Good evening

If anyone's interested, a few words about the agent registry in Catalonia:

Since March 2010 estate agents in Catalonia are required to register on the Generalitat’s AICAT registry. Most have already done so, particularly those that belong to professional associations like API or APEI. Some smaller Spanish agencies may not have registered yet, but in my opinion this doesn’t automatically mean they are unprofessional or will disappear.

I have not heard if the Generalitat have started contacting non-aicat agents yet. They certainly don’t appear to have carried out any advertising. So some non-Spanish agents may still be completely unaware of the need to register.

Agencies located outside Catalonia (whether in other regions of Spain or elsewhere) that sell property in Catalonia are not required to register, neither are agents that only sell property on an occasional basis (quite a few retired agents would fall into this category, as would professionals in other fields that are perfectly capable of organising a property sale).

To become an aicat agent one has to:

-      Have at least 4 years’ proven professional experience or possess the appropriate qualifications*
-      Have civil responsibility insurance and a bank guarantee to demonstrate solvency
-      Have an office where the public can visit you (in theory you can work exclusively over the internet and have a home office but in practice it is hard to get the bank guarantee and is much more expensive. In my case, I stopped working from home and rented a small office.)
-      Adhere to the aicat professional code and procedures

*Certain professions don’t have to do this: lawyers, architects, economists, engineers, etc

More info (in Catalan) and a list of registered agents are available at www.agenciahabitatge.cat

The British Consulate in Barcelona have taken an interest in the cédula de habitabilidad problems and I understand they have had a series of meetings with the the Generalitat about this issue, including one with new president Artur Mas.

Additionally, the British Embassy in Madrid now has a consultant working on property-related problems, liasing with the Spanish authorities. This is a positive step in my view as formerly, the Consulate's stance always appeared to be limited to 'sorry but we cannot get involved'.

The Consul told me that they cannot champion individual cases but it seems to me it is well worth contacting them.

I think they will be specially interested to hear of cases where UK nationals are being denied registry on the padrón, access to healthcare, schooling, etc.

Finally, don't forget that the official channel for any complaint about the Catalan administration is the 'Sindic de Greuges'. You can do this in English on their website, see http://www.sindic.cat/en/page.asp?id=1

Hope this helps!

Jeff
(aicat agent number 2.671  :))