A Nota Simple in Spain is a land and property information document with a three-month validity term. The date the nota simple is issued is always stated at the very beginning of the document. This document offers security and protection to real estate transfers in Spain.
A “nota simple in spain” is a detailed and in-depth property report that includes a verified official description of the property or land that is for sale. This document is uncertified and should only be used for general information. Its contents are very important to determine key financial decisions in real estate transfers.
This document is essential in real estate ownership transfer. The official description of the property or the land includes ownership, description, boundaries and debts against it. Don’t proceed with a purchase of a property until you are satisfied with the information in the nota simple, there may be both legal and financial repercussions.
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Often, boundaries and descriptions are inaccurate. Although it is the owner´s legal duty to maintain accurate information in the nota simple, is not always the case. So, it’s important to decide who will pay for the costs involved in legalizing the changes to the property or land in the nota simple.
This process is part of the total cost of purchasing the property.
Depending on the procedure in which the lawyer is working, the simple note might not be enough. While the simple note is a merely informative document, the property registry certification provides more extensive information than that contained in the simple note and is qualified as a public document with legal validity before third parties, physical, legal, courts and public institutions and bodies.
Both the Nota Simple and the Certifications can be requested at the competent Property Registry or through the website of the Association of Registrars, www.registradores.org.
The Spanish nota simple is mainly used in buying and selling property but there are other procedures for which the simple note is necessary.
For a Non-Lucrative Visa, it is not necessary to be the owner of a home in Spain, therefore it is not necessary to provide a nota Simple of the property that you own in Spain or that you wish to buy in the future.
For Golden Visa Applications, it is necessary to prove ownership of a property in Spain, in this case the Nota Simple is not enough to prove said circumstance, we will need certificate(s) of ownership of the acquired property(s) from the property registry.
Nota simple documents are often used to provide loans against the property or land. This is very useful to confirm whether it is freehold, or owned as a certain percentage, if it has any current debts against it, etc. The financial entity determines the final loan based on the market value property.
It is very important to take into account that if the simple note is not updated and it turns out that there is a home on the plot that is intended to be sold that has not been declared the corresponding new construction, the banking entities in Spain, in order to grant the mortgage on the property They are going to demand that the corresponding procedure be initiated so that the physical reality of the property appears in the simple note, all these incidents delay or can even stop the sale of a property.
This is the main use of the nota simple. In this process a nota simple will indicate if there are any outstanding charges on the property, the boundaries, the square meters, description, ownership, and other important information required to make the right real estate transfer. This document will be part of the contract of transfer together with the conveyancing report
It favours the seller to have an accurate Nota simple of the property so that the buyer can acquire the required mortgage and have the information to make the right decision.
If you decide to sell your property (flat, villa, plot etc) through a real estate agent, they will need a copy of the nota simple to verify the legal and economic status of the property.
Property owners subject to the procedure of SAFO, DAFO or AFO must provide the City Council with the corresponding Nota Simple of the property subject to said procedure.
When requesting a building permit for building, expansion, or reforms, it is recommended to submit a simple note to the Urban Planning area of the corresponding town hall.
It includes information about the property’s location, established borders, description (i.e. the number of floors and rooms), any debts that must be paid off before ownership may be transferred, the date the current owners purchased the land, the gross area of all developed structures, the total square meters of the land, the property’s stated usage (residential, agricultural, etc.), in dwellings useful area and constructed area, any rights that third parties users may have over the land and property (rights of way, roads, water, percentage of ownership, etc), any administrative, tax or mortgage expenses that the owner is responsible for, information on the owners like National Identity Card Number or Passport Number, ownership rights and share.
Other data that appears in the simple note is a numerical identification that the property registrar assigns to the property/land, said data is Volume number, Book, Page and Register Number
The cadastral reference, where properties are coordinated with the Cadastre or identified in the cadastral cartography, however, in properties with old registry inscription this data does not appear, it is currently a data that must be reported in a mandatory manner in the deeds, this way the registration data is being matched with the cadastral data.
This document is not accurate most of the time. If a property has recently undergone renovations, it’s not uncommon for the owners to have neglected to update the nota simple to reflect these changes. Boundaries for rural properties might also be variable.
Inaccuracies and errors on Nota Simple occur a lot in rural plots, or in existing houses in the countryside. Typical inaccuracies are surface area of the plot or the house that appears in the Nota Simple does not usually coincide with the physical reality of the property
This is a very common problem in Spain, although it is true it happens less these days. Tejada Solicitors always advise our clients that are purchasing rustic homes or rural land, to request from the seller a measurement of the property object of sale and said measures are compared with those that appear both in the Nota Simple and in the real estate cadastre. This is a very effective way of proceeding to detect errors and request the seller to correct them, another very typical example that we usually find in the procedures of sale, is when expansion works have been carried out on the house. When this happens, a new construction deed must be granted before the notary to update the m2 of the house both in the property registry and in the cadastre, but this is a procedure that many owners in Spain ignore and postpone until the moment the property is sold. We always recommend keeping the data updated and correct, both in the Nota Simple and in the cadastre, since we will avoid delays if we want to sell or if we want to apply for a mortgage on our property.
Regarding urban properties, such as Flat or Semi-detached or Semi-detached Houses, there are not usually so many errors, the physical reality usually coincides with the Nota Simple and the cadastral information, even so, we always recommend that the appropriate checks be carried out.
Depending on the case or the errors to be corrected, the lawyer will explain the legal documentation necessary to correct the incorrect data. In many cases we will need a certificate from an architect certifying the new data to be correct, like the age of the property or the measurement of the property with geo-referenced coordinates, and so on depending on each specific case.
Once the necessary documentation has been obtained, we will go to the notary to grant a new deed where the error to be corrected is recorded, then, if applicable, the corresponding tax will be paid and finally the new deed will be presented before the registry of the property to proceed with the registration of the deed and correction of the error. With this procedure you can obtain an updated Nota Simple that is consistent with the physical reality of the property.
Our team at Tejada solicitors, is a 360-degree solution with architects and lawyers specialized in property conveyancing. We will acquire the nota simple, verify the document and/or make all the necessary changes with the owner so that it is an accurate document that represents the property you wish to buy.
We must bear in mind that the nota simple is a changing document. It describes the legal and economic situation of a property at a given time. For this reason, the day you sign the purchase of the property at the notary, the lawyer and the notary may request an updated Nota Simple, to avoid last minute surprises.
Anybody in Spain can request a nota simple. You can do it online or at the office “Registradores de España”.
You will need at least one of these so that they can find the record:
Also, you will have to give your email address to receive the document.
The Nota Simple in Spain is not a signed document. It is an official document provided by official authorities.
You can get Nota simple in English translated. It is presented side by side to the Spanish version in the same document. This service has an extra cost.
It costs 3,64 euros at the office and 9,02 euros online. Translation and other services may apply if required at extra cost.
This can vary from a couple of hours to a couple of days depending on the workload.
It’s an official document but uncertified. It is only used for general information purposes.
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