The complete due diligence checklist for buying Spanish property: what to check before you commit (2026)

Buying a home in Spain is a four-stage legal process, and the checks you run at each stage protect you from the three things that quietly ruin a purchase: a title that is not clean, a building that is not legal, and a debt you did not create. The single most important document is the nota simple, the informal Land Registry report that confirms who owns the property and what charges sit against it. But a clean nota simple is only the start. This checklist walks through every check a buyer should complete from reservation to notary, names the document behind each one, and points to the primary source that sets the rule.

Spain saw 558,327 resale transactions in 2025, the highest figure since 2007, according to the INE’s Estadistica de Transmisiones de Derechos de la Propiedad. A market moving at that volume rewards buyers who verify, and penalises those who do not.

How should you structure Spanish property due diligence?

Spanish conveyancing splits into four stages, and the checks you need cluster by stage because each is tied to a binding moment. At reservation you confirm the seller’s identity and title. At arras you lock the price against a deposit and run the planning and legal searches. Pre-notary is the financial stage: the survey, the bank valuation and the tax calculations. Signing is when the notary verifies the community debt certificate, the energy certificate and the parties’ identities before authorising the public deed.

Trying to run every check at once wastes effort because some depend on others. You cannot check the community debt certificate before the seller has agreed to provide it, and you cannot finalise a mortgage before the bank valuation lands. The staged approach below follows the order an independent Spanish lawyer actually works through, and it is the same order that protects your deposit.

If you are still deciding whether to hire a lawyer at all, the case for an independent abogado rather than the agent’s in-house contact is set out in our guide to whether you need a lawyer in Spain. The full buying process, from NIE to keys, is covered in our foreigner’s buying guide.

What does a nota simple show and when should you order one?

A nota simple is the informal report the Land Registry issues describing a property’s legal situation: its physical description, the registered owner, and any mortgages, embargoes or other charges currently recorded against it. According to the Colegio de Registradores, it is “puramente informativa” and shows only the titularities, rights and charges valid at the moment you request it. It is not a public document like a certificacion registral, but for a routine purchase it is accepted as proof of clean title by banks and notaries alike.

Order the nota simple before you pay any deposit, because it answers the three questions that make or break a purchase: does the seller actually own the property, is the description on the deed accurate, and is there a mortgage or court embargo you would be inheriting? It costs a few euros and can be requested through registradores.org. If it reveals an outstanding mortgage, that mortgage must be cancelled at the notary on the day of signing, with the sale price paying off the bank first. If it reveals an embargo or a usufruct, you stop and reassess before committing a cent.

Check	Document	Who orders it	Risk if skipped
Registered ownership	Nota simple	Your lawyer	You buy from someone who is not the legal owner
Charges and encumbrances	Nota simple	Your lawyer	You inherit a mortgage or court embargo
Registered description matches reality	Nota simple + survey	Your lawyer	You buy a property with an illegal extension not on the deed
Community debt status	Certificado de deudas	The seller	You inherit up to three years of unpaid fees

Why is the community debt certificate mandatory under Spanish law?

The community debt certificate is the document that proves the seller is up to date with the owners’ association, and it is not optional. Article 9.1.e of the Ley 49/1960 de Propiedad Horizontal (BOE-A-1960-10906) requires the seller, in the public deed of transfer, to “declarar hallarse al corriente en el pago de los gastos generales” and to provide “certificacion sobre el estado de deudas con la comunidad coincidente con su declaracion”. Without it, the notary cannot authorise the public deed unless the buyer expressly waives the requirement.

The same article fixes the liability that makes the certificate matter. A new owner, even with a registered title, “responde con el propio inmueble adquirido” for the unpaid community fees of the current year plus the three preceding calendar years. The property itself is “legalmente afecto” to that debt. The certificate is issued within seven natural days by whoever acts as secretary, with the president’s approval, and both are liable for the accuracy of the data. This is the rule behind the most common surprise in Spanish resale buying: you move in and find the previous owner left thousands of euros of community arrears attached to your front door.

If you want the full mechanism, the three-year window and the waiver, our community debt guide breaks it down. The practical point for this checklist is simple: never waive the certificate, and if it shows a debt, the seller must settle it from the sale price at the notary.

What planning checks protect you from an illegal build?

Planning due diligence is what stops you buying a house the town hall can order demolished. The two documents that matter are the licencia de primera ocupacion, which proves a new build was completed with planning permission, and the PGOU (Plan General de Ordenacion Urbana), the municipal plan that tells you whether the property and any extensions are legal under current zoning.

On the Costa del Sol the risk is acute because decades of construction outran planning, and an extension or pool built without a licence can sit undetected until you try to sell. The protection is an AFO (asimilado a fuera de ordenacion) check, which confirms whether a property without full licensing can be legalised as out-of-order rather than demolished. Our illegal builds and land checks guide covers the AFO route and the first-occupancy licence in depth.

One regional trap to flag here: in Andalusia the cedula de habitabilidad was suppressed by Decreto 283/1987, and the licencia de primera ocupacion replaced it for the first transmission of a new build only. On a resale there is no mandatory habitability certificate. A buyer who relies on a “cedula” that a seller cannot produce is chasing a document that does not exist in the region. The substitute is an independent property survey, not a town hall certificate.

Do you need a property survey before signing?

A survey is not legally mandatory in Spain, but it is the only check that catches structural defects the nota simple cannot see. A chartered surveyor inspects the structure, damp, electrical and plumbing systems, and any signs of subsidence or illegal modification. If the survey reveals a defect, you can renegotiate the price or withdraw under an arras clause before you are locked in.

Whether a survey is worth it depends on the property’s age and value, and the decision is set out in our property survey guide. For an apartment in a modern building a survey may be light, but for a villa over 20 years old on the Costa del Sol it is the document that turns a risk into a priced, negotiable fact.

How does the bank valuation fit into the checklist?

If you are financing the purchase, the bank’s tasacion is a gate the transaction has to pass. The mortgage is capped at a percentage of the valuation, not the price you agreed, so a valuation that comes in below the price widens the cash gap you must cover. A buyer who skips the valuation check discovers the gap too late, at signing, when the bank’s offer has already been issued.

The valuation belongs in the pre-notary stage, alongside the survey and the tax calculations, because it can change the structure of the deal. If the valuation is low, you have three moves: challenge it through the bank’s internal process, renegotiate the price with the seller, or walk away under your arras clause. When and how to challenge is covered in our bank valuation challenge guide.

What tax and administrative checks belong on the list?

The financial stage of due diligence confirms what you will pay on top of the price and that no back taxes attach to the property. Three items matter.

First, the IBI (Impuesto sobre Bienes Inmuebles) receipts. The IBI is the local property tax levied on the cadastral value, and the seller’s last receipt confirms the property is registered for municipal tax and reveals the cadastral value your own future bills will be based on. Unpaid IBI can follow the property. The cadastral value itself is the number the Catastro sets and the town hall uses, explained in our catastro and cadastral value guide.

Second, the energy performance certificate (CPEE). The CPEE has been mandatory on every sale and every let over four months since 1 June 2013, under Real Decreto 235/2013 (BOE-A-2013-3904), now consolidated by RD 390/2021 in force from 3 June 2021. The seller must hand it over before the sale completes, and it grades the building from A to G. A missing CPEE is a legal defect the notary should flag, and a buyer can insist it is provided or deduct the cost of obtaining one.

Third, the total acquisition cost. The full cost of buying in Spain runs to approximately 12 to 15 per cent on top of the price, comprising transfer tax (ITP at a flat 7 per cent in Andalusia on resales) or IVA 10 per cent plus AJD on a new build, notary and Land Registry fees, an independent lawyer at roughly 1 to 1.5 per cent plus VAT, and mortgage costs where financed. The breakdown is set out in our cost of buying guide.

What does the notary check on the day of signing?

The notary’s role on signing day is to verify the legal conditions of the transfer, not to act as your lawyer. The notary confirms the parties’ identities, checks that the seller’s community debt certificate is present under LPH Article 9.1.e, verifies the energy certificate, reads the deed aloud, and ensures the parties understand the obligations. The notary also performs the anti-money-laundering identification that Ley 10/2010 (BOE-A-2010-6737) requires of all sujetos obligados, which includes notaries in property transactions.

The notary’s AML check is a control on the transaction itself: identification of the parties, verification of the source of funds where required, and a reporting duty to the Sepblac where an operation appears suspicious. It does not replace the title, planning and debt checks your own lawyer runs. A buyer who treats the notary’s presence as a substitute for independent due diligence is relying on a gate that was never designed to catch the risks a lawyer catches.

After the deed is signed, the next step is registration. The property registration process, the calificacion registral and the tracto sucesivo that protect your title against later third parties, are explained in our property registration guide.

What is the full checklist, stage by stage?

Stage	Check	Document	Who runs it
Reservation	Seller identity and NIE	Nota simple + DNI/NIE	Your lawyer
Reservation	Registered title and charges	Nota simple	Your lawyer
Arras	Planning legality and PGOU	Licencia de primera ocupacion + town hall PGOU	Your lawyer
Arras	Illegal extension risk	AFO check	Your lawyer
Pre-notary	Community debt status	Certificado de deudas (LPH Art 9.1.e)	The seller
Pre-notary	Structural condition	Property survey	Independent surveyor
Pre-notary	Bank valuation	Tasacion	The lender
Pre-notary	IBI receipts and cadastral value	Ultimo recibo IBI	The seller
Pre-notary	Energy performance	CPEE (RD 235/2013 / RD 390/2021)	The seller
Signing	AML identification	Ley 10/2010 (notary)	The notary
Signing	Community debt certificate present	LPH Art 9.1.e	The notary
Post-signing	Registration of title	Inscripcion registral	Your lawyer

The checklist is deliberately staged because each check depends on the one before it. A clean nota simple is the precondition for an arras deposit. An arras deposit is the precondition for spending on a survey and a valuation. A survey and a valuation are the precondition for the final tax calculation. The notary’s checks at signing are the last gate, not the first.

This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and individual circumstances differ. Verify current requirements with an independent lawyer (abogado) or tax advisor (gestor/asesor fiscal) before acting.