[Anonymous]

I wondered if anybody has had any experience of the following:

We own a rural property in Arcos de la Frontera. There is an old house (75m) in reasonable condition which we’re told has been there for 90-100 years and a small nave (20m) beside it. The thing is that although they are both registered, having the same cadastral reference, they don’t appear on the nota simple. Catastro’s data says (Oficina Virtual del Catastro) that they were registered in 1952, the house as a ‘vivienda’ and the nave as a ‘nave almacen’ and that they are both classed as ‘urbano’ rather than ‘rústica’. Their cadastral reference is different to that of the land. We pay the contribución for them both (the 95m). Bit odd I thought myself.

Is this easy to rectify with a trip to the notary does anyone know?

[Anonymous]

I believe your situation arises from the old situation in Spain when there was no automatic link between the Catastral office and the Land Registry. This meant that properties could be registered for council taxes but not necesarily registered at the land Registry.

We have a similar situation with a house constructed in the Alicante province in 1976 which has always been registered at the Catastral office but not at the Land Registry. According to our Notary and discussions we have had with the Land registry we have to provide the following to have the house registered:-

1. Catastral Certificate which has to be “descriptivo y grafico” and requested by the owner of the property. The Catastro has a web site, http://www.catastro.es, where you can download application forms (in Spanish) for these certificates

2. Certificate from the Ayuntamiento confirming the land has building(s) within it which are older than 10 years and which aslo gives full dimensions. In order to obtain this certificate the technical department of our Ayuntamiento needed a technical report and so we ordered a local surveyor to do this with a cost of around 1.700 € The report was very detailed showing the land boundaries, floor plans and layouts etc. It will also prove usefull if ever we come to sell.

3. Copy of the latest payment of taxes to show they are up to date.

4. Land title, i.e. the purchase “escritura” which should have been registered in the Land Registry.

5. Details of the owners of the land, or those interested in having the buildings registered. For instance our house is owned by a company here in London and so we had to provide all details.

It may seem complicated but it is not really. What you should also do is check the survey report referred to in point 2 with any details you may already have in case there are any differences.

Good Luck

Terry English

[Anonymous]

Thanks Terry for your detailed reply. I’ve been to Catastro’s subgerencia office in Jerez de la Frontera and they’ve been very helpful. They’ll provide me with the certificates that show that the buildings are registered in my name. There’ll be a slight delay though as they haven’t got any plans for them in their database and have had to ask the regional cartographer to draw some up.

The council in Arcos have said that they’ll happily issue a ‘certificado de antigüedad’ and seemed puzzled as to how it could have happened. “Muy raro” they exclaimed! Then the notary will include them in the nota simple.

Thanks again for you advice. Much appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your message. Glad people are being helpful.

On a final point regarding the “nota simple”, since this is a document that is obtained from the Land Registry are you saying your Notary is going to submit the necessary documents on your behalf to the Land Registry so the buildings can be registered and then get a new “nota simple”? If you check with the Land Registry to confirm the documents they need and feel you can get them together yourself you do not need the Notary and this could save his costs and fees.

Depending on their workload the buildings could be registered within 14 days and I would suggest once this is done you obtain a “CERTIFICA” from the Land Registry rather than a “nota simple”. It’s a little more expensive but would give you the full record, including of course your newly registered buildings. The Registry normally has the application forms for a “CERTIFICA” at their reception desk.

Best Regards

Terry

[Anonymous]

Yes, the idea is that the notary will handle it. We’re about to sign (hopefully) a contrato de compraventa to sell the property and I’d like to have the buildings included by the time of completion. The idea was that the notary would therefore do everything at the same meeting. However, I might well try going to the registro myself with the certificates from Catastro and the Ayuntamiento.

Very useful information again, Terry.

Thanks very much.

PS For future reference, the main website for Catastro is:

http://www.catastro.minhac.es/

and their online services are available at:

http://ovc.catastro.meh.es/%5B/url%5D

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