BuyingProperty in Spain: an Explanation of the Legal Process
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. You will want to make sure that the Spanish property you are purchasing is free of restrictive clauses and debts.
There are two different categories in the Spanish legal processes for the purchase of property. First you have the Contrato privado de compraventa, or the preliminary contract, and then you have the Escritura de compravents, or completion contract.
Once both parties have agreed to the price, then a preliminary private sales contract should be signed. The vendor must provide proof that he or she owns the property free of any charges before this Contrato privado de compraventa has been signed. Debts are charged to the property themselves in Spain, and any outstanding mortgage amount would then be passed on to the purchaser. Nota Simple documents are designed to confirm whether or not a property contains any outstanding debts.
Details such as completion date, price and description will be written in the first sales contract. Expect to pay a deposit that ranges between 5 and 15 percent of the purchase price. A bonded client account is where the funds will be kept for you. It is possible though not advisable to sign the private preliminary sales contract without putting down a deposit.
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. On the completion date, the balance of the price of purchase and all fees need to be paid by the purchaser. Next, the seller and buyer meet and sign a contract, which is essentially a claim to the property. In front of a Notary Public the buyer will receive the deed of conveyance which is known as escritura in Spain. To make this legal, a copy of the dded must get to a tax office, and then sent to a property registry. 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. Remember too that as the buyer you will be responsible for paying the Notary Public’s charges along with the real estate sales taxes.