PROPERTY LAW AND THE CADASTRE OFFICE IN SPAIN

Although little by little the situation is changing in an important way for the real estate owners, this can not be used to comply with the obligation established in the Real Legislative Decree 1/2004, of 5 of March, in that the text is approved refunded of the Law of the real estate land registry, of recording to its name the property that it possesses or the one that it has just acquired, whether by means of buying and selling, succession or any medium, or to record  any physical change that be produced in this, whether group, segregation, new work…etc.

This “bad” custom nowadays can have quite serious consequences in the enjoyment of the right to the property on the part of any person that possesses good real estate in Spain.

Article 1 in their first section of indexed norm is that to regulate the land registry defines the same one as “…a registration administrative clerk of the Treasury Department in which the goods are described urban, rustic real estate and of special characteristics just as they are defined in this Law”. Subsequently in its second section it exposes that this Law is applied in ah the Spanish territory.

Any owner of a dwelling or plot, or both it should be affirmed that the details of the property coincidence with the physical reality of the same or with the title of property, normally Public Deeds for three important motives from a practical point of view.

1.- Because the Real Decree indexed at the start of this article and that to regulate the real estate and registry, collected explicitly in their article 70, establishes the classification of simple tax infraction, the lack of presentation statements done, does not perform in a time limit and the ones that be false or inexact, that is to say that the people that acquire a good real estate, or those being the owners segregate, they group their plot, or they expand the metres of their dwelling, but they declare said alterations or modifications in the land registry through the official forms, can be guilty persons with a fine that oscillates between 60.00 and 6,000.00 euros according to the circumstances. That is to say, since it is an obligation imposed by normal ranks of Law, the obligation to declare in the land registry any variation or modification of the property on the part of its holder, if it does not comply the same, there can be sanction.

2.- Because upon being a public registration, the land registry that incorporates the plans of each one of the plots or properties of each municipality with inclusion of the sensitive data of the same, without a person with a plot or property does not have the same one recorded in the land registry, or the same one presents some error in its inscription or, still being collected in the land registry, is not to it’s name and did not carry out the corresponding change of property ownership, can be found with the unpleasant surprise that its neighbour, for example, recorded in the land registry its property or carries out some modification of the same that can affect him to its boundaries and, if its property does not appear as its name in the land registry or the same not even appears recorded as we have commented, the and registry wit not be able to notify him that its neighbour is going to proceed to carry out a change and that you have a period of time to allege what estimates convenience. That is to say, if that property modification of its neighbour affects him in the use and enjoyment of his property, you will not be able to allege anything in defence of his interests and, possibly, its neighbour will be able to carry out that alteration in the and registry with the damages that this can cause him in his property. And all because you did not do what the law obliges when you bought the property or when you carried out the modifications in the same one that is perfectly recorded in the land registry the details of its property.

3.- In any operation of buying and selling of good real estate, the notaries are obliged to request descriptive property certificates and graphics since said information can obtain by telematic way. In the supposed one that they cannot contribute that document because there exists some problem in the and registry with the buying and selling of said property, they have to make it to be evident in the Public Deeds and, although that lack of contribution of the property reference by means of the certificate does not impede that the notaries authorize said Deed, neither does it impede the inscription in the Registration of the Property of the same, except in supposed punctuality, the problems that can arise for the good of the operation should be keep in mind, since that the buyer of said real estate before the warning of the notary have doubts of the situation of said property and this can cause the break, or at least the complication, of said operation of buying and selling. It is kept in mind that, although the Public Deeds be the reliable document of property, the land registry is used to being but exact with the existing reality in the real estate, since it incorporates in their fiat detailed database that they be brought up to date from time to time and in which the changes are incorporated that themselves are not collected in the titles so much as relating to the dimensions of the plot and boundaries, as in the constructions that be carry out in the same.

In conclusion, i would like to emphasize that the correct inscription in the land registry of any property has as main consequence in the legal security of the proprietary person of the same and of the person that can acquire it in the future, as well as of administrative agencies. If you have a property real estate in Spain or are thinking to acquire one, be sure that the same one found recorded in the land registry is with at the most important date; situation, ownership, extension and boundaries.

Author: Gustavo Calero Monereo, C&D Solicitors (lawyers)
Torrox-Costa (Malaga/Costa del Sol/Andalucia)