Does it matter whether the deposit was paid into a personal bank account rather than a lawyer's client account or a company account?

Yes, it matters a great deal for how easy collection is in practice, even though your legal right to a refund does not change. A payment made into a personal account is harder to trace to a specific transaction, and easier for that person to have already spent. This is exactly why the reservation, the one payment usually outside any protected account system, is the payment most often disputed in practice.

What if the person or company that owes me the refund seems to be disappearing, changing names, or becoming hard to contact?

Act on the formal demand as soon as possible. Have a lawyer check whether the company shows early signs of financial trouble, rather than simply being unresponsive. If formal insolvency proceedings are filed, the collection route changes completely: it becomes a claim inside that process, rather than an ordinary demand and court claim. That page explains what changes.

Can I claim interest on top of the refund itself, or only the original amount?

Generally, yes. Spanish law lets you claim interest along with the return of a sum owed, and a court claim usually includes it. On a guaranteed new-build payment, the guarantee itself must cover statutory interest from each payment date. This is a stronger and more specific right than the general interest available on an ordinary contractual debt.

Guides

They Owe You Money, but Nobody Pays: How to Actually Recover the Deposit

In 30 Seconds

Getting a Spanish deposit back depends on which payment it is. You claim a guaranteed new-build payment straight from the bank. For a resale property deposit, you need a burofax, then a court route if that fails. Use monitorio if the debt is not genuinely disputed, juicio verbal below 15.000 €, and ordinario above it.

Which payment are you chasing, and where does it stand?

A guaranteed new-build paymentClaim directly from the bank or insurer that issued the guarantee. This does not depend on the developer.
Reservation or arras: paid after a formal demandDone. No further action needed.
Reservation or arras: unpaid, and genuinely disputedJuicio verbal below 15.000 €, juicio ordinario above it.
Reservation or arras: unpaid, and not genuinely disputedProcedimiento monitorio, no upper cap.

Which payment are you trying to get back?

The word "deposit" covers at least three different payments in a Spanish purchase. Each one comes back, if it comes back, through a different route. You recover a reservation deposit with a formal demand to whoever holds it, then through the court route if that is refused. It sits outside any guarantee or client-account system. An arras deposit on a resale property depends on the type named in the contract. If arras penitenciales applies and the seller is at fault, you can demand double the deposit. Under the other two types, you can claim that the sale completes, or claim damages. A staged new-build payment is a direct claim against the bank or insurer that issued the individual guarantee certificate. This does not depend on the developer’s own finances.What follows applies once you already know a payment should be returned, and it is not being returned voluntarily. Whether it should be returned at all is a separate question about the contract, answered in the contract guides.

Reservation Agreement

Does asking nicely start anything, legally?

No. An email or a phone call may persuade someone, but it does not do the one legal job a formal demand does: mark the clock and reset it. That job belongs to a burofax, Spain’s certified-delivery formal notice. It is the standard way to make a claim outside court that you can later prove in court.

BurofaxCorreos, certified delivery with content certification

Remitente y destinatario: NOMBRE APELLIDOS → NOMBRE APELLIDOS
Date of sending and acknowledgement of receipt: DD/MM/AAAA · Certificado
Cantidad reclamada: X.XXX €
Fundamento y plazo: Clause X of the contract · 10 days

Specimen. The values shown are illustrative.

Remitente y destinatario. Sender and recipient, formally identified, not an anonymous message.
Date of sending and acknowledgement of receipt. The certified delivery date is what resets the prescription clock.
Cantidad reclamada. A clear, exact amount. This is what a monitorio claim needs later, if it comes to that.
Fundamento y plazo. The contract clause you rely on, and a clear deadline to reply before the next step.

What buyers assumeWhat legally interrupts the clock

An email asking for the money back is enough to protect my position: It may show your good faith, but that is not enough. Only a formal claim outside court legally resets the prescription clock, and a burofax is the standard way to make one that you can later prove in court. Sent correctly, it resets the countdown to zero from the delivery date.
I have as long as I like to chase this, since it is clearly owed to me: A personal claim with no shorter legal period expires after 5 years from when you could first demand it. A 2015 law reform reduced the old fifteen-year period to this. That sounds like a long time. But months of informal back-and-forth can quietly use up part of it, if nobody sends anything that resets the clock.
Once I send one formal letter, I am covered indefinitely: Resetting the clock restarts the period. It does not pause it forever. If the other side still does not pay, the new 5 -year clock keeps running from the date of that letter. At some point, you must file a claim. You cannot keep sending letters instead of taking action.

A lawyer reviewing the arras contract's type and wording checks that it truly contains a workable refund clause before you sign it. This way, this collection process never has to start.

Sale and Purchase Agreement and Types of Arras

Sources

Does a burofax have to be sent by a lawyer to count?No. Anyone can send one through Correos, the Spanish postal service. It does not need a lawyer to be valid as a claim outside court. In practice, having a lawyer write and send it is worth the cost for anything beyond a small amount. The exact wording of the demand often matters later, if the case reaches court.

If the formal demand is ignored, what does the court route look like?

There are three possible procedures. Which one applies depends mostly on whether the debt is genuinely disputed, and how large it is. A direct guarantee claim on a new build does not use any of these three: it goes straight to the bank or insurer. This is why checking that document before you pay matters more than any collection route afterwards.

Option 1
Procedimiento monitorioMade for a claim that is clear, exact, due and payable now.
Threshold
No upper capNo limit on amount since a 2011 reform.
Speed
Fastest
Cost
Lowest
When it applies
Debt undisputed, documented
Best if your paperwork is clear and the other side does not seriously dispute that the money is owed.
Option 2
Juicio verbalThe simpler procedure for a genuinely disputed claim.
Threshold
Up to 15.000 €Raised from 6.000 € by a 2023 reform, in force since March 2024.
Speed
Medium
Cost
Medium
When it applies
Debt disputed, smaller amount
Best if the amount is below the threshold, and the debt itself, not just the timing, is disputed.
Option 3
Juicio ordinarioThe standard, longer civil procedure for larger disputed amounts.
Threshold
Above 15.000 €
Speed
Slowest
Cost
Highest
When it applies
Debt disputed, larger amount
Best only when the amount and the dispute leave no faster route available. Most arras deposits on a significant property end up here, once liability is genuinely disputed.

None of the three depends on your preference. The debt itself decides which one applies.

0 €30.000 €

Juicio verbalUp to 15.000 €
Juicio ordinarioAbove 15.000 €

15.000 €: Raised from 6.000 € by a 2023 reform, in force since March 2024.

This threshold decides which procedure applies to a disputed claim. It only matters once a debt is genuinely disputed. An undisputed debt goes through the monitorio route, whatever the amount.

None of this changes if the other party is a company that has since become formally insolvent. That is a different process, with its own rules, covered on its own page. An insolvent debtor is not simply a slow one.

Developer insolvency

Sources

What to gather before the first formal letter goes out

Four things to gather before you send the burofax, not after. The letter is stronger with them attached.

Gather	Why	What a weak version looks like
Proof of every payment made	Bank transfer confirmations or receipts turn "you owe me money" into a clear, exact amount. This is exactly what a monitorio claim needs.	Relying on memory, or on a verbal agreement, about how much was really paid.
The contract itself, read for the relevant clause	What the reservation or arras contract really says about refund conditions decides whether you are chasing a clear right or a disputable one.	Sending a demand before checking what the contract you signed really promises.
A written record of every informal request already made	It shows a timeline and good faith. But only the formal demand, not these messages, legally resets the prescription clock.	Only verbal or phone conversations, with nothing in writing.
On a new build, the guarantee certificate	It tells you right away whether this is a direct guarantee claim against a bank, a much shorter route, or a claim you would otherwise have to make against the developer itself.	Not knowing whether a valid certificate, in your own name, was ever issued for your payments.

Bank Guarantees

An informal request against a formal demand

Both can be polite. Only one of them does anything the law recognises.

	Informal Request	Formal Demand (Burofax)
Effect on the prescription clock	None. The five-year period keeps running exactly as before.	Interrupts it. The period restarts from the date of delivery.
Value as evidence later	Weak. A text message or a call is hard to prove, and easy to dispute.	Strong. A certified record shows exactly what was sent and received, and when.
How it reads to the other side	Easy to keep putting off, with no real consequence.	A clear signal that the next step, if unpaid, is a court claim.
What it costs to do	Nothing in money, but it quietly uses up time from your five years.	A small fee for the certified delivery, occasionally a lawyer's drafting cost.

Frankly

This describes the mechanics, not a guarantee of the outcome

This is current Spanish civil procedure and prescription law as of August 2026, read from the original sources. This is general information, not a review of your specific dispute. Whether your contract gives you a right to a refund at all is a separate question, answered by the linked guides and, in the end, by your own lawyer. Everything above assumes that question is already settled. It covers only how the money moves once it is owed.We are not a debt collector, and we are not a party to your contract, your court claim, or your guarantee. Before any of this becomes necessary, our legal-coordination service makes sure the contract you sign has a workable refund clause. On a new build, it also checks that you have a properly individualised guarantee certificate. This is the single best sign of whether any of this will ever matter for your own purchase.

Frequently Asked Questions About Getting Your Money Back

Does it matter whether the deposit was paid into a personal bank account rather than a lawyer's client account or a company account?: Yes, it matters a great deal for how easy collection is in practice, even though your legal right to a refund does not change. A payment made into a personal account is harder to trace to a specific transaction, and easier for that person to have already spent. This is exactly why the reservation, the one payment usually outside any protected account system, is the payment most often disputed in practice.
What if the person or company that owes me the refund seems to be disappearing, changing names, or becoming hard to contact?: Act on the formal demand as soon as possible. Have a lawyer check whether the company shows early signs of financial trouble, rather than simply being unresponsive. If formal insolvency proceedings are filed, the collection route changes completely: it becomes a claim inside that process, rather than an ordinary demand and court claim. That page explains what changes.
Can I claim interest on top of the refund itself, or only the original amount?: Generally, yes. Spanish law lets you claim interest along with the return of a sum owed, and a court claim usually includes it. On a guaranteed new-build payment, the guarantee itself must cover statutory interest from each payment date. This is a stronger and more specific right than the general interest available on an ordinary contractual debt.

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