Buying a 15 year old property with no escritura

We are considering buying a 15 year old detached house In a village. It has the necessary construction permissions from the ayuntamiento but the Spanish owners have not bothered to get an escritura. They pay IBI so it has a cadastral value. What are the implications of no escritura and what is the process to obtain one?

It is very necessary to get all the buying and permits in writing when buying or selling any property.

A copy Escritura (one never has an original) is a copy of the contract signed before a notary when a property was transferred.  .

It is unlike, say in UK, where one has the Deeds of a property.  As I said it is only ever a copy, albeit that it maybe stamped as a 'copia simple' by a notary. It is not required when making subsequent sales transactions

I believe that unless it is registered, a notary cannot authenticate the transaction. In any case the notary would need to obtain a 'Nota Simple' from the Property Reg Office within, I believe,  24hours of any transaction.

I would suggest you check with the Property Registry Office of the town hall to ensue the property  is registered in the name of the ‘seller’.     If not then tread very carefully and only with the advice of a lawyer who you can trust.

This message was last edited by johnzx on 31/12/2015.

This is an interesting thread and the knee jerk reaction is to avoid such a purchase, but presumably if it is registered with the Property Registry Office, this may be wrong. 

Of course in Spain there is this system of logging debts against a property, but if it's not even registered?!  I don't know but in this situation wouldn't a notary be obliged to decline to participate in any conveyance?

but in this situation wouldn't a notary be obliged to decline to participate in any conveyance?

"In any case the notary would need to obtain a 'Nota Simple' from the Property Reg Office within, I believe,  24hours before any transaction.  "       Without that there could be no  contract signed.

Reasons why there is no escritura are very varied so... I would ask owners to provide all necessary documents and info for the property to obtain the necessary title ( Notary deed) for property registration.

Sometimes it is just financial reasons ( avoiding tax payment, or Notary/Land Registry fees). Worst scenario would naturally be if reason behind is illegality of building.

Hope it helped!