Making a purchase of a property in Spain, make sure you’ve completed the following:
- Get qualified, professional legal assistance working solely on your behalf
- Review the seller’s title deed
- Review a recent nota simple
- Review the full catastral certificatation document
- If buying in an urbanisation, check the plan of building plots
- If buying a plot of land, check that building is a legal possibility
- Review the IBI receipt or the declaration of new construction
- Review the community charge receipt and the statutes if buying in a communally owned development
- Review the sellers utilities receipts
- Draw up a private contract in Spanish and have it translated into your mother tongue
- Agree a price, method and currency of payment
- Sign the escritura de compraventa in the presence of a notario
- Pay the required fees and taxes, and the 5% tax deposit to Hacienda if you buy from a non-resident
- Establish how and when you will receive the escritura publica, making you the legal owner
