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Once youve chosen your ideal property and found a Spanish mortgage how do you go about completing the purchase?

Buying property in Spain is highly regulated. The best thing you can do to protect yourself and your money is to hire an English-speaking lawyer or legal counsel to help you during the purchase and negotiation. Make sure that the Spanish property is free of restrictive clauses and debts.

There are two different categories in the Spanish legal processes for the purchase of property. The first legal document is the preliminary contract, known as Contrato privado de compraventa, and the second is the completion contract, known as Escritura de compraventa.

Once the buyer and seller are in agreement on the price then they need to sign a preliminary sales contract. Before this Contrato privado de compraventa has been signed, however, the vendor needs to be able to provide proof that he or she owns the property, and that it is free of any charges. Debts are charged to the property themselves in Spain, and any outstanding mortgage amount would then be passed on to the purchaser. Nota Simple tells about outstanding debts.

The completion date, overall price, and property description will all be elaborated in the preliminary sales contract. A 5% to 15% deposit of the final purchase price will be required. This money is held for you in a secure customer account. You can sign the private preliminary sales contract and not put down a deposit but it is not advised.

The second stage is the final contract stage, or the Escritura de compraventa stage. On the completion date, the balance of the price of purchase and all fees need to be paid by the purchaser. Both the vendor and the buyer must sign the contract at the same time. This contract is equivalent to a deed on the purchased property. The purchaser will receive the public deed of conveyance, known in Spain as the escritura, in front of a Notary Public. In order for everything to be legal a copy of the deed will have to go through the tax office and property registry. In Spain, all deeds of sale must be witnessed by a Notary Public, which is a public official in that country. However, you need to have your own legal counsel to protect your own interests during the transaction. Remember too that as the buyer you will be responsible for paying the Notary Public’s charges along with the real estate sales taxes.