Your lawyer should have one client. You.

Somewhere around the second viewing, the agent says it: “We have a lawyer we always use. Very good, speaks perfect English, handles everything.” It sounds like a favour. Often it is one, and plenty of those lawyers do a perfectly good job.

But it is worth understanding the incentives before you decide.

The agent is paid on completion. No sale, no commission. A lawyer who gets a steady stream of work from that agent has a quiet, human incentive to keep transactions moving, and every problem found in due diligence is a problem for the transaction. That is not an accusation. It is just a pull in one direction, and you want the person checking your purchase to have no pull at all.

What independence actually buys you

A lawyer with one client works for exactly that person. When they check the property for debts, embargoes, missing licences or community arrears, a problem found is their job done well rather than a deal at risk. That difference in incentive is worth more than any difference in skill.

In Spain the stakes are higher than at home, because debts can follow the property rather than the person. Buy an apartment with unpaid community fees or an outstanding charge against it and parts of that bill can become yours. The person checking needs no reason to look away.

The test

Three questions before you appoint anyone, and none of them is about who gave you the name.

Do they act for the seller, the developer or the agency in any capacity? On this sale or generally. This is the one that matters, and the answer needs to be no.

Who pays them, and does anyone take a share? You should be the only name on that invoice, and nobody should be earning anything for having sent you.

Are they a practising abogado registered with a Spanish bar (colegio de abogados)? Not a gestor, not an administrator. Checking the registration takes two minutes.

Where the name came from matters far less than those three answers. A good lawyer introduced by an agent is still a good lawyer. A poor one you found yourself is still a poor one. Ask the questions rather than the introduction.

What it costs

Typically around 1% of the purchase price plus IVA (21%), though fees are set freely and vary by firm. On a €350,000 purchase, that works out at roughly €4,200. Cheap against the one file in which something turns out to be wrong, and not the place to save.

Where we stand

We introduce buyers to independent, English speaking legal teams on the coast. You pay the lawyer directly, they answer to you alone, and we take nothing from them for the introduction.

That last part is the point. We hold ourselves to exactly the test we have just handed you, because a rule you exempt yourself from is not a rule.