How do I order and read a nota simple before buying in Spain?

How can a foreign buyer obtain the right document?

Use the Registradores electronic office, or contact the Registro de la Propiedad, the Land Registry office covering the property's district. Request the specific property's nota simple using its Registry details as an occasional user (usuario esporádico), without subscribing.

The official online service quotes €9.02 per registered property, excluding taxes and any applicable withholdings. Check the final charge. Certification is a separate service; a commercial intermediary may add its own fee.

Ask the seller for the CRU, Código Registral Único, the property's unique national Registry identifier, formerly called IDUFIR. Alternatively, use the Registry office, municipality and registered property number, with the province. The official help describes other searches, including a holder-based search requiring an electronic certificate: a digital identity credential used to log in, distinct from a Registry certification.

State that you are considering buying the identified property and need to check ownership and charges. The registrar assesses your legitimate interest; it is not an unrestricted search of personal information. An adviser applying for you must identify whom they represent and provide the required justification.

The service emails a PDF download link. Keep the complete PDF and its issue date. An optional English translation does not update the Spanish original. Confirm delivery before signing a contrato de arras, the agreement governing the purchase deposit (arras), or paying a reservation fee. Ask your lawyer which type of arras is proposed and what happens if either party withdraws.

If a search fails, obtain the seller's deed and ask the Registry to help identify the property. Failure to match an address or cadastral reference is not a finding that the land is unregistered or free of charges. A cadastral reference can identify a property in a Registry search when that reference is recorded there.

Does one nota simple cover everything in the advertisement?

The Spanish word finca needs care. A finca registral is a property with its own Registry record. A parcela catastral is a cadastral parcel in the Catastro, Spain's Cadastre, which records property descriptions and valuations. The CRU and Registry finca number belong to the first system; the referencia catastral belongs to the second. A registered property can include several cadastral parcels.

Write down the Registry office, finca number and CRU, then compare them with the seller's deed and the proposed contract. Match the cadastral references to a plan. The cadastral reference guide explains how to identify the land in that system.

Check the orchard, outbuildings and access included in the offer. Do not assume that the house's extract covers the entire advertised holding. If separate registered properties are being sold together, obtain information for each and identify them in the contract.

What does titular mean, and does that person own the whole property?

Titular means the holder of the particular registered right. Read the right and its extent. Under the Land Registry Act, registered rights are presumed to belong to the recorded holder in the form stated in the entry.

Pleno dominio means full ownership. It can still be full ownership of a share rather than of the entire property. Mitad indivisa means an undivided half share in the whole. It does not identify a separate half of the field that you can buy as an independent plot simply because someone has fenced it off.

Usufructo is a right to enjoy another person's property. Nuda propiedad is ownership subject to that usufruct. Buying the nuda propiedad alone does not remove the other person's enjoyment right. If the offer promises full ownership without that right, your lawyer needs to establish how the relevant rights will be transferred or extinguished and who must participate.

Ask for the escritura, the public deed cited in the entry. If someone signs under a power of attorney, obtain it; the extract does not prove their authority.

For a seller's family home, check whether a spouse's consent is needed even if only one owner is registered. Where the national Civil Code applies, article 1320 requires both spouses' consent or judicial authorisation to dispose of rights over the family home. Your lawyer must establish the applicable civil law and any consent required.

If an heir is selling but the deceased is still registered, ask for the succession documents and how the chain of title will be completed. Article 20 of the Land Registry Act has exceptions to its general rule; not every heir needs separate prior registration. The paperwork still needs checking before you commit.

What can I rely on in the descripción?

The descripción is the registered description: location, nature, boundaries, area and buildings, with the recorded cadastral references and graphical coordination information. Compare it with what you inspected. Keep land area separate from building area and identify an extension or pool that appears in the offer but not in the documents.

Ask whether the property is coordinada gráficamente con el Catastro, graphically coordinated with the Cadastre, and at what date. Merely quoting a cadastral reference does not establish coordination. Once the statutory coordination and registered geometry requirements are met, the law provides a presumption about the recorded location and geographical boundary. That is useful evidence, but it is not a site inspection.

If the offered land differs materially from the title or map, obtain a survey and establish the correction procedure with your lawyer. Do this before agreeing a price on the assumption that correction will be routine.

The words urbana (urban), rústica (rural) or vivienda (dwelling) in the description do not approve your intended project. Nor does registration alone prove that all building work had permission. Article 28.4 of the national Land Act provides a conditional registration route for certain older buildings where the relevant restoration measures can no longer be taken. Registration through that route does not grant a building licence.

How should I approach cargas, the registered charges?

Look for cargas por procedencia, charges carried over from an earlier property that was divided to create the one you are buying, as well as charges entered directly against it. A mortgage carried over this way need not be limited to a proportional share of the original debt. Obtain the originating entry and establish with your lawyer and the creditor what this property secures and how it will be released.

Check documents presented but not yet processed too: they can affect priority before registration is complete. Ask the Registry for their content and status.

A hipoteca is a mortgage securing an obligation against the property. The registered principal or maximum secured liability is not the current redemption balance. If the loan will be repaid from the price, ask the seller for a bank certificate confirming the amount needed to repay the loan on completion. Agree with the lender, lawyer and notario (Spanish notary) how the lender will receive the required payment directly from the price, what the seller receives and which cancellation documents will be supplied.

An embargo is an attachment, generally connected with debt enforcement. An anotación preventiva is a provisional entry that may concern attachment, litigation or another protected claim. A prohibición de disponer is a restriction on disposal. Your lawyer must investigate the particular entry and proceeding; its age alone is no reason to ignore it.

A condición resolutoria may secure an unpaid balance from an earlier sale. If that sale is unwound, your later acquisition can be affected. Obtain the underlying deed and a documented route to discharge the condition; it matters even if no bank is named.

A servidumbre is an easement. Establish whether it burdens or benefits the property you are buying and read its actual terms, obtaining the underlying instrument if necessary. A reference to a right of way does not by itself establish that the track you drove along is the route or permits your intended access.

Is an afección fiscal an unpaid tax bill?

An afección fiscal is a tax liability note affecting the property. The ordinary ITP/AJD note secures a possible additional assessment relating to the recorded transaction. ITP/AJD covers transfer tax and stamp duty. The note does not itself prove that an additional bill has already been assessed.

Under article 122 of its regulation, a marginal note can be entered after the self-assessment has been submitted. The amount recorded may be tax already paid, rather than a demand for you to pay that amount. Identify the earlier transaction and tax.

Article 122.4 says that this note becomes ineffective and must be cancelled when payment of the additional assessment is produced and, in any event, five years after the note was entered. That is a rule about this particular entry. It is not a general rule for every tax note, a planning charge or every tax debt. Tax limitation is regulated separately in the General Tax Act.

Ask for the underlying self-assessment, payment evidence and subsequent correspondence from the tax authority. Your adviser should check whether there has been a further assessment, investigation or claim. Where another tax or a conditional relief is involved, ask which specific rules apply. Neither the note's presence nor its age settles the question.

Why can a marginal note change the purchase decision?

A nota marginal is an entry placed alongside another entry. The word marginal does not mean minor. It can concern tax, administrative or planning matters, or mortgage enforcement. Read the act it refers to, not just the heading.

For example, in mortgage enforcement, article 688 of the Civil Procedure Act provides for a note recording the issue of an ownership and charges certification for the proceeding. Until the note is cancelled by an order from the Letrado de la Administración de Justicia, the court official responsible, the registrar cannot cancel the mortgage for reasons outside that enforcement. It can signal enforcement against the property; investigate before paying.

Look for warnings about inmatriculación, the property's first registration. For the routes listed in article 207, article 34 protection against certain defects in the seller's title does not operate until two years after first registration. The limitation must appear in Registry information while it applies. Ask your lawyer what it means for this purchase before paying.

If the text refers to planning charges or proceedings, obtain the underlying administrative decision and the town hall's position on outstanding obligations. A sale does not erase the owner's statutory planning duties. Ask the issuing Registry to explain unclear terms, as provided by article 222.7. Your lawyer must assess their effect on this purchase.

When is a certificación needed instead?

A nota simple is suitable for examining current entries during the initial purchase review, but its legal status is informative. A certificación is formal Registry evidence. Under article 225, certification is required to prove against third parties whether registered charges exist.

Choose its scope with your lawyer. A certificación de dominio covers current ownership. A certificación de dominio y cargas also covers current charges. A certificación literal reproduces the specified entries, which can help where a summary is insufficient to understand a right.

Article 222.2 requires an electronic Registry seal and verification code on a nota simple. These do not make it a certification, which carries the registrar's qualified electronic signature. Use the document's verification mechanism if authenticity or completeness is in doubt.

The electronic office requires an electronic certificate for certification requests through that service. Its fee depends on the applicable items and can increase if entries that have expired are cancelled. Ask for a cost and delivery estimate.

What remains unchecked when the extract looks clear?

The Registry records legal rights and entries, rather than certifying every aspect of the property. Arrange separate evidence for:

• Planning and buildings: written town hall information and the permissions or other documents applicable to existing work and your intended use. Read the rustic and urban land guide.
• Condition and occupation: a technical inspection and evidence of who uses the building or land. Absence of a registered lease does not establish vacant possession.
• Access, services and water: the relevant rights and authorisations, checked against the actual installations. A well in the description does not establish a lawful right to abstract its water.
• Hazards and administrative restrictions: information from the competent authorities. Not seeing a flood, protection or enforcement warning is not proof that the issue does not exist.
• Debts outside the extract: municipal IBI information and a community debt certificate where relevant. Certain debts can still be enforced against the property even if absent from the extract. Where the Horizontal Property Act applies, the buyer can waive the seller's duty to supply the community debt certificate at the deed stage: do not waive it. Catalonia has its own civil regime to check.

These Registry rules are national; regional planning, tax and civil law still need separate review.

What should be resolved before I pay arras?

Resolve any documentos pendientes de despacho, documents awaiting processing. An asiento de presentación is their presentation entry in the Diario, or daybook. Have your lawyer establish how each affects the sale; a verbal assurance from the seller is insufficient.

Ordering an extract or certification does not reserve priority or prevent new entries. Refresh the information before payment if time passes or the transaction changes. Before completion, ask the notary to obtain current Registry information and arrange electronic presentation of the deed immediately after signing. Obtain confirmation of the presentation entry, then have your lawyer follow the application through to registration. Presentation matters for priority; it does not clear earlier charges or mean registration is complete.

Do not pay the deposit yet if…

• You cannot identify all the land offered from the property documents.
• The proposed seller cannot establish the promised rights or authority to sign.
• You expect full ownership but an undivided share or usufruct remains unresolved.
• A charge, proceeding or pending presentation has no documented solution.
• The building or use you rely on has not been checked with the town hall.
• The contract commits you even if outstanding checks contradict the offer.

Have the contract identify what remains unresolved, the evidence required to proceed, the agreed deadline and the return of payments if the agreed condition is not met. A problem discovered after payment does not automatically guarantee a refund.