Legal Fraud and Scams When Buying Property in Europe

Property fraud and bad deals strip investors of serious money across Europe every year. Not with cartoon‑level email scams, but with quiet, boring, legal‑looking tricks that only show their teeth once you own the place and the bills land on your desk.

Property fraud in Europe: the real danger

The real trouble is not some individual on WhatsApp selling you a villa that doesn’t exist. It is the perfectly normal flat, sold by a perfectly normal seller, through a perfectly normal agent… where half the story has been politely left out. You sign, you pay, you smile – and six months later you realise you have just adopted a very expensive problem.

If you are hunting for property abroad, three things can hurt you more than any currency swing: hidden defects in the building, legal and planning mess, and the added chaos of doing all this in a country where you do not speak the language or know the rules. Get a grip on those, and you stop being an easy mark.

Hidden defects: the stuff you only find once it rains

Imagine this. You buy a good‑looking flat in a solid European city. Fresh paint, nice staging, the sort of place estate agents call “turn‑key” with a straight face. You complete, move in tenants, and feel very pleased with yourself. Then the cracks appear – literally. The walls start to move, damp blooms behind the plaster, and one storm later the roof proves to be about as watertight as a colander.

The repair bill is not a few hundred quid. It is tens of thousands. The seller knew there were issues, but never put them in bold red letters. In many countries, the law still leans towards “you should have checked”, unless you can prove they actively misled you. So if you stroll in with nothing more than a quick viewing and a handshake, you are playing property roulette.

Serious investors do not guess. They start with a Level 3 building survey – the full, slightly brutal health check. A chartered surveyor goes through the place like an MOT inspector with a torch and a bad mood, looking at structure, movement, roofs, damp, rot and anything that looks like it might fall off, leak or collapse next year. For most houses and flats,s you are looking at roughly £600 to £1,500 or more, depending on size and complexity, which sounds painful until you compare it to a new roof and structural repairs combined.

If that survey shows serious movement or odd alterations, the next adult in the room is a structural engineer. Across the EU, they work with Eurocodes – shared standards that let them say, in quite precise terms, whether those cracks are cosmetic drama or the early chapters of “Why My Building Fell”. At that point, you stop guessing and start making decisions: renegotiate, walk away, or accept the work with your eyes open.

On bigger or more complex buildings, the game changes again. Professional buyers ordera full Technical Due Diligence. That is not just one person with a clipboard; it is a small army of engineers and architects who go through structure, roofs, services and compliance, then hand you a capital‑expenditure plan for the next five to ten years. Instead of hoping nothing large breaks, you see on paper when the big cheques will be needed and can price the deal accordingly.

Spain adds its own twist. If you buy a compliant new‑build home there, the law requires a ten‑year structural insurance policy – Seguro Decenal – covering serious defects in foundations and main load‑bearing parts. It is one of the few times the system actually admits buildings do go wrong and forces someone other than you to pick up the tab. If you are buying new in Spain and nobody can show you that policy, that is your cue to stop smiling.

Legal compliance: when “lovely house” means “illegal extension”

The next way to set fire to your money is to buy something that does not actually match local rules. It looks like a normal house. It behaves like a normal house. But the back extension was built with no permit, the attic conversion never met fire regs, or the place has been run as a business for years in a residential zone.

You often discover this at the worst possible moment – when you try to sell, refinance, or apply for your own work. Then the local authority appears with fines, maybe demolition orders, and a look that says “you really should have checked this before you bought.”

The cure is not romantic, but it works. A proper local lawyer does more than shuffle papers. They check zoning and land‑use with the town hall, confirm that every bit of the building that should have permission actually has it, and make sure your flans – from standard renting to holiday lets or light commercial use – are legal in that spot. A pretty street and friendly neighbours do not mean the rules are on your side.

Decent legal due diligence also digs into planning history, past or open enforcement notices, and compliance with building and fire codes where those apply. If the property sits inside a managed community or owners’ association, your lawyer reads those rules as well, because buried in the small print, you often find bans on short‑term lets, tight controls on external changes, and other ways to ruin your clever plan.

On top of that, there is the EU‑level twist. Consumer‑protection rules across the bloc make it unlawful for traders to use misleading actions or misleading omissions – leaving out material facts that would change a normal buyer’s decision. A known planning breach or major safety issue is not “justa detail”; it is material. If the seller or their agent hides it, you may have extra rights and grounds to fight back. That said, these laws do not turn every missed problem into an instant win for you. They add teeth when someone behaves badly. They do not excuse skipping surveys and searches.

Cross‑border buying: when confusion is the business model

Buying property at home is already complicated. Doing it abroad is like doing the same job while someone keeps changing the rules in a language you barely speak. You do not know how contracts usually look, you do not know which “standard” fee is actually anything but, and you do not always know when something is obviously wrong.

That confusion is not an accident. Some people build a business model around it.

You see it clearly with residency‑by‑investment schemes. Several European countries have offered Golden Visa or residency programmes linked to investment. These are official, written-down, government programmes with minimum amounts, clear property rules and proper checks. Portugal, for example, scrapped the classic “buy a property, get a Golden Visa” route in October 2023; the scheme now runs on other types of investment instead. When someone tries to sell you a “special visa deal” the government has never heard of, that is not an opportunity. It is bait.

Tax is another favourite playground. A smooth seller tells you that “foreign buyers pay no tax here” or that there is a “special arrangement” where nothing is taxed twice. In reality, cross‑border tax sits on two legs: the law in the country where the property is, and the Double Taxation Treaty between that country and your home state. Those treaties decide who taxes what and how your home country gives relief. If the story you are hearing does not match what an independent tax adviser shows you from the treaty, you are being sold a fantasy, not a plan.

Then there is the question of who you actually trust on the ground. Every country has its own idea of what “qualified” looks like. One clean way to reduce risk is to pick professionals whose standards travel with them. A RICS‑accredited surveyor or valuer in Spain, France or Poland has to meet the same professional and ethical rules as one in Manchester or London, and follow the same Red Book valuation standards. It is not magic, but it does give you a baseline: this person answers to more than just their own business card.

Finally, remember that some frameworks now work across borders, whether you notice them or not. Eurocodes give engineers a shared language for structural design and checks. EU unfair‑trading rules set minimum behaviour for how property can be marketed to consumers. They do not replace local planning law, landlord law or tax law, but they do mean you are not stepping into a complete legal Wild West every time you cross a border.

How not to be the easiest victim in the room

Most overseas property disasters are not acts of God. They are acts of “I did not check that.” The seller knows the building, the area and the rules. You do not. The gap between those two is where the damage happens.

Closing that gap looks boring on paper and feels very satisfying in real life. You get proper surveys instead of trusting the paint. You pay for full legal checks instead of hoping the agent “would tell you if anything was wrong”. You get tax advice that comes from treaties and statutes, not the bloke who stands to earn a commission. You lean on professionals with standards you can verify, not just titles you do not understand.

This is not about assuming everyone is a crook. It is about refusing to play the game on hard mode. Big institutions do not buy office blocks in foreign countries on trust and good vibes. They use systems, checklists and people whose job is to be sceptical. If you are serious about buying in Europe, you can borrow the same attitude, just scaled to your budget.

Do that, and property abroad stops being a rigged game and starts being what it should have been from the start: a business decision you can explain, defend and actually sleep on.