Landcross Lawyers

Buying a residential property in Spain can be a daunting process, no matter what the property law transaction. We pride ourselves on making your transaction run as smoothly and as stress free as possible. 

We believe that the personal service is the best service. You should be able to speak to your Landcross advisor each time you contact us so that any questions you have can be answered straight away.

Landcross Lawyers offer clients a comprehensive service in everything required for the purchase or sale of a property.

• We negotiate, amend and finalise the terms and conditions of the purchase contract.
• Conduct a land registry search to ascertain the official owner, the description of the property; whether the building is registered and whether there are any charges attached to the property, such as a mortgage, easements or positive/negative covenants.
• Search at the local council planning department to discover whether the building itself has a building license/permit. Ascertain whether the described property surface area at the land registry is covered (or is in accordance) with the local council license/permit. Search at the habitation department to see if the property has a certificate of habitation.
• Search at the cadastral registry to confirm the cadastral value.
• In case of urban apartment, confirm any communal obligations and also ensure that the seller has an updated record of community charges.
• Verify whether or not all General and Local taxes have been paid up to date.
• Completion of the transaction before a Notary Public.
  A notary public is a Spanish Public Servant who certifies the capacity of the parties and the content of the title-deed (escritura).
  
  After signing and the completion of the deal, Property Transfer Tax (ITP, currently a progressive tax from 8 to 10%) has to be paid within 30 days of completion, in accordance with a general tax rule. VAT (IVA in Spain) might also be applicable in other types of transactions.
  
  
• Formally notify the utility companies (electricity, water, etc) of the change of ownership and organise payment arrangements with your Spanish bank.

It is therefore necessary to have the services of a firm of lawyers specialising in real estate law with multilingual abilities to offer totally reliable and understandable advice to the customer.

Buying or selling a property in Spain is best done through the services of a legal specialist or lawyer. The mediation of a specialist is advisable because in the past in some parts of Spain building regulations have not always been taken seriously, and the local notary doesn't carry out the verification which one expects from a notary in northern Europe.

Landcross Lawyers can give you guidance, verifies, advises and completes buying and selling procedures in a professional way.

We are experienced in all aspects of property law and represent a wide range of clients throughout Spain, from first time buyers through to experienced property developers and investors. If problems or obstacles arise, which are more common than meets the eye, we know how to try and solve those problems to keep the transaction alive rather than go abortive.

Conveyancing includes many different transaction types, including leasehold flats, new build, off plan, right to buy and shared ownership, and as with all things legal, experience counts in ensuring not only a smooth conveyancing service, but protecting your interests.

If you want to sell your property, it is very much in your interest to hire the services of an agency that can promote your property professionally and efficiently.

We advise our clients to send us a copy of the estate agency sales agreement before they sign it, so that we can check everything is in order. As a general rule, the client must read the conditions of the agreement very carefully and be aware of the implications of certain clauses, such as the exclusivity clause, which binds the owner to not sell through any other agent.

The real estate agent is not an expert in legal and tax matters, so the client should take advice from the lawyer, who will best oversee the sales process and ensure it is carried out in line with existing legislation and that all corresponding taxes are duly paid.

In order to proceed with the sale of your property, both your lawyer and your estate agent will need to be given a series of documents:

• Title deed or other proof of ownership (deed of purchase, inheritance, etc.)
• Identity document (passport and NIE)
• Certificate of tax residence (if applicable)
• Nota Simple (extract from the Property Register)
• First Occupancy Licence or Certificate of Habitability
• Most recent Local Council Rates (IBI) receipt
• Community of property owners certificate
• Certificate of outstanding debt issued by the bank (if there is a mortgage on the property)
• Most recent utilities bills

Before accepting a purchase offer, it is crucial for sellers to be properly informed about what their net profit will be once they have deducted taxes and expenses, and what those will be exactly, to avoid any disappointment later.

Regardless of whether the owner will be able to attend the signing of the deed at the notary’s office, it is highly recommendable to grant a power of attorney for sale and tax representation in our favour. This document will authorise us to carry out a large number of procedures on your behalf, such as cancelling and transferring utilities contracts, cancelling direct debits, cancelling insurance policies, notifying the Town Hall and the community of property owners of the conveyance, processing the cancellation of your mortgage at the Register, submitting your tax statements, and requesting any return for which you may be eligible.

Once you accept an offer for your property and you instruct Landcross Lawyers to act as your representatives, we will provide the purchaser’s lawyers with all the documentation that will enable them to carry out all the relevant and standard legal checks. Likewise, we will draw up a contract with the agreed conditions, and we will send it to the purchasing party for their approval. A translation of this contract will also be sent to you for your information.

The selling process ends when the public deed of sale is signed by the purchaser and the seller. At the moment of signing, the seller grants the purchaser the title deed of ownership and the purchaser hands over the rest of the agreed price.

The deed of sale is signed before a notary. Notaries are public officials and, consequently, they are independent. They publicly attest that the parties have agreed the transaction and that they have done so in keeping with the law.

Prior to the signing, the notary requests up-to-date registry information about the property, to verify that there are no last-minute encumbrances or foreclosure entries, and immediately after the deed is signed, they send to the Property Register an electronic copy of the title deed, so that the Register has a record of the new owners straight away.

Throughout the signing process at the notary’s office, our clients are always accompanied by their Landcross Lawyers advisor, who oversees the documentation, checks that everything is in order, and acts as an interpreter. If there are any professional or personal reasons that prevent the clients from going to the notary’s office on the indicated date, we will attend on their behalf to sign the deed. In this case, the clients would need to provide us with a power of attorney beforehand.

The power of attorney can be signed before a notary in Spain, which is the simplest and most economical option; at any Spanish Embassy or Consulate abroad; or before a notary public in the client’s country of residence, in which case the document will need to be translated into Spanish and legalised with the Hague Convention apostille. As mentioned previously, powers of attorney include general authorisations that enable many other procedures to be carried out on the client’s behalf, apart from being present before the notary.

At the signing, the sellers will hand over the keys to the property and they will be given the rest of the price, which is generally paid by cheque. Once the cheque has been paid into the bank, the seller will have access to those funds in approximately 2-3 days.

The Landcross Lawyers team will handle the processes of transferring or cancelling the utilities contracts, cancelling direct debits, paying any taxes that the sale entailed, and requesting any applicable refunds.