Legal Outside the Box

If your intention is to purchase real estate in Spain you should, at least, request the following documentation/information be provided to you:

• The excerpt of the Land Registry (“nota simple informativa”) which attests who is the owner, and that the real estate has no encumbrances, mortgages etc.;
• The public deed of ownership of the real estate;
• If the real estate is owned by several individuals, all must execute the agreement;
• If the real estate is owned by one individual, who is married, his/her wife/husband must grant a consent by virtue of which he/she authorizes the selling of the real estate;
• If the real estate is integrated in a building/community of real estate owners (“comunidad de proprietarios”) the By-Laws of the Community of the real estate owners must be provided together witha certificate issued by the Chairman of the community stating that the seller is up to date with the payments of the Community expenses;
• Any agreement regarding the real estate. The status of lease of the real estate;
• Certificate of energetic efficiency;
• Proof that all taxes due in the 5 years previous to the sale have been paid.

Once the above documentation/information is provided you should analyze it with the requested due diligence.

It is recommended to have the private agreement authorized by the notary public. Moreover, if you want to register the acquisition with the Land Registry (highly suggested) a notarization of the agreement is required. Therefore, it is highly recommended to notarize the acquisition agreement.

Additionally, please note that you will have to obtain a Foreign Identification Number (NIE) before the act of granting the public deed. You can obtain the NIE in the nearest Spanish Consulate in your home country or directly in Spain at the Police Station (you can do it in person or by way of granting a PoA to a representative in Spain).

Once the public deed of acquisition of the real estate is granted, you should pay the taxes which are applicable in Spain. Regarding the taxes, we will come back to this in another post.