. Instead of paying 7% Transfer Tax the buyer pays only 1% Stamp Duty on the full property value. The other associated expenses to a conveyance procedure remain the same: lawyer’s fees, notary and land registry fees. From a tax mitigation point of view this is the most sensible option.

Let me know if we can assist your friend either way.

From what you describe it cannot be labelled as harrasment as the property belongs to her jointly and they have not reached an agreement over its use.