When you are in the process of buying a property in Spain, there is certain documentation to be check so you do not get surprises afterwards. If you are a foreigner, I always recommend that you hire a reputable lawyer that is familiar with Spanish legalities to advice you on these matters. In this article, I am going to refer to the Land Registry Nota Simple.
It is unique for each property and includes a brief description of the property, who is the owner and the encumbrances on it. They are issued by the Land Registry and the real estate agent or the owner should have it. If that is not the case, it is easy to obtain from the Land Registry (it is public information) with the property Land Registry “Finca” number. You will have in one day. This is what you should check:
Þ Description of the property:
· The type of property: if it is a plot, a garage, an apartment, a villa, etc. A common example of something you may discover by checking this field is a built villa that has not been yet registered. This field will indicate that the property is a plot (empty plot). If the type of property does not match with what you physically can see, you should get an explanation about it.
· If the description, property number and/or address, square meters and annexes (like a garage or a storage) fit with the property you saw or the description on the marketing you received, if any.
· In case of a property belonging to a community of owners, you will also see the coefficient that the property has on the community.
Þ Ownership:
· If the owner at the Land Registry is the individual or company that is selling the property to you. In case of various owners, the Nota Simple will indicate the percentage of ownership and how the owner acquired the property.
· In the case of a company selling a property, the person selling the property should have enough powers of attorney from the company to be able to sell.
· In general, all the parties that appear as owners at the Nota Simple should agree on the conditions of the sale and sign, themselves or via someone with enough powers of attorney, the selling documents.
· It will also tell you if the owner has full ownership of the property or just a right of use (“usufructo” in Spanish).
Þ Encumbrances:
· There are three common encumbrances: mortgages, rights over the property (right of way, right of view, pipes, etc.) and land registered rentals.
· On the mortgage area, you will find the lending bank, the amounts, the periods, the interest rates and when the mortgage was constituted. The modifications to it or new mortgages will be stated in different paragraphs.
· Some of these encumbrances are out of date like a mortgage that has been already paid but has not been cleared at the Land Registry or a past century right of way. The signing of a selling deed may be the right time to clear old encumbrances, if possible.
Þ Precautionary entries:
· Embargos, tax liens or even town-planning liens. You should be careful and investigate in deep these ones if you plan to acquire a property with them.
· An embargo means a debt by the owner of the property. The creditor has the right to receive the registered debt from the amount payable to the owner when the property is sold . If the property is sold for less than the registered debt, the creditor will receive the full amount of the operation and the property will be cleaned. In case of multiple embargos, the debts will be paid following the inscription order (by date).
· Tax liens. Those are entries by the public administration (councils, regional administration or state administration) to cover themselves for possible additional taxes or for unpaid taxes.
· Town-planning liens. In some cases, the properties in an area are affected by unfinished infrastructure or illegal construction. The council will introduce this lien at the Land Registry so the properties of that area are affected until that abnormal planning situation is solved.
* It is impossible to cover all the data that may appear on a Nota Simple so I tried to refer the most relevant pieces of information. It is also important to mentioned that the Nota Simple is not a binding but informative document that may have, although it is quite unusual, errors. If you are looking for a Land Registry binding document that is the “Certificado Registral”.
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