Wonderful Spanish Government website

[costa-brava]

I have just come across the Sede Electronica de Catastro. It has the answer to so many questions that pop up in Laymyhat and other forums. And it is incredibly easy to use.
It is invaluable if you own property in Spain or if you plan to buy.
It gives you the following detail for any property direct from the catastro: The total construction in sq metres and the size of the plot of land. the officially approved use (residential, commercial etc), the construction date, the detail of each floor, any renovations that have been done (approved renovations that is).
So why is all this important? Well in my case I have discovered that they have my house down as 490 sq metres while the real size is approx 65sq/m less.
It means that in the first instance I am paying too much in the local IBI tax because it is based on the catastral value. Secondly, if you want to sell your property, any potential buyer has access to this information and will either be put off by the discrepancy or use it to knock down your price.
To check your property (or indeed your neighbour's) you need the correct address or the complete catastral reference number (you find this on your IBI slip).
It really is worth checking your flat or house.

[kevsboredagain]

Is that the one where you can look up the plan of your house and land etc using some long number?

If so, yes it's a useful website but cost me a lot of money because they registered the details of my house wrongly when I purchased it in 2007. I then had to pay for a lawyer to correct the details because they would not believe that I was the owner. The documents I had contained a number which did not match their incorrect records.

[Marks]

https://www1.sedecatastro.gob.es/OVCFra ... O=CONSULTA

[kevsboredagain]

Yep, that's the one.

[Casscat]

I'm afraid to look. I know there is a discrepancy in land area across various documents pertaining to my finca

[kevsboredagain]

I'm afraid to look. I know there is a discrepancy in land area across various documents pertaining to my finca

Worth sorting out sooner rather than later. Mine was wrong. They stopped sending my IBI bills 3 years after I bought the house and when I tried to get the next one, they said I was not the registered owner! The whole fiasco cost me 100s of Euros in legal costs and interest on the bills. It was the land registry who had made the mistake but of course, I was the one who had to pay to fix it.

[Casscat]

As part of the contract for sale the previous owner was supposed to regularise certain aspects. Unsurprisingly he hasn't. He now tells me that inspectors from the authorities will be visiting all properties in person to compare the records to what they see with their own eyes and issuing regularisation demands accordingly. Can't wait

[costa-brava]

It's great to be wise after the event. I have checked with my surveyor (aparejador) and he can come to measure up and do a certificate. It will cost a couple of hundred euros but I'll get that back on reduced IBI bills. And it will make the property more saleable if the details are corrected now.
Casscat and Kevesbored, you have confirmed that this catastro website is a must for everybody especially prospective buyers.
http://www.sedecatastro.gob.es/ then click on "consulta de cartografia" in the ACCESO LIBRE section.

[lorca]

I think I mentioned this website some time ago

It's also definitely worth checking if you've owned a property in Spain for a while. Many of the boundaries were re-drawn a few years ago and when we looked we found the plan of our property had changed from the way it appeared on our deeds, with the result that looked like our neighbour owned a chunk of our house - a particular problem in old villages as the houses connect together like jigsaws.

It took a two hour session in the Hacienda armed with many annotated photographs - and then a six month wait - to get it changed back.

PS this didn't involve a lawyer or any costs, they accepted that the original version was correct

[costa-brava]

That's a good one Lorca. Nice to hear you got it done without costs. The truth is they know there are many mistakes. One of the things I have found is that everybody (including notarios, agents and banks) have tended to accept what is in the Registro de Propiedad in the local town. Meanwhile the real record of land distribution is the provincial Catastro. So if you look at the Escritura (what you call the deeds) it is frequently wrong. In lots of cases it was deliberately wrong to make the taxes lower.
It really is worthwhile getting it sorted out and like you say it may not cost anything.
In my case I have checked and it looks like it may cost me 600-700 euros to put right because I need a new escritura from the notario but it will knock 200 euros off our anual tax bill.

[lorca]

A few years ago, as a result of all the concern about illegal building and planning permissions, the Junta of Andalucía made it illegal for local ayuntamientos to grant planning/building permissions without these being ratified by the Junta. At the same time they started to tour the province in helicopters comparing what they saw with what was on the Land Registry (catastral).

As well as identifying illegal builds, this also resulted in some perfectly correct (and legal) boundaries being re-drawn . This is what happened to us, which is why I suggested people check. Don't automatically assume that it's your escritura that is wrong.

This may have also been true in other provinces

[costa-brava]

Mine has just got more complicated. I wasn't happy with the look of the plan of my plot of land. It looked like they had clipped a little square of one corner. So I took the house number of the neighbour in the street behind and went to the Sede Electronica de Catastro. Guess what? They haven't clipped my corner off. They have given me my neighbour's patio. So I measured up our plot and sure enough it shows 144 sq/m when in reality it is approx 131 (I did take the full external measure of the walls).
Off to visit the notario's office this evening. I already have the surveyor lined up. He tells me that the correction will go through in about a month but won't take effect till next year. Who need's UK telly. This beats Eastenders hands down.
I'm glad you got yours sorted Lorca and I hope some people pick up on this thread and that it helps them too. I'm just guessing but I think anything up to half of people have a discrepancy of some kind. Many aren't worth the hassle of changing but everything is becoming stricter when you want to rent or sell.
I have to get it sorted regardless of the cost.

[Casscat]

Well my built area seem to have doubled! The catastral record I have on my file from when I was buying the house records a total built area of 159m2 and merely notes the main house. The electronic record I've just looked at notes the built area as 366m2. The land area is noted as 5823m2 on both records, but then again the escritura says that the built area is 282.65m2 and the land area just over 6000m2.

[lorca]

Just a thought Casscat, but are you sure they all refer to the same thing - ie built area and not eg plot size or even "useable" built area?

[Casscat]

lorca the record notes specifics which I don't fully understand. The catastral from 2013 only noted the house (vivienda plantas 0 & 1, puerta 1 @ 124m2 and 35m2). Now I also have: an extra 61m2 of 'vivienda' marked as 'puerta 2'; something noted as soport.50% (puerta 3) at 10m2; deportivo (puerta 4) of 53m2, porche 100% (puerta 5) at 23m2 and almacen (puerta 6) at 60m2. All of this is noted under the heading of 'elementos de construccion'. I wish I had a clue what all this meant! The total land area of 5823m2 hasn't changed, but the 'subpercelas' areas have reduced by the amount the built area has been deemed to have increased.