Land Registry in Spain

The Land Registry in Spain

What is the Land Registry

The Land Registry in Spain is intended to the annotation of acts, contracts, judicial or administrative decisions affecting property and other rights in real estate, Also are recordable the court rulings that affect the ability of people to dispose their property.

Its purpose is to give legal security. Acting as an public Archive in which the acts around property are recorded, acting as an universal publicity of the legal situation of the property. Therefore, Each property has its own file where is recorded the actual owner, the property size and, very important, the charges and encumbrances for which the property is liable.

The Ownership of a property in the Land Registry

Usually the owner of a property is the one who appears as such in the Land Registry.

If one claims to be the owner and is not the same person that is recorded, could be that we were being victims of fraud, but there are also perfectly legal reasons to justify why the true owner is not registered.

Registration in the land registry, in most cases, is voluntary and there is not a term to carry it out. There are situations in which the deeds are signed, the taxes are paid and then "forget" to go to the Land Registry . This problem is remedied as easy as taking the deed to the Registry for its registration.

It is not unusual at the inheritance process, the heirs do not register their new ownership and wait to find a buyer for the property.

The public information from the Land Registry in Spain

All the Spanish territory is administratively divided in Land Registry areas. In large cities there are usually several Registries to organize the properties. The estates located in small towns typically are registered at the Land Registry of the nearest significant village. The first step is to find the particular Land Registry in which, the property we are interested in, is inscribed.

The Land Registry in Spain is public and anyone with a legitimate interest may request information on a property.

The information given is:

• The property owner
• Identification of the property, with its location, surface and boundaries
• Its charges and encumbrances, if there are any third party right that limits the enjoyment of the property
• There is also the possibility (not usual) that the leases are inscribed in the Land Registry

The most common way to get this information is through a NOTA SIMPLE. It is a concise summary of everything legally relevant about a particular property. If what you want is a more complete information, should be requested an extensive note (NOTA EXTENSA). If what you need is the certified information, then ask for a Certification (CERTIFICACION REGISTRAL).