What is the purpose of the Spanish Land Registry (Registro de la Propiedad)?

Even a legal layman knows the importance of the land register when buying property in Ibiza. The information contained in this public register about registered properties and land is of public trust (“fé publica”) and, unlike private property purchase contracts, can be used against any third party and is available to anyone without restriction.

By providing the name of a real estate owner, a consultant is usually able to obtain a so-called “nota simple” excerpt from the land register (“nota simple”) of the property in question in a very short time. However, the complete historical land register extract (“certificación”) is not as easy to read as the “nota simple”. Entries such as the purchase or sale of a property or the creation or cancellation of a mortgage are entered consecutively. Furthermore, the marginal notes (“notas marginales”) must be observed. Since no deeds are kept at the land registry, the essential content of the deeds presented to the land registry must be entered directly into the register. This makes the historical land register extracts very extensive and quite confusing.

Plans are not kept in the land register. Information on the location, size and boundaries of a plot of land is provided according to local conditions, such as street names or the names of neighbours, and is therefore not always very precise. Especially in the case of an undeveloped property (“rustico”), it is worthwhile to commission a surveyor (“topografo”) with the exact measurement of the property before purchase and even to attach this topographic plan as an annex to the contract. In Spain, there is a land registry office (“catastro”) located at the respective responsible municipalities, but it usually does not have any really reliable plans. Since a change in the law, the land registry office requires a CD-ROM made by a topographer for notarial new building declarations, which contains the most important key data and the exact location of the property ( coordenadas georreferenciadas).

In Ibiza, the notary and the land registry judge (hereinafter referred to as the “registrar”) are the key players in the registration process: the notary certifies the declarations of the parties and the registrar carries out the registration in the land register.  The registrar is obliged to check the form, substance and content of each deed recorded by the notary. If the registrar has any objections to the deed presented to him, he may refuse registration and write a note (“calificación”) stating the exact reasons why he provisionally refuses registration. Normally, the deficiencies identified by the registrar can be remedied. However, depending on the circumstances, the notary may have to be called in again and draw up a supplementary document to remedy the defects identified by the registrar.

The Spanish notary public must order a current extract from the land register of the finca before recording a property purchase contract at the responsible land registry office. From the time the land registry office sends the current “nota simple”, a 10-day period begins, which is equivalent to a land register block. If the notarised purchase contract is not recorded within these 10 days, the extract from the land register requested by the notary expires. Unfortunately, in contrast to the commercial register, for example, notaries do not have daily access to the data available at the land registry office, but are dependent on the cooperation of the land registry office. After the notarisation, the notary immediately informs the land registry about the transfer of the property and a new blocking period of 60 days begins, within which the buyer can submit the deed to the land registry after paying the taxes.