Remortgaging and refinancing in Spain

These dreaded days at the Notary are never short. For the life of me I cannot understand why they can't prepare the documents in advance, subject to them seeing the original documents on the day of the signing! Anyway, the world cannot be changed in one day. Or one decade for that matter.

Remember to take the same documents that you used for your original mortgage/hipoteca. This may include an expired passport that is not valid. Don't panic if you've thrown that old passport away after renewing it, but it makes things a lot smoother on the day of signing your linked mortgage if you have all the original mortgage's supporting documents.

Allow plenty of time at the Notary, like with everything else in Spain. Especially so if there are other peripheral contracts to be signed with the new mortgage, for example if you are obliged to take a life insurance with the new bank etc.

Your new bank will handle all payments, so ensure that you have deposited enough funds in the new bank's account to cover the expenses needed. This may include the cancellation fee for the old bank (yes, you don't pay the old bank directly, all is handled by the new bank), any Notary fees, the tax for Notarised Documents (impuesto de actos juridicos in Spanish), etc..

And a word of advice: make sure you cash in all your loyalty points with the old bank because somehow I don't see them giving you that toaster after they lose you as a customer!