How money moves
Three different kinds of money get confused in a Spanish matter, and the confusion is where both overcharging and fraud happen. Here is exactly how it works with us.
Our bank details will never change
Conveyancing and probate are the most heavily targeted areas for payment-diversion fraud. The pattern is always the same: someone reads an email exchange and then sends a message, apparently from us, saying the bank details have changed.
If you ever receive a message saying our account details have changed, do not pay it. Telephone us on 0330 684 5332 and check. We will never ask you to send money to an account other than the one in your engagement letter, and we will never tell you about a change of details by email.
When your bank asks you to confirm the payee name, it will show ABOGADO LIMITED. If it shows anything else, stop.
The three kinds of money
1. Our fee
Paid to ABOGADO LIMITED, in pounds. Half when you instruct us, half on completion. This is the only money that ever reaches us.
2. Small expenses we advance for you
Registry searches, certificates, apostilles, sworn translations — typically €20 to €300. We pay these as they arise and put them on our invoice as expenses, with receipts. Anything above €300 we will ask you about first.
3. Money for the Spanish authorities or the notary
Inheritance tax, municipal land-value tax, transfer tax, notary fees, registry fees. Often several thousand euros. This never touches our account. You pay it directly, and we tell you exactly who to, how much, and by when.
We do not operate a client account
A solicitor's client account in the United Kingdom is a regulated arrangement, backed by rules, an annual accountant's report and a compensation fund. ABOGADO LIMITED is not a firm of solicitors and has none of that, so it would be wrong for it to hold your money — and you would have no protection if it did. The Solicitors Regulation Authority's own rules now expressly allow firms to operate without a client account, so this is a recognised way to work rather than a shortcut.
In practice it is usually simpler for you too. The Spanish inheritance tax is very often paid from the deceased's own Spanish bank account, which the bank will release for that purpose before the estate is distributed. The notary invoices you and you pay the notary. Nobody is holding anybody's money in between.
Where the direct route genuinely will not work — no Spanish bank account, and a regional tax office that will not take a card — we will discuss it with you, and any funds are held in a designated euro account in Spain under the professional rules that apply to the abogado handling your matter, and accounted for to you in writing. We treat that as the exception, not the method.
The payment map
With every quote you get a single page setting out every payment your matter will require: what, to whom, how much, by what method, and by when. It looks like this.
| What | To whom | How | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Our fee | ABOGADO LIMITED | Bank transfer, 50% / 50% | On instruction and on completion |
| Expenses we advanced | ABOGADO LIMITED | On our final invoice | At the end |
| Spanish inheritance tax | The regional tax office | Usually from the deceased's Spanish account | Within 6 months of the death |
| Municipal land-value tax | The town hall | Card or transfer, by you | With the deed |
| Notary and registry | The notary | Euro transfer, by you | On signing |
Card or bank transfer
Up to £500 in a single payment — by card, through our payment pages. Immediate, and you can start the same day.
Above £500 — we invoice you and you pay by bank transfer. This is how law firms in Britain normally bill, and for a matter running over several months it is the appropriate way round. The £750 pre-purchase check can be paid either way, because that one is usually urgent.
Your right to cancel within 14 days applies whichever way you pay. It is set out here.
If you do not have euros
Most of our clients do not, and it is easily solved. You can open a euro account in your own name with a service like Wise or Revolut in about twenty minutes, fund it in pounds, and pay the notary or the tax office from it at a better exchange rate than your bank will give you. The account is yours, not ours, and we never have access to it. Ask us and we will send you a one-page guide.