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Are verbal agreements enforceable in a Spanish Court of Law?
Property Law
Antonio Flores Vila
14th of November 1999
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Q. My cousin agreed to purchase a property directly from the owner. As they built a good relationship, nothing was agreed on writing but only verbally. It turns out that the owner has now signed a purchase contract with someone else. What are the legal remedies in this case?
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A. The Spanish Civil Code stipulates that where offer and acceptance are met, there is a binding agreement. Both offer and acceptance can adopt the form of a written contract or a simple verbal agreement. However, in order to enforce a verbal agreement in a court of law you need to prove it took place, and for that purpose you will need proof by means of witnesses. Otherwise, the defaulting party might have performed actions that amount to an irrebutable presumption of the existence of that verbal agreement.
In your case, you don´t tell me whether any money was handed over as a deposit. The situation is serious enough for a lawyer to be engaged.
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