You have viewed the property, agreed a price and the estate agent is asking you to sign a reservation form and transfer a deposit within the next few days. Before you send that money, there is a stage almost no one explains clearly to a foreign buyer, and that is where most of the real problems appear later on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A resale property in Spain already has a legal history. It has owners, sometimes more than one. It may still have an outstanding mortgage. It may have unpaid community fees, an IBI bill from last year, an extension built without a licence, or a closed terrace that never made it onto the Land Registry. The estate agent works for the seller. The Spanish notary is neutral and represents neither party. If nobody checks the paperwork on your behalf, that job simply does not get done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is what a due diligence checklist protects you from. If you also want the wider picture of how a purchase works from reservation to Land Registry, our step-by-step guide to the conveyancing process in Spain for non-residents<\/a> is a good companion to this article. What follows is the list of things a resale buyer needs to verify before signing the arras contract<\/strong>, why each of them matters, and what your independent lawyer actually does at every step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you only have five minutes before your next meeting with the estate agency, these are the twenty points a proper resale due diligence covers on the Costa Blanca Sur. The rest of the article explains each of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your only reference point is buying a house in the UK, the Spanish process feels familiar until you look closely. Under Spanish law there is no solicitor sitting between the two sides by default. The estate agency represents the seller and is paid by the seller. The notary is a neutral public officer<\/strong> whose role is to witness the signing of the deed and confirm that the parties are who they say they are. The notary does not check the property for debts, does not confirm that the seller can lawfully sell, and does not warn you about hidden risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is also no cooling-off period. Once you sign a reservation form or an arras contract, the money you have paid is at risk if you change your mind, unless the contract itself protects you. In England the equivalent of the arras stage is called Exchange, and by that point your solicitor has already carried out searches, reviewed the title and raised enquiries. In Spain that work only happens if you appoint an independent lawyer of your own choice and instruct them before you sign anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Resale property also carries a specific tax regime. Because you are buying from an existing owner rather than from a developer, you pay ITP (Impuesto sobre Transmisiones Patrimoniales)<\/strong> rather than VAT and stamp duty. This changes both the tax rate and the timing of payments, and it is one of the reasons a resale purchase is analysed differently from a new-build. We explain both scenarios in our dedicated page on conveyancing services for foreign buyers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A useful way to organise the checklist is to separate what you can see for yourself from what is deliberately or accidentally out of sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What you can<\/strong> assess during a viewing, sometimes with a chartered surveyor alongside you, includes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n What you cannot<\/strong> see from a viewing is the paperwork behind the property:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The legal side of the checklist below covers precisely that second layer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each item follows the same pattern. What is being checked, what can go wrong if it is not checked, and what your lawyer does about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first document your lawyer requests is an up-to-date Nota Simple<\/strong> from the Land Registry (Registro de la Propiedad). It shows who is registered as owner, how the ownership is split between them, and what registered charges affect the property. Only the person or people named there can sell to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Problems usually appear in one of these situations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your lawyer cross-checks the Nota Simple against the seller\u2019s ID, corporate records or notarial power of attorney and confirms that all necessary parties will attend completion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An existing mortgage on the property is common and not, on its own, a reason to walk away. What matters is how it is going to be cancelled. Your lawyer requests a debt certificate from the seller\u2019s bank so that the outstanding balance is known to the euro on completion day. Part of your payment then goes directly to that bank as a separate banker\u2019s draft, the mortgage is discharged in the same notary appointment, and the cancellation is filed at the Land Registry alongside your new title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Nota Simple can also reveal other charges, and each needs its own analysis:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of these can be lifted before completion, some change the shape of the deal, and some mean the transaction should not proceed as planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three sources need to match. The Registro de la Propiedad describes the property legally, the Catastro describes it for tax and administrative purposes, and then there is what actually stands on the plot when you visit. On the Costa Blanca Sur the three often disagree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Typical mismatches your lawyer looks for on the ground:<\/p>\n\n\n\n This matters because unauthorised works can affect your mortgage, your insurance, your ability to obtain a tourist licence, and the future resale of the property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are buying an apartment, a townhouse or a villa on a private urbanisation, the community of owners (comunidad de propietarios) is one of the most underestimated risks. By law, the property responds for unpaid community fees of the current year and the previous three, which means those debts can follow the property to you unless they are settled at completion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before signing anything, your lawyer requests and reviews:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If a derrama has been approved, you need to know whether the seller has paid their share or whether it will fall on you after completion. Tourist rental restrictions are increasingly common in Torrevieja and Orihuela Costa and can turn an intended holiday-let investment into a long-let-only property overnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The IBI<\/strong> is the annual local property tax, roughly equivalent to UK council tax. You will need to see the latest receipt to confirm there are no arrears and to check that the cadastral reference on the bill matches the property you are buying. Whoever is the registered owner on 1 January is liable for that year\u2019s IBI, so the arras contract should state clearly how the tax is apportioned between you and the seller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three taxes need to be pinned down in writing before completion:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your lawyer also pre-calculates your ITP based on the purchase price and the reference value published by the Catastro, so there are no surprises after completion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The seller must provide a valid Energy Performance Certificate<\/strong> (EPC). A poor rating is not a legal problem, but it does give you a realistic view of running costs, particularly in older properties with single glazing and no insulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The more important document is the occupancy licence, known as the c\u00e9dula de habitabilidad<\/em> or, for newer properties, the licencia de primera ocupaci\u00f3n<\/em>. This is what allows utilities to be contracted in your name and, in the Comunidad Valenciana, what a tourist licence application will be checked against. If the property does not have a valid one, or if what is on paper does not describe the property as it actually stands after alterations, this needs to be resolved before you sign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Electricity, water, gas where applicable and internet are usually still contracted in the seller\u2019s name and can carry small but annoying debts, particularly on properties that have been standing empty. Your lawyer confirms whose name the contracts are in, checks for outstanding invoices, and arranges the transfer or new contracting so that you are not paying for consumption that was not yours. On handover, meter readings are taken and recorded in writing on the same day the keys change hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the property has a tenant, Spanish tenancy law grants strong protection and you cannot simply take possession after completion. Before you commit, the following must be reviewed and reflected in the contract:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where the property has been standing empty, particularly in some parts of Orihuela Costa and Torrevieja, there is a small but real risk of squatters. Verifying possession right before completion is part of what your lawyer coordinates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Foreign buyers most often lose money at one of two contract stages. The first is the reservation form the estate agency asks you to sign after a viewing, usually with a deposit of a few thousand euros to take the property off the market for a short period. Reservation deposits are typically non-refundable unless the form expressly says otherwise, so a wrongly worded reservation can cost you the deposit if you later find a problem in the Nota Simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second is the contrato de arras<\/strong>, the private purchase contract signed before the notarial deed. The most common version, arras penitenciales<\/em>, works like this. You pay ten per cent of the price at signing. If you pull out without a protected reason you lose that ten per cent. If the seller pulls out they must return you twice what they received. This is a serious commitment and it is signed, in most cases, with only fifteen to thirty days between arras and completion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A properly drafted arras contract for a non-resident buyer includes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Signing the arras before your lawyer has run the checks, or after the checks but with a template that ignores them, is where money gets lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For budgeting purposes, expect the total cost of a resale purchase to land somewhere between eleven and thirteen per cent above the purchase price. The main components break down as follows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are reduced ITP rates for certain buyers, such as young purchasers of a main home who meet specific requirements, and your lawyer will confirm whether any of them applies to you. The tax base is the higher of the purchase price and the cadastral reference value, which can occasionally push your ITP bill above what a straight calculation on the price would suggest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the seller is a non-resident in Spain, you as buyer have an obligation to withhold three per cent of the purchase price<\/strong> and pay it to the Spanish tax authority as an advance on the seller\u2019s capital gains tax. This is your responsibility, not the seller\u2019s, and getting it wrong exposes you personally. Your lawyer handles the filing and evidences the payment on completion day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Signing the deed is not the end of the process. Within the following weeks a series of steps needs to be completed to leave your ownership properly settled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most foreign owners make a Spanish will as soon as the purchase is done. It is a short document, signed before a Spanish notary, that avoids months of paperwork and translations for your heirs later on. The most common format for foreign owners is the Spanish open will<\/a>, which we explain in a separate article. If you would like this handled at the same time as the purchase, our inheritance and probate service<\/a> covers wills, cross-border planning and later probate for foreign owners on the Costa Blanca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ruth L\u00f3pez Morueco has spent more than ten years running international conveyancing files for British, Scandinavian and Polish buyers on the Costa Blanca Sur. The work is done in English and, for Polish clients, through our regular collaborator, so you do not have to guess what a document says or what a notary is asking you to sign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you cannot travel, the whole purchase can be completed under a notarial power of attorney, including the NIE application, the arras signing, the notary appointment and the Land Registry filing. If you can travel, we coordinate viewings, notary slots and the handover of keys so the trip does the most work in the shortest time. Everything you sign is explained beforehand, and the checks described above are done as standard before we let you commit money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes. A notarial power of attorney signed before a Spanish consulate or notary, or apostilled and translated if signed abroad, allows your lawyer to obtain your NIE, sign the arras, attend the notary and register the property in your name. You still receive every document for review before anything is signed on your behalf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In most cases yes. Your lawyer requests a debt certificate from the seller\u2019s bank, part of your purchase price is paid directly to that bank on completion day, and the mortgage is cancelled and removed from the Land Registry alongside your new title. It only becomes a problem if the outstanding balance is larger than the purchase price or if the bank refuses to cooperate on the timing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is not standard practice as it is in the UK, but it is increasingly common on older villas, on properties that have been extended over the years and on anything with visible signs of movement or damp. A technical inspection sits alongside the legal due diligence and answers a different question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the seller is not a tax resident in Spain, you as buyer must withhold three per cent of the purchase price and pay it to the Spanish tax authority within one month of completion using form 211. It counts as an advance on the seller\u2019s capital gains tax. The obligation is on you, not the seller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only if the reservation form says so in writing. Most estate agency reservation forms are drafted to make the deposit non-refundable. This is the main reason to instruct your lawyer before you sign a reservation, not afterwards, so that the wording protects you if a problem later emerges from the checks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You are not legally required to have one, but a Spanish will covering your Spanish assets makes life much easier for your heirs. It is a short document signed at a Spanish notary and can be prepared at the same time as your purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are close to signing a reservation form or an arras contract on a resale property in Torrevieja, Orihuela Costa or anywhere on the Costa Blanca Sur, this is exactly the moment to have an independent lawyer look at the paperwork. A short initial call is enough to understand your case and tell you what needs checking before you commit any money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can book a free initial consultation with our English-speaking team at L\u00f3pez Morueco Abogados by contacting our conveyancing department<\/a>, calling us on +34 677 15 12 46 or writing to contacto@lopezmoruecoabogados.com<\/a>. We will let you know if there is anything urgent to address before your next appointment with the estate agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You have viewed the property, agreed a price and the estate agent is asking you to sign a reservation form and transfer a deposit within the next few days. Before you send that money, there is a stage almost no one explains clearly to a foreign buyer, and that is where most of the real […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5156,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abogados-solicitors-torrevieja.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abogados-solicitors-torrevieja.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abogados-solicitors-torrevieja.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abogados-solicitors-torrevieja.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abogados-solicitors-torrevieja.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5157"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abogados-solicitors-torrevieja.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5161,"href":"https:\/\/abogados-solicitors-torrevieja.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5157\/revisions\/5161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abogados-solicitors-torrevieja.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abogados-solicitors-torrevieja.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abogados-solicitors-torrevieja.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abogados-solicitors-torrevieja.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Short Version of the Checklist<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Why Buying Resale in Spain Is Different From the UK<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What You Can See and What Stays Hidden<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The Legal Due Diligence Checklist Before You Sign Arras<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Verify the Seller Is the Legal Owner<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Check for Mortgages, Seizures and Other Charges<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Compare Land Registry, Cadastre and the Actual Property<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Community of Owners Debts, Derramas and Rental Rules<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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IBI, Rubbish Tax and Plusval\u00eda Municipal<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Energy Performance Certificate and Occupancy Licence<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Utility Contracts, Debts and Meter Readings<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Tenants, Occupants and Vacation of the Property<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Reservation Deposit and Arras Contract Without Losing Your Money<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The True Cost of Buying Resale in the Costa Blanca<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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After Completion, What You Still Need to Do<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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How L\u00f3pez Morueco Handles Resale Due Diligence in Torrevieja and Orihuela Costa<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Can I buy a resale property in Spain remotely with a power of attorney?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The seller has a mortgage on the property. Can I still buy it?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Is a chartered surveyor\u2019s report standard in Spain?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What is the three per cent retention on non-resident sellers?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Can I recover my reservation deposit if the Nota Simple shows a problem?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Do I need a Spanish will as soon as I complete?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Ready to Have Your Resale Purchase Checked by a Lawyer Before You Sign<\/h2>\n\n\n\n