Before reading this you might like to read over our glossary of Spanish legal terms. All italicised Spanish words below are linked to their equivalents in English.
Once you have chosen a property and we have negotiated a price acceptable to you, we will prepare a contrato privado which we will submit to your lawyer for approval. This will state:
- the buyer's name(s)
- the seller's name(s)
- details of the property, including its catastral reference number
- the agreed price
- the amount of the deposit to be paid (usually 10%)
- that the property is sold free of charges, mortgages etc.
- the time period that is agreed by which time both parties will be available to conclude the sale in front of a Notary. This is typically thirty days but can be any mutually agreed period.
In Spain, unlike in many European countries, it is not essential to use a lawyer in property transactions. However, we strongly recommend that you do so to avoid any potential problems later on. We will be happy to pass on the names of English speaking Spanish lawyers who have proved efficient in the past.
The Notary
Once all the documentation is in place and you have transferred the balance of the purchase monies to Spain we, or your lawyer, will undertake the necessary arrangements with a Notary and fix a convenient date when you and the seller can be present to sign.
In the case of a buyer who is not resident in Spain and who is unable (or who doesn't wish) to return for the formalities of signing, a Power of Attorney may be executed in favour of a legal representative. This is common practice and costs little money. This same Power can also be used subsequently for a number of administrative steps that have to be taken care of in order to register the property in your name and to transfer over electricity and water accounts etc.
Before you sign at the Notary you will need to open a Spanish bank account and obtain a NIE Numero de Identificación Extrajero. We will advise you as to how to do this.
Sale of the property is formalised when the Notary checks that the balance of the money is being paid (now always by bank guaranteed cheque), verifies that all the parties are who they say they are and that the selling party really are the owners of the property, before reading aloud the escritura de compraventa, after which all parties present sign it. The buyer also receives the keys to the property at this point.
If any of the parties do not speak Spanish the Notary will normally insist that they have a translator so that each clause is understood before the parties commit themselves. We can undertake this service for you.
Once the signing is completed an unsigned copy of the escritura is provided (a copia simple) to each party and the Notary faxes a copy immediately to the Registro de la Propiedad to prevent the seller fraudulently selling the property a second time before the buyer has had chance to register his purchase.
Registration of Title
Registration of title should take place as soon as possible but it cannot do so until the Impuesto sobre Transmisiones Patrimoniales has been paid to the regional government. The buyer has thirty days in which to pay this.
Once the tax has been paid the escritura de compraventa, stamped by the regional government, can be submitted to the Registro de la Propiedad in order to reflect the change of ownership in the public records. This will be confirmed by the issue of an escritura pública de compraventa, which is the formal title deed to the property.