Buying a Villa in Spain: Why You Need an Architect

Article from Tomas Ballestero Lawyers, Javea

Tomas Ballestero Lawyers has been advising international buyers and sellers in Spain for over 30 years, from its office in Jávea.

Tel +34 965 79 29 46 · info@lawyerssoliciorsjavea.com · Tomas Ballestero Lawyers 

Most villas on this coast are not what their deeds describe. A house registered decades ago may today have a garage that became a guest flat, a terrace that was covered, a basement that was dug out, a pool, a summer kitchen, a pergola that turned into a room. Each was a decision by a previous owner, and in many cases it was never declared, never licensed and never registered.

Three separate records describe the same house, and none of them has to agree with the others: the Land Registry (what you legally own), the Cadastre (what the tax authorities hold on file) and the physical reality (what is actually standing there). A buyer who reads only the nota simple has seen one of the three.

Why the gap matters

Banks lend against what is registered. If the valuer measures more than the registry describes, the mortgage can stall.

When you come to sell, your buyer's lawyer will find what your lawyer did not.

Insurance may not cover what was never declared.

If you want to carry out work yourself, the town hall starts from the registered and licensed position.

On certain land, and in the coastal zones, the authorities' power to order works to be removed does not expire.

Undeclared work can often be regularised. Spanish law allows a declaración de obra nueva por antigüedad — declaring an existing building on the basis that it has stood long enough that action to restore planning legality can no longer be taken. It requires a technical certificate from an architect stating what exists and since when, and it is not available everywhere: on land where no such period runs, it is simply not an option. In the Comunitat Valenciana, buildings on non-developable land may instead fall under the regime of fuera de ordenación, or require a procedure to minimise territorial impact under the regional planning law. Which of these applies is a technical question, not a guess.

This is why we send an architect before our clients sign. He measures the house, compares it against the registry description, the cadastral record and the licences held at the town hall, and tells us what is legal, what can be regularised, what cannot, and what the gap will cost to close. That report changes the negotiation. It has stopped clients buying a house whose guest annexe could never be legalised — and it has also been the reason a client bought with confidence when the selling agent had no answer.

A typical situation on this coast. A villa at around €1,800,000, beautifully presented, four bedrooms upstairs and what the brochure calls a guest apartment on the lower level. The Land Registry describes a single dwelling of roughly half the built surface that is actually there. The lower level was excavated and fitted out years after the house was finished; the covered terrace came later still. Some of it can be regularised by declaring it on the basis of its age. Some of it, on that particular plot, cannot. Until an architect has measured the house and looked at the licences, nobody in the transaction — including the seller — knows which is which.

The architect's fee is a fraction of what the same discovery costs after completion, when the problem is yours.

Article from Tomas Ballestero Lawyers, Javea

Tomas Ballestero Lawyers has been advising international buyers and sellers in Spain for over 30 years, from its office in Jávea.

Tel +34 965 79 29 46 · info@lawyerssoliciorsjavea.com · Tomas Ballestero Lawyers 

This article is general information on Spanish law and does not constitute legal advice. Every case depends on its own circumstances. Take advice on yours before signing anything.