Downshifting Abroad

Diary of a Downshifter - Part 4

After stalling this potential thief who was the owner of the supermarket in the nearby village of Los Romanes, we contacted our lawyer. Once you have a set of deeds in Spain, you can keep them, even after you have sold the property. New deeds are made up for the new owner and in the deeds register, it is only these latest dated deeds that count. The grocer had simply tried it on with a set of old deeds and a letter from the lawyer threatening a court case shut him up immediately. He assumed that we were rich and ignorant and found that we were neither. We had passed the first of many tests that would try us in Spain. Sometime after this event, we mentioned the incident to some Spanish friends who far from being surprised actually said, “Well he had to try didn’t he. He owns a supermarket. He is an important man!” It was our first realisation that, however well you thought you knew these people, their 1000 years of different history to ours just made them think so very differently. It was a continuing theme throughout our time in Spain.