Bureaucratic problems when you want to sell a property:
Case 2: Property not registered in the Land Registry
Let’s take a likely scenario. Ricard buys a property in 1980, goes to the notary to complete the purchase, but doesn’t register it in the Land Registry, either to save a few thousand euros in taxes or out of lack of awareness. Remember that registering a property in the Land Registry IS NOT COMPULSORY.
The risks of not going through the Land Registry:
- Loss of legal certainty, since the main purpose of the Land Registry is to provide official public proof that the registered property right genuinely belongs to the person listed as the owner and that its content is truthful.
- Difficulty selling, because you can’t publicly prove who the real owner is.
- Inability to apply for a mortgage loan using a property that isn’t registered in the Land Registry as collateral.
In 2023, Ricard, who can’t remember whether the property is registered or not, needs to sell.
He entrusts the sale process to La Caseta Blanca. From minute one, we request all the documentation needed to sell: the title deed, the certificate of occupancy, the energy performance certificate… and we request the property information report (nota simple) from the Land Registry. All the alarm bells ring when the Land Registry reports that there is no property registered in Ricard’s name. We therefore tell Ricard that he must start a process lasting between 1 month and, at most, however long the Land Registry takes…
What does he have to do now??
- Request an authorised copy of the title deed
- Settle the Stamp Duty (Actes Jurídics Documentats) and the Property Transfer Tax (Impost de Transmissió Patrimonial)
- Pay the municipal capital gains tax (plusvàlua)
- Submit all these documents to the Land Registry.
Bureaucratic problem detected and on its way to being solved!