Why hire a lawyer to buy a home in Spain?

Hiring a lawyer to buy a home is essential for your security, as they are the expert you need to
study the legal situation of the home you want to buy.
Getting advice from an expert real estate lawyer can avoid any type of sanction or claim,
present or future.
What problems could we encounter when buying a home? Well, for example, that the house
we want to buy is encumbered with one or more mortgages, judicial or administrative liens,
easements of lights or passage, usufructs to be extinguished, pending adjudication and
acceptance of inheritance, etc.
On the other hand, we can also find the non-registration of the real surface area of the house,
such as an extension carried out at a previous time, or the lack of technical inspection of
buildings if the house is more than 50 years old, and so on.
In other words, there are many situations in which we can find ourselves when buying a home.
That is why it is so important to hire a professional lawyer who looks after the interests of his
clients as if they were his own.
In view of all these described cases in which we can find ourselves, our legal advice is that the
first thing to do before anything else is to request at the Land Registry where the property you
want to buy is located, either in person or online, a nota simple of the property to find out
what the ownership situation of it is. The registered area and the charges it may have against
it.
Once the legal, registry, cadastral, physical and urban planning situation of the property has
been studied by a professional lawyer, the next step would be to sign a private contract
between the buyer and the seller that would include the will of both parties to buy and sell.
This contract must be drafted by a lawyer who will represent either the buying or selling party.
It would be a private document tailored to suit the needs of its clients, always safeguarding
their legal rights.
In the aforementioned private contract, the buyer pays a deposit amount, which is usually 10%
of the purchase price. There are different types of contracts but the ones that are most often
signed are penitential, which means that if one of the parties does not wish to continue with
the sale, they must compensate the other. In other words, if the buyer withdraws, he will lose
the amount delivered as a deposit, and if the seller does so, he must return to the buyer the
amount delivered as a deposit in duplicate.
Also in the aforementioned contract, the selling party undertakes to deliver the property free
of encumbrances and occupants, in conditions of habitability, the corresponding technical
certificates and up to date with the payment of supplies and taxes.
Finally, both parties will agree in the private document on the deadline for making the contract
public and who will bear the expenses derived from the sale, such as the cost of the notary and
the Land Registry. If the agreement between the parties is that they will pay the expenses

according to the Law, with regard to the notary fee, the seller will pay the matrix of the deed
and the buyer first copies and the Land Registry.
Once the sale has been formalized with the signature before a notary, it is time to pay the
dreaded taxes. In the case of the buyer, he/she will pay VAT for newly developed homes or ITP
for the rest of the second-hand home (Property Transfer Tax). In the Valencian Community, for
example, the ITP is 10% of the value of the purchase price. Except for young people under 35
years of age, who will pay 8% of the value of the purchase price as long as it is the first
acquisition of a primary residence and as long as they do not exceed the established income
threshold. There are also exemptions for first time if you are a large family, if you have a
recognised physical or mental disability, or if the home is a valid social housing unit. This is very
important to keep in mind because you can save money.
Once each and every one of these steps has been carried out, you must not forget to proceed
with the change of ownership in the supply contracts that the property has or terminate them
if we are not convinced by the conditions of the same and if there is a community of owners
constituted, communicate the change of ownership.
Therefore, you should be advised by an expert lawyer who will accompany you throughout the
purchase process so that this is a safe purchase.