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SPANISH PROPERTY LAWYER · COSTA DEL SOL

Buy the view. Not someone else’s debt.

An independent Spanish property lawyer on your side — not the agent’s, not the seller’s. We run the legal checks before you sign, handle your NIE and, if you’d rather not fly over for every signature, a power of attorney so we can complete for you. In plain English, from first viewing to the keys.

Talk to a property lawyer (in English) What we check

The agent gets paid when you sign. The notary confirms you signed. Only one person in the room is paid to check what you’re signing — and it isn’t either of them.

A SHORT STORY (NOT ABOUT PAPERWORK)

The buyer who fell in love with the terrace and inherited the pool

A couple found the villa on the first afternoon: white walls, a terrace, a pool the colour of the sky. They shook hands over lunch, wired the deposit that week and told everyone back home the good news. The view really was perfect. Everything you could see was perfect.

It was everything you couldn’t see that came with the house. The pool had been built without a licence. The previous owner owed three years of community fees. And a strip of the garden, it turned out, belonged to the neighbour. None of it showed on the terrace at lunch — and in Spain those debts and defects don’t stay with the seller, they move in with the buyer.

A second couple, two streets over, bought a plainer house. Before a euro moved, their lawyer pulled the registry, found an old mortgage still charged against it, and had it cleared as a condition of completion. Less romantic. A great deal more theirs.

A Spanish property purchase is bought on the terrace and lost in the registry. Anyone can admire the view. Our job is to look underneath it — the title, the debts, the licences — while the deal can still be fixed, so what you fall in love with is actually, cleanly, yours.

WHAT WE CHECK BEFORE YOU SIGN

Due diligence, done before the money moves

Four things decide whether a Spanish purchase is a home or a headache. We check all four while you can still walk away.

Title & true ownership

We pull the Nota Simple from the Land Registry to confirm who really owns it, exactly what’s being sold, and that the seller can actually sell it. Boundaries and build description are checked against reality, not the sales brochure.

Debts & charges

In Spain, debts run with the property, not the seller — a mortgage, an unpaid community fee or an outstanding IBI tax can become yours the day you sign. We find them first and make sure they’re cleared at completion.

Licences & planning

First-occupation licence, that the pool or extension is legal, no urbanistic infractions and no protected-land surprises. A beautiful villa with an illegal extension is a beautiful problem.

Community, taxes & utilities

Community statutes and fee status, IBI and rubbish tax up to date, utilities transferable. The small print that decides whether year one is a terrace or a tribunal.

Charges that attach to the property and the taxes due on transfer are set by current Spanish law and verified for your specific purchase.

HOW IT WORKS

From first viewing to the keys

1

NIE & power of attorney

You need an NIE to buy. We obtain it and, if you’d rather not fly over for every signature, set up a notarised power of attorney so we can sign and pay on your instructions.

2

Reservation & due diligence

Before any real money moves, we run the full legal checks — registry, debts, licences, community — and tell you plainly whether to proceed, renegotiate or walk.

3

Deposit contract (arras)

We draft or vet the arras (deposit) contract so the price, completion date, fixtures and penalties protect you — not just the seller and the agent.

4

Completion & registration

Signing of the escritura at the notary, payment handled cleanly, transfer tax filed, and the property registered in your name. Not done until it’s in the register.

FREQUENTLY ASKED

The questions we get first

Do I need a lawyer to buy property in Spain?

Legally you can complete a purchase without one — and it’s the single most expensive corner people cut. The estate agent works for the sale, and the notary confirms the signing but does not run independent checks in your interest. An independent property lawyer verifies title, debts, licences and planning before your money is committed, which is exactly where the avoidable disasters hide. For a cross-border buyer who isn’t on the ground, it isn’t a luxury.

What checks do you actually carry out?

We confirm ownership and description via the Land Registry (Nota Simple), check for mortgages, embargoes and unpaid community or IBI debts, verify the first-occupation licence and that any pool, extension or reform is legal, review the community statutes and fee position, and confirm the property isn’t affected by urbanistic or coastal-law issues. If something’s wrong, you hear it before you sign, not after.

In Spain, do the seller’s debts become mine?

This is the trap that catches foreign buyers. Certain debts attach to the property itself — outstanding community fees, IBI (council tax) and, of course, any mortgage — so they can follow the property to the new owner regardless of who ran them up. Our job is to surface every charge in advance and ensure they’re paid off or retained from the price at completion, so you take the keys clean.

What is the “arras” contract?

The contrato de arras is the deposit contract that locks in the deal before completion — typically you pay around 10% and both sides commit to a price and a date. The default legal type lets the buyer walk by losing the deposit and the seller walk by paying double, but the wording matters enormously. We make sure it protects your completion date, your conditions and your deposit rather than quietly favouring the other side.

Do I need an NIE, and can you get it for me?

Yes — you can’t pay the taxes or register the property without an NIE (your Spanish foreigner’s identification number), so it’s the first thing we sort. We can obtain it for you, including from the UK by power of attorney, so it’s ready well before completion rather than becoming a last-minute scramble.

Can you handle the purchase if I can’t be in Spain to sign?

Yes. With a notarised power of attorney (poder), we can carry out the whole purchase on your instructions — sign the deposit contract, complete at the notary, pay the taxes and register the property — without you flying over for each step. It’s the normal, secure way cross-border buyers complete, and we set it up so you keep full control of the decisions while we handle the signatures.

Alberto García López

Reviewed by a lawyer

Reviewed by Alberto García López

Immigration lawyer · ICA Málaga, reg. no. 11.441

We check every page against current Spanish law. This is general information, not advice on your individual case.

Signature of Alberto García López
BEFORE YOU SIGN ANYTHING

Send us the property. We’ll tell you what’s underneath.

A straight read on the title, the debts and the licences — and a clear quote for handling the whole purchase — before you commit a euro.

Talk to a property lawyer (in English)

+34 667 77 02 19 · infoglobalextranjeria@gmail.com

P.S. — the deposit is the easiest money you’ll ever send and the hardest to get back. The checks that make it safe cost a fraction of it. Do them in that order.