Purchasing Spanish Property: the Legal System Explained
Once youve chosen your ideal property and found a Spanish mortgage how do you go about completing the purchase?
Buying property in Spain is highly regulated. The best thing you can do to protect yourself and your money is to hire an English-speaking lawyer or legal counsel to help you during the purchase and negotiation. Be certain there are no debts or restrictions on the property you plan to purchase.
There are two different categories when it comes to the legal process of purchasing Spanish property. First you have the Contrato privado de compraventa, or the preliminary contract, and then you have the Escritura de compravents, or completion contract.
There should be a preliminary private sales contract signed once you have both agreed on a purchase price. Before the Contrato privado de compraventa is signed, the vendor must show proof of ownership, and also proof that there are no liens or judgements against the property. In Spain, debts are attached to the property, so any mortgage that was outstanding would transfer to the buyer. Nota Simple documents were developed to validate if a property has an outstanding debts.
The completion date, overall price, and property description will all be elaborated in the preliminary sales contract. A 5% to 15% deposit of the final purchase price will be required. These funds will be held for you in a bonded client account. You can sign the private preliminary sales contract and not put down a deposit but it is not advised.
The ultimate stage is the decond stage only as it will decide the future of the contract. It is also known as Escritura de compraventa stage. The customer will need to pay all fees and the price of the product on the date of completion. Next, the seller and buyer meet and sign a contract, which is essentially a claim to the property. The purchaser will receive the public deed of conveyance, known in Spain as the escritura, in front of a Notary Public. A copy of this deed will also be passed to the tax office and to the property registry as well to make everything legal. In Spain, all deeds of sale must be witnessed by a Notary Public, which is a public official in that country. However, you need to have your own legal counsel to protect your own interests during the transaction. While buying any property do remember that property sales taxes and legal fees for the Notary Public is also to be paid by you only.