Secure Home Purchase in Spain
14 min readSecure Home Purchase in Spain
The Ministry of Development together with the Association of Property Registrars have prepared a simple and brief document with the different steps and recommendations that an individual must follow when buying a home in Spain.
It is a guide with information of great interest, free access and available
for any national or foreign buyer with the objective of contributing to make an appropriate decision.
In the Spanish legal system there are a series of documents that certify the
complete legality of a home. Make sure you have all of them before
to buy.
Documents:
* Works license and certification of the competent technician on the adequacy from the building to the license granted and to the project approved by the Town hall.
* First occupancy license of the building, certificate of occupancy or other
administrative authorizations that establish that according to the law housing is habitable.
* Contracts subscribed with the companies providing the basic services
(electricity, water, gas and telephone)
* Registration in the Land Registry of the building (new construction), as well as the existence of the insurance provided by the Law against defects or defects hidden in construction.
* Certificate of the Property Registry on the legal status of the living place.
* Community Statutes (or inscription in the Land Registry of the new construction deed completed and horizontal division).
Likewise, we recommend:
* In the case of new construction, demand a Certificate from the Commercial Registry from the developer to prove the existence of the company, its registration data, the administrators and / or proxies, the registered office, the NIF, if there is no inscription of bankruptcy proceedings, and a statement on the nonexistence of claims, litigation or any contingency that could affect the promotion.
* In the case of used housing, ask for the receipt of the last annuity of the
Real Estate Tax, a certification signed by the president from the community of owners with the approval of the building secretary that realizes that the house is up to date with all payments, as well as a formal manifestation and in a public document that they do not exist rental agreements constituted on housing.
When buying your home, there are a number of steps that will allow you acquire it with full guarantees:
1. Review the legal status of the home by going to the Registry of the Property.
The Land Registry is a State agency and the Registrars are
public officials, who will inform you verbally for free and who have
ability to issue certificates on the situation of real estate.
In the Property Registry you will obtain the following information regarding each dwelling:
Description of the home, location of the home, surface, share of
co-ownership in horizontal property, administrative regime that could
affect you (e.g. if it is an official protection home); the mortgages of the
that responds to the dwelling and the term until its expiration, and figure by capital, interests and costs; the embargoes to which it is subject; any situation of litigation that affects you, as well as if there is an ongoing procedure for urban irregularity. You can also get information, if requested
expressly, on the statutory regime of horizontal property, the mortgage clauses, the price that was paid in previous transmissions
or the acquisition title.
The Land Registry can provide you with this information in the form of
simple informative note, which has a purely informative value, or of
certification of domain and charges, which has the character of a public document.
You can also ask the Registrar to issue an explanatory report that describe the housing registration situation.
In Spain, any Land Registry can provide you with those documents, regardless of the municipality in which the living place. In addition, you can request that information by fax, regular mail and electronic and through the website of the Registrar’s Association www.registradores.org.
To obtain these certificates, you will be asked to identify yourself and provide some type of document that allows identifying the dwelling on which request information: either registration data: registry property number, section, municipality; data of the holder: name, surname; the corporate name, NIF / CIF; or other simple data such as street and number.
2. Study the existing mortgage charges
In addition to the legality requirements, it is important to pay attention to whether the home that you are going to acquire has a mortgage (in which case this will be recorded in the Registry of the Property). If so, we recommend that:
Ask the seller for a bank certification with the outstanding amount
of payment.
Negotiate with the bank an improvement in the interest rate. Not required to assume the mortgage loan contracted by the seller in them
conditions, but you can demand your cancellation or get a new loan
in another entity.
3. Go to a notary to make the sale
Notaries are also independent public officials who grant faith
public and that they have the obligation to advise the parties at the time of the buying and selling, informing them about the law that applies to them. In addition, they take care of write the contract according to what the parties want by adjusting it to the law, and that adopts the form of public deed.
The public deed is essential to register it in the Registry of the Ownership and benefit from the security it grants and that we explain in point 5.
The Notary, before authorizing the sale, will request a Nota Simple to the Property Registry, so at that time you can recheck the legal status of the property. If in doubt, ask the Notary before signing, it is his function to advise you.
The contract of sale, may have been previously formalized by both
parties to a private document, but will not have all legal guarantees unless
elevates to public deed.
In Spain, the Notary intervenes at the time of the sale, but also
can advise you beforehand, just like lawyers and Agents in your country of origin.
4. Be sure to pay the taxes corresponding to the sale
The sale in Spain is associated with the payment of certain taxes:
In the case of buying a new home, you must pay the seller the
Value Added Tax.
In the case of buying a used home, you must pay the Tax of Patrimonial Transmissions through one of the banking entities identified by the Administration.
In both cases, if you buy through a mortgage you must satisfy the
Tax of Documented Legal Acts in an account of the Public Treasury through any collaborating banks.
5. Register as a homeowner in the Land Registry
Once you have made the transaction and paid the taxes, go to the Registry of Property corresponding to the location of the house to register. The Registration is not mandatory, but if registered, the buyer will be fully protected as owner, because of the presumption of ownership. What is recorded in the Registry is presumed true and could only be modified by a judge. No one may claim against you a right with respect to housing that it is not already recorded in the Registry at the time of the sale and if someone
you want to register a document you could only do it with your consent or by a judicial procedure in which he was a party.
You will be protected against the creditors of the seller and against any load that could appear without being registered in the Registry.
You would be protected even if a judge determined that the contract for which who sold the house you acquired it is void for a cause that does not appear in the Registry.
In addition, you should know that according to Spanish laws the seller is
bound by the hidden defects at the time of the sale of the housing and appear later, even when unknown. This means that:
If the house does not meet the quality objectives in the interior space
habitable set by current legislation, the buyer has the right or either to give up the sale (paying the seller the expenses that paid) or a reduction in the price, established by official experts.
It may demand responsibilities from both the developer, the builder and the technical management of the building due to structural construction defects that they could appear for a period of 10 years; for damages that affect the habitability of the building for a period of 3 years; and for damages caused in Finishing defects for a period of 1 year.
The Spanish law requires the responsibles to have an insurance that ensures that, where the case, to collect the corresponding compensation.