Spanish Bank

colbee

Not sure if this is the right place for this. It's to do with an English friend and his Spanish bank.
He has had a property built in Spain and in the last two weeks has been over there to finalise things. Last year he sent his deposit to his Spanish lawyer expecting it to be passed to the builder/developer.
He got there this time, with the remaining funds already deposited in his Spanish bank account, to find that his lawyer had in fact kept the deposit in his own account, presumably his client account.
The transfer from the client account to my friend's account was not instantaneous and as time was of the essence my friend unexpectedly had to get a draft from his Spanish bank and they wanted to charge him 1200 euros (about £800 I think) for the privilege. He eventually argued them down to 600 euros. He doesn't speak Spanish but, of course, the people at the bank speak fluent English.
Does anyone have any idea if this is a reasonable state of affairs?
My friend is not on the net.

hollydays

Spanish law no idea,but presumably he didnt expressly instruct the lawyer what to do with it?

dmg24

I am assuming that the fee for the draft is calculated as a percentage of the total amount. If this is the case, then assuming the percentage was fair, then I would say that was ok.

I don't see where the bank is at fault really. I would say it is an issue between the solicitor and your friend.

colbee

There was no express written instruction, it was what my friend understood would happen.
The fee was a percentage but was an unexpected quite heavy expense.