LEGAL ADVICE STEP BY STEP
There are three public sources of legal information that have to be checked and consulted when buying a property. The three sources are:
1. City Council.
The City Council is where the planning status of the land or buildings is attained, that is to say:
- Whether the property is built in an area where it is permitted to construct such buildings or not;
- Whether there is any lack of basic infrastructures on the property where the new owners would be liable and incur costs to have the said infrastructure put in place sometime in the future;
- Whether there are any Council leanings such as taxes or outstanding fines on the property and in short, to assess if the property is ‘legal’.
- If there is a possibility of any future obligation to give part of the land of the property to the City Council for public infrastructures not yet developed.
2. Registro Propiedad.
All the properties have to be recorded in this Register, where one can:
- Identify the land specificatins as stated on the deeds.
- Indentify the current owner;
- Check if there are any mortgages on the property;
- Check if there are any other limitations such as Right of Way issues, and other rights regarding such issues as passage of underground infrastructure through the property, or limitations in future construction due to nearby roads or protected zones etc ...
3. Catastro.
It is the Register which is used by the City Council for assigning taxes to a property. It is used to fix the amount of money the property has to pay as local taxes each year, such as IBI (tax on the property), BASURAS (tax for collecting the refuse etc ..) etc...
All this information needs to be interpreted by, not just a lawyer/solicitor, but by one specialised in urban/planning law, the only one who can manage and evaluateproperly all that information and give accurate advice to the investor.
Once all these sources have been consulted and we conclude the property is safe and legal or if there is a legal solution to the problems which the property presents, we assist our clients at the Notario Office to sign the deeds and promtly we execute all the paperwork so the deeds are inscribed at the Registro de la Propiedad in the new owners’s name, including taxes.