Engel & Völkers - Agencia Inmobiliaria en Madrid

We found an apartment listed on Idealista and reached out about it. Teresa Santos from Engel & Völkers Salamanca contacted us to say that listing was no longer available, but that she had another property for us to see. We went to view it, put an offer an our later, and things moved forward from there. That night, Teresa told us she had prepared a presentation of our file and would speak to the owners the next morning, since it was after hours. At 11am she sent a message saying “accepted!!!” and called shortly after to walk us through some documents and explain annual taxes associated with the property, which we understood and had no issue with. She told us we were set to close the next day at 12:30, with the landlords meeting us first before signing. She followed up with a text saying that once we had a document signed, we’d be “100% ready for signing tomorrow.” It wasn’t until we went back and reviewed the documents ourselves that we noticed a substantial agency fee we had not been told about beforehand: €5,423, which corresponds almost exactly to one month’s rent plus VAT. That’s not an arbitrary number for “help searching for an apartment,” it’s the standard structure of a fee tied to a completed rental placement. Under Spain’s Ley 12/2023 (Article 20.1 of the LAU), agency fees for a primary residence rental are legally the landlord’s responsibility, not the tenant’s, and this law doesn’t allow it to be contracted around. We contacted Teresa about a property we had seen listed, and she decided to share this listing with us. Charging us this fee appears to run directly counter to current Spanish law. When we brought this up, Teresa explained that she had worked hard to get our offer accepted. That explanation described effort spent securing a deal that was already done, not a deal still pending review, which is how the fee was later framed. When we asked her directly, “so if we don’t pay you today, we don’t sign tomorrow?” her response was simply: “correct.” She said she would speak to Juan Uribe, the manager, about possibly lowering the fee. We never heard back from either of them that day. We sent sent several emails, stating that we wanted to address this urgently because we were scheduled to sign the next day. We didn’t hear back until the next morning from Juan. After hearing us out over the phone, we were sent an email by Juan stating that Teresa meant the landlord “accepted to reviewing our file”, not the offer. Taken together, the sequence doesn’t add up: an enthusiastic “accepted,” a closing date already scheduled with the landlords ready to meet us, documents sent with instructions to sign, and only after all of that, a fee that appears both sized like a completed-placement commission and legally owed by the landlord, not us. I would avoid this office by all means. They are taking advantage of people who are navigating a new system and are eager to find an apartment.

The worst cervice anywhere! Unprofessional and unreliable. We called looking for a rental flat. We were told by the receptionist that Vanessa the rental agent will return our call which did not happen. We called thrice more and were told to wait. After 5 days we asked to speak to the manager of the offices Juan, who did not take our call but asked us to e-mail him.

I have had to deal with this agency several times, and I strongly do NOT recommend working with agent Yvette Hernandez Prado. You will be constantly ignored, and it feels like there is little to no interest in actually helping you rent an apartment. On multiple occasions, I had to wait weeks just to receive a response. The last time I requested a viewing, Yvette never contacted me at all. When you call the agency, they will promise to call you back, but in reality, nobody follows up unless you repeatedly call them yourself. Based on my experience, I strongly recommend avoiding this agency, and especially avoiding any dealings with Yvette Hernandez Prado.

Complete scam. They ask you to pay service fees + VAT on top of the rent which goes into the agencies pocket. But the law says they aren’t allowed to do that with long term rentals so be very careful with this company. I’ve had 2 negative experiences with 2 separate agents in just one day. it’s a waste of your time. they try to tell you they don’t work for free which is why they want the service fee but actually the LANDLORD pays that. If the landlord didn’t pay service fees they wouldn’t list their property. The second I caught the real estate agent in a lie he started talking to me in a rude tone. They claim they’re a big real estate firm all over the world but they’re the least professional agency I ever dealt with. If I could give zero stars I would

Stay away from Engel & Völkers in Spain! They do shady business tactics. Carefully read what you sign. They ask for agency fee from the tenant which is illegal in spain. They say that it is a premium service but when i told them i don’t want it they said that there is no way around it. They swear that everything is legal but there are many complaints against them both from individuals and consumer protection agencies. Don’t take my word for it, google them or ask AI and you will find out just how bad they are.