THe Spanish land registry

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costa-brava
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THe Spanish land registry

Post by costa-brava »

THE SPANISH LAND REGISTRY SYSTEM
There is no single land registry although many individuals and agencies will tell you it is the “Registro de Propiedad”. There is another office called “Catastro” which is closer to the UK Land Registry. Neither office is entirely accurate; there are many errors although they have been working hard over the last 10 years or so to get it better.
https://www.registro.es/
http://www.catastro.meh.es/

These are the official government sites. Watch out for parasitical sites that are “look-alikes”.
The “Registro de Propiedad” gets its information from the “notario”. It is practically impossible to have anything changed without an “escritura”. This means (as is the case with our house at the moment) that there may be a mortgage that has been totally paid off but will still remain in the “registro” as unpaid. In fact the “registro de propiedad” functions as a register of property sales and financial charges and debts against the property. Normally your “registro” will be in the nearest town of more than 10,000 population.
Meanwhile the “Catastro” is a separate government agency, normally in the provincial capital, that deals with more specific details of land, space, usage and valuation for tax purposes. Spain now considers this office to be the “land registry” because it gives each property a clearly identifiable number. Although it also has discrepancies, it is much more accurate about the detail of the actual property, floor surface and plot size etc.
The “registro de propiedad” is the older of the two agencies and still uses a reference system of tomes, books, folios and sections. Nowadays it cross-references with catastro reference numbers but it is a throwback to the Franco era and has a lot of discrepancies. As I said in my last post, I got the square metres of my house corrected in the “catastro” but the “registro de propiedad” still has a weird set of numbers. It will stay that way till we sell it and the “notario” will write the corrections into the next “escritura”.
Today I went to the “notario” to initiate the removal of the mortgage charge from our house because I can do the various parts calmly and cheaply; it will cost about double if I have to do it quickly when it is sold.
I hope some people find this helpful. I am by no means an expert but I have been involved 29 times buying or selling with 12 different “notarios”.
The golden rule is to make sure you have ALL the documentation relating to your property. A lot of it you need to have on the day you sell or when it passes to your descendants.
The sales contract you signed with the Estate Agency is worthless. The famous “escritura” is important for administrative purposes but in no way constitutes the equivalent of title deeds. Title deeds do not exist in Spain.