Does the legal check happen before or after the reservation?

After. The reservation takes the property off the market so the lawyer can run the detailed check without somebody else buying it in the meantime. A reservation does not mean you are buying blind, and it is the reservation contract that protects you: it has to state what happens to the deposit if the check finds a serious problem.

How long does the legal check take?

Usually 2 to 4 weeks from the reservation. What stretches it is almost never the legal work. It is documents that have not arrived from the seller side, the developer or the community administrator, and chasing those is our part rather than the lawyer’s.

Is the reservation deposit refundable if the lawyer finds a problem?

It depends on the wording of the reservation contract and it differs by developer and by seller. The reservation is the one payment made outside the guarantee system, so it should be small and the contract has to state the conditions for its return clearly. That is why the lawyer reads it before the money leaves, and not afterwards.

Can I inherit the previous owner’s debts?

Some debts and obligations attached to a property can reach the new owner, which is why the check covers the property and not only the seller. In Spain debts follow the property rather than the person, so unpaid community charges, taxes or fines can pass to you. The lawyer checks the position with the community and asks for the relevant certificates before signing.

Do I need my own lawyer, or is yours enough?

You need an independent lawyer who represents you rather than the developer or the seller. We standardly recommend Malaga Solicitors, an independent Spanish firm on the Costa del Sol, and we take no commission for it. You are free to bring your own Spanish lawyer instead, and the lawyer acts for you either way.

Whose name should the property go into?

Yours, both spouses, or something else depending on your family and financial situation. There is no single right answer. How the property is held can later affect inheritance, taxes and the sale, so it is better decided with the lawyer and a tax adviser before the purchase contract rather than at the notary. If you are buying as a couple, have children, hold significant assets in Spain or are thinking about buying through a company, say so to the lawyer at the very start.

Do I have to come to Spain for the legal side?

Not for the check itself. With a power of attorney the lawyer can handle most of the process, including the signature at the notary. We would still rather you came at least once, and the power of attorney is easier to arrange while you are here than from your home country, where it usually means extra formalities, an apostille and a translation.

How much does the legal check cost and who pays it?

You pay it, directly to the law firm rather than through us. The firm we recommend charges about 1 % of the purchase price including VAT, and that covers the whole job, not only the check. We receive no share of it.

Services

Coordination of legal due diligence for a property in Spain

We do not do legal work, and we say so on purpose: the due diligence on a Spanish property is done by an independent lawyer who represents you, not us and not the seller. Our part is the coordination around it, so the reservation contract is read before your money moves, the documents actually reach the lawyer, the deadlines hold, and you know at every point what is still open. The check itself normally runs 2 to 4 weeks from the reservation, and until it is finished we will not recommend that you sign anything.

Who runs the check, and who each of them works for

Three parties touch the legal side of a Spanish purchase, and the useful thing to establish first is who each of them is working for. One represents you. One represents nobody. One is us, and we are not a law firm.Specialists handle the expertise. We make sure everything connects: that the right thing happens next, in the right order, and that nothing waits on a document nobody chased.For the legal check we standardly recommend Malaga Solicitors, an independent Spanish law firm working on the Costa del Sol (an office of Marbella Solicitors Abogados Asociados, S.L.P., NIF B93659845). The lawyer represents you, not Arevont and not the seller, and you deal with a local lawyer who knows the local authorities and the land registry. You can of course choose your own lawyer at any time. We receive no commission and no other reward from the firm for that recommendation.

What needs to be done	Who does it	What this means for you
Before the reservation
Introducing you to a lawyer	Arevont	We standardly recommend Malaga Solicitors and take no referral fee for it. If you would rather use your own Spanish lawyer, you do, and nothing else on this page changes.
Reading the reservation contract	Your lawyer	The reservation is the one payment made outside the guarantee system, so the contract has to state plainly what happens to the deposit if the check finds a problem. The lawyer reads it before the money leaves, not afterwards.
Checking the developer as a company	Arevont	Whether this is an established developer we have worked with or a new one with no track record yet, and any real experience we or our buyers have had, good and bad. Where we have none, we say so rather than pretend.
During the due diligence
The legal due diligence itself	Your lawyer	Ownership, charges and debts, building legality and permits, community rules, restrictions on use and renting. This is legal work and we do not do it.
Verifying the bank guarantee	Your lawyer	On a new build, that the guarantee covering your staged payments is valid and issued in your name, rather than a group policy belonging to the developer.
Getting documents out of the seller side	Arevont	Chasing the developer, the seller’s agent and the community administrator for the paperwork the lawyer has asked for. This is where a legal check actually stalls, and it is not a legal problem.
Holding the deadlines	Arevont	What has to happen next and by when. When something is needed from you, you hear it from us in advance rather than on the day.
Explaining what a finding means for the purchase	Arevont, with your lawyer	The lawyer states the legal position. We tell you what it means for this particular purchase, including when the recommendation is to stop.
At signing and afterwards
The signature at the notary	The notary	A public official who confirms the identity of the parties, that the signing was done properly and that the public deed is correct. Not your adviser, and not on anybody’s side.
Holding the money until completion	Your lawyer	On a resale property the balance normally sits in your lawyer’s client account, a separate supervised account, and reaches the seller only at the notary.
The administration after the transfer	Your lawyer	The post-transfer paperwork, the utility transfers and the annual tax obligations. We stay your contact here on the coast.

One line governs the whole table. Arevont does not perform legal, tax, valuation or architectural work, and nothing on this page is advice on your purchase. Where a legal position is described, it is the position your lawyer confirms for your specific property.

Do you get a commission for recommending a lawyer?No. We receive no commission and no other reward from the firm we recommend. It is worth putting the same question to any agency, because a lawyer who pays for the referral has a divided loyalty, and a divided loyalty can go quiet about a problem that should stop the deal. A trustworthy agency answers it directly.

Can I bring my own lawyer?Yes, at any point. We recommend the firm we work with because we have worked with them for years and the coordination is smoother, but the choice is yours and the lawyer acts for you either way. What we would not recommend is relying on a lawyer proposed by the developer or by the seller’s agent, whose interest is closing the sale.

The notary is not your lawyer

This is the most common misunderstanding foreign buyers bring to a Spanish purchase, and it is worth clearing up before anything else, because it decides who is actually protecting you.The notary is a public official. They check the legality of the deed and the state of the registry at the moment of signing, and they represent nobody. Your lawyer represents you and does the checking before you are committed. Two independent checks, at two different moments, doing two different jobs. You want both, and neither replaces the other.

What is usually assumedHow it works in Spain

The notary checks the purchase for me: The notary confirms identity, that the signing was done properly and that the public deed is correct, and re-checks ownership and the current registry entry at that moment. That is a real check. It is not the same as due diligence carried out weeks earlier on your behalf, when withdrawing was still possible.
The notary is a kind of legal adviser: In Spain the notary is neither a legal adviser nor the representative of either side. This is regularly confused in your home country and it is worth saying plainly.
A lawyer from home can handle this: You need a Spanish lawyer who knows Spanish law. You can involve your lawyer at home alongside them, and honestly it usually adds little and often slows things down: lawyers billing by the hour tend to open points the Spanish system settled long ago and then ask the Spanish lawyer how it works here anyway.
The estate agent already told me it is fine: An answer from the seller side is information, not verification. It may well be correct. It is still not a check anybody stands behind.
What was promised verbally will be honoured: A verbal promise counts for nothing here unless it is written down. Your lawyer goes through each clause with you, and what applies is what is in the contract.

And the part almost nobody says out loud. Problems here do not usually come from fraud. They come from unfinished paperwork: an extension that was never registered, a missing licencia de primera ocupación, a community debt that travels with the property. That is what the check is really looking for, and it is why the check is unglamorous and takes weeks rather than an afternoon.

Official sources

Can my lawyer sign at the notary for me?Yes, with the right power of attorney, and that is one of the reasons it is worth arranging early, while you are here, rather than in the last week from your home country. How the completion day itself works is described in the handover service.

Where your money sits while the check runs

Foreign buyers ask this early and they are right to. The notarial escrow you know from home does not exist here in that form. It works differently, not worse.On a resale property you normally send the money to your lawyer’s client account, and the lawyer hands it to the seller only at the notary, at the moment the purchase deed is signed. Spanish lawyers hold client money in a separate, supervised account, not in their operating account.On a new build the developer cannot reach your money freely. Your payments go by law into a special protected account for that specific construction, and each of them has to be covered by a bank guarantee. Your lawyer verifies that before the first euro leaves after the reservation.

New buildA protected construction account, with a bank guarantee issued in your name covering each staged payment. The developer can draw on it only under the rules set by law and by the contract.
Resale propertyYour lawyer’s client account, separate and supervised. The seller receives the money at the notary and not before.
The reservationThe one payment that sits outside the guarantee system, which is exactly why it should be small and why the contract has to state the conditions for its return.
The sequencing nobody explainsA small reservation deposit is often paid before a bank guarantee is in place, and that is normal. The part that has to be protected is the private purchase contract, where the large staged payments begin. Before those go, your lawyer confirms a valid guarantee exists and is in your name.

It is not only about where you send money. Before every significant payment your lawyer checks why you are sending it, to whom, and on what terms. That matters because the fraud that actually happens in this market is mundane rather than dramatic: a listing that is not the seller’s to sell, somebody posing as the owner, a forged power of attorney, an email saying the bank details have changed. The rule that covers all of it is simple. Never pay anybody without checking with your lawyer or with us first.

Opening a bank account

What happens to my money if the developer never finishes the build?That is what the bank guarantee is for, and it is the reason your lawyer verifies it before any staged payment goes out. It is also worth knowing that the protection is not limited to the developer going under: if construction runs past the completion date in your contract, the same guarantee applies. Your lawyer will tell you exactly what the wording covers for your unit.

A contract on a property we never found you

You may already be holding a reservation form, an arras contract or a developer’s standard purchase contract on a property that has nothing to do with us. Send it anyway. You do not have to be our client and we do not need to be involved in the purchase.What we are not is lawyers, so we will not tell you a document is sound. What we are is the people who read these contracts constantly from the buyer’s side, which is a different and useful thing.

What we read it forWhat happens to your deposit if the legal check finds something. What the deadlines actually commit you to. What withdrawing costs you, and whether the same cost applies to the other side. On a new build, whether the bank guarantee is mentioned at all and in whose name.
What you get backWhich clauses we would push on, which we would not sign as they stand, and whether the document is ordinary for this coast or unusual. Including when the answer is that we see nothing in it worth arguing about.
Where we stopWe give no legal opinion and we sign nothing off. Where the document needs a lawyer, that is what we say, and we can put you in front of one who is independent of us as well as of the seller.
When to send itBefore the money moves. Once a deposit has been paid the question stops being what to change and becomes what can still be recovered, and that is a far worse question to be asking.

Send us a property

What the legal check does not cover

A page that lists only what is checked is quietly telling you that everything is checked. It is not, and the gaps are worth naming, because each one is a real check that somebody else does.

What is easily confusedWho actually does it

The bank valuation: The bank’s valuer works for the bank and prices the property for mortgage purposes. Finding defects is not their job. It is not a technical survey and it does not replace one.
The condition of the building: A surveyor or an architect inspects the structure, the roof, damp, the installations and the pool, and writes up what they found. On older properties this is what catches the things that otherwise appear after you move in.
Defects in a new build at handover: The snagging list at handover is a separate job with its own timing. On some projects it happens before the transfer of ownership and on others afterwards, depending on the developer.
Whether the purchase is a good idea: The lawyer answers whether the legal position is sound. Whether the price holds up against what the same budget buys nearby, and what is allowed to be built next door, is our part of the job.
A guarantee that nothing will ever go wrong: A completed check is not a promise. It tells you that what could be verified was verified, and what was found. Not every item applies to every property, and the lawyer checks what is relevant to the specific transaction.

Technical inspection

What the lawyer checks

This is the working list. The first group runs on every property. The second runs only on a new build, in addition to the first, and it is as much about the company behind the project as about the property itself.

What is checked	Why we deal with it	What a problem would mean here
For every property
Ownership	Who actually owns the property, and whether the registry entry matches the person selling it.	You would be buying from somebody who cannot transfer what they are selling.
Charges and enforcement	Mortgages, seizures and other charges registered against the property.	A charge that survives the sale attaches to the property, not to the previous owner.
Easements and restrictions	Rights of way and other limits registered on the property.	Something you assumed came with the property turns out to be shared or restricted.
Community debts	Unpaid community charges, and a certificate from the community of owners before signing.	In Spain debts follow the property, not the person. Unpaid community charges, taxes or fines can pass to you, sometimes in the tens of thousands of euros.
IBI and local obligations	The annual property tax and the relevant local charges.	The same rule applies: the obligation travels with the property.
Registry against the cadastre	Whether the Registro de la Propiedad and the Catastro describe the same property.	The two records disagreeing is common and usually fixable, but it is much cheaper to find before signing than after.
Building legality	Whether what stands there is what was permitted, and whether alterations were registered.	An unregistered extension is one of the most common findings of all, and it affects resale property, mortgages and sometimes the utilities.
Licencia de primera ocupación	The first occupation licence for the property.	Without it a property cannot legally be lived in or connected to utilities, and it is much harder to sell on.
Community rules and renting	The statutes of the comunidad, existing tenancies, and the rules on use and renting for this property and this municipality.	A property can be entirely legal to buy and still be one where short-term holiday rental is restricted. If renting is part of why you are buying, this is the row that decides whether the purchase still makes sense.
For a new build as well
The developer	Who is behind the project, and what they have actually completed before.	On this coast a lot of developers are new and for some it is a first project. That is worth knowing before you commit rather than after.
Licencia de obra	The building licence that allows the construction to proceed legally.	Building started without the right licences is the worst case in this whole list.
The land classification	That the plot is suelo urbano, classified as urban and buildable.	Protected or rural land is a different purchase from the one being sold to you.
The bank guarantee	A valid guarantee or insurance policy covering every staged payment you make, issued in your name.	This is the protection that returns your money if the build fails. Your lawyer asks for the individual certificate in your name, not the developer’s group policy.
The completion date in the contract	When the project is due to be signed off, and whether the documentation supports that date.	The guarantee also applies if construction runs past the date in your contract, so the date that is written there matters more than the one in the brochure.
Sign-off and the occupation licence	At the end of the build: the certificate of completion of works and the licence of first occupation.	These are what turn a finished building into one you can legally live in and connect to water and electricity. They arrive at the very end, which is where the delays on a new build usually sit.

Not every item applies to every property. The lawyer checks what is relevant to the specific transaction, and on a specific property the check widens according to its type and its history.

How legal due diligence works

Where the lawyer gets involved in the purchase

The full purchase is fifteen steps from the first call to the keys. Four of them are this page: meeting the lawyer and arranging the power of attorney, the reservation, the check itself, and the binding contract that follows it. The order matters more than it looks, because the check comes after the reservation, not before it.

Steps 7, 8, 9 and 11 of 15

Meeting the lawyer, and the power of attorneyWhenever it makes sense
If you want, we introduce you to the independent lawyer while you are still here. You can go through legal or tax questions with them in person: how to buy, whether to hold the property personally or through a company, and anything specific to your situation. Whose name the property goes into belongs in this conversation too, with the lawyer and a tax adviser, because it can later affect inheritance, taxes and the sale. If you decide to go ahead, you can sign a power of attorney at the notary at the same time. You do not have to be buying yet. It can be prepared long in advance and it simplifies the rest considerably. It can also be signed from your home country, but that usually means extra formalities, an apostille and a translation.
The reservationWhen you find the right property
The reservation takes the property off the market and holds it for you while the lawyer runs the legal check. The reservation contract has to state the conditions plainly, including what happens to the deposit if the check finds a problem. It is not that we could verify everything before the reservation. That is precisely why the legal check follows it.
New buildA reservation contract with the developer. The amount depends on the project.
ResaleA reservation deposit and the agreed terms. This is also where the price, the deadlines and any furnishings are settled.
The legal checkUsually 2 to 4 weeks
After the reservation the detailed check begins. The independent lawyer examines the legal position of the property and the terms of the purchase before recommending that you continue. Depending on the type of property that covers ownership, charges and debts, building legality and permits, community debts, the comunidad rules, restrictions on use or renting, the relevant taxes and the documentation. What makes this take longer than it should is almost never the legal work. It is documents that have not arrived, which is the part we chase.
New buildThe developer, the land and the project, the licences and permits, the contract documentation and the relevant bank guarantees.
ResaleThe ownership register, charges and debts, the documentation, the legality of alterations, obligations to the community of owners and any other relevant restrictions.
The binding contractAfter a successful review
Only here does the contract arrive that sets the terms for completing the transaction, the deadlines, the payments and the consequences of not keeping to the agreement. Without a completed legal check we will not recommend going on to it. What was agreed earlier is what should be written in it, and confirming that it is belongs to your lawyer.
New buildThe payment calendar is set by the developer. It may involve several payments during construction, or a larger share only at completion. The exact structure depends on the project.
ResaleTypically an arras contract and a further deposit. The conditions, including the consequences of withdrawing, are stated in the contract itself.

Handover coordination

The legal side, two different approaches

The same purchase, the same law and the same lawyer’s work, approached two ways.

	On your own	With Arevont
Who recommends a lawyer to you	They recommend a lawyer they work with.	We recommend an independent law firm, or you bring your own lawyer.
What the referral is worth to them	You have no way of knowing whether that lawyer pays for the referral.	We take nothing from the firm we recommend, and we will say so on the record whenever you ask.
What is their role	Their role is to sell a specific property.	Our role is to find out whether it makes sense to buy it.
Who chases the paperwork	You do, from another country, in a language that is not yours, against a seller side with no reason to hurry.	We do, on the coast, in person where that helps. Most of the delay in a legal check is documents that have not arrived.
Language	Communication is usually in Spanish or English.	We will guide you through the entire process and read the Spanish for you.
When the review finds something	The person explaining what it means to you also needs to complete the sale.	We will tell you when a property is a bad choice, and why. Even if we lose the deal because of it.
After completion	After the sale is completed, their role usually ends.	We stay with you even after you receive the keys.

A specific example

The vote nobody mentioned, on a 495.000 € apartment in Mijas

The apartment matched the budget and the way the client wanted to use it, and renting it out short term was part of the plan. It was already reserved and the deposit was paid. This is the case that explains why the check follows the reservation, and why the wording of the reservation contract matters as much as it does.

What the client was buyingAn apartment that fitted the budget and the intended use, with short-term rental part of the reason for buying it. The property was already reserved and the reservation deposit had been paid.
What we foundWorking with the lawyer, we found that a meeting of the community of owners was due shortly after the reservation, with a vote on short-term rental on the agenda. Whether the purchase made sense at all was going to be decided by a piece of information that was nowhere in the listing.
What we didWe recommended not simply carrying on because the property was already reserved. We waited for the result of the vote.
What happenedThe vote did not allow what the client had been counting on, so we recommended not proceeding. The reservation deposit came back and he withdrew from the deal.

The client did not only avoid a bad purchase. He did not lose the reservation deposit either.

When we said no

How much does it cost you?

Buyer0 €Our coordination is free. No fee at any point in the purchase, and none if you decide not to buy.
LawyerPaid by you, directly to the firm. The firm we recommend charges about 1 % of the purchase price including VAT, and that covers the whole job rather than an hourly meter.
Lawyer recommendationNothing. We receive no commission and no other reward from the law firm for recommending it.

The lawyer is your cost, not ours, and it is one of the few lines in a Spanish purchase that is genuinely predictable in advance. At about 1 % including VAT that is roughly 3.500 € on a purchase at 350.000 €, about 5.000 € at 500.000 €, and about 10.000 € at 1.000.000 €. Because it is a share of the price rather than an hourly bill, a check that turns out to be complicated does not turn into a larger invoice.That fee also buys more than the check. The firm we recommend handles your NIE, the Spanish bank account, the utilities and home insurance, the tourist licence if you intend to rent out the property, and the annual non-resident and rental tax filings afterwards. It is one trusted contact for most of what you will need here, rather than five.Our own coordination is free and it stays free if you decide not to buy. Nothing for the search, nothing for the viewings, nothing for the time we spent. The one exception is a reservation fee already paid to the seller or the developer. Whether it comes back, and on what conditions, you will know before you pay anything.

We do not receive any commission or other compensation for recommending a law firm. Ask other law firms about this too. Their answer is a sign of what they are like.

Straight talk

What the legal check cannot do

A completed check is not a guarantee. It tells you that what could be verified was verified, and what was found. Not every item applies to every property, and the lawyer checks what is relevant to that specific transaction.A reservation does not mean everything has already been checked. We cannot verify everything before it, which is exactly why the check follows it and why the reservation contract has to say what happens to your deposit if the check finds a problem. Whether it comes back depends on the wording of that contract and it differs by developer and by seller. Nobody can promise you in advance that it will.We check what can be checked, we tell you what we found and what it means for the purchase, and if something material does not hold up we will recommend not continuing, even when you have already decided to buy. We have done that on deals we would have been paid for.And a boundary on this page itself. Rules in Spain change, and they differ by locality, by type of property and by how it is used. Treat what you read here as an explanation of the principles, not as a substitute for the check on your own purchase. Your transaction runs on the rules in force at the time and on the documentation of that particular property.

Most common questions about legal due diligence

Does the legal check happen before or after the reservation?: After. The reservation takes the property off the market so the lawyer can run the detailed check without somebody else buying it in the meantime. A reservation does not mean you are buying blind, and it is the reservation contract that protects you: it has to state what happens to the deposit if the check finds a serious problem.
How long does the legal check take?: Usually 2 to 4 weeks from the reservation. What stretches it is almost never the legal work. It is documents that have not arrived from the seller side, the developer or the community administrator, and chasing those is our part rather than the lawyer’s.
Is the reservation deposit refundable if the lawyer finds a problem?: It depends on the wording of the reservation contract and it differs by developer and by seller. The reservation is the one payment made outside the guarantee system, so it should be small and the contract has to state the conditions for its return clearly. That is why the lawyer reads it before the money leaves, and not afterwards.
Can I inherit the previous owner’s debts?: Some debts and obligations attached to a property can reach the new owner, which is why the check covers the property and not only the seller. In Spain debts follow the property rather than the person, so unpaid community charges, taxes or fines can pass to you. The lawyer checks the position with the community and asks for the relevant certificates before signing.
Do I need my own lawyer, or is yours enough?: You need an independent lawyer who represents you rather than the developer or the seller. We standardly recommend Malaga Solicitors, an independent Spanish firm on the Costa del Sol, and we take no commission for it. You are free to bring your own Spanish lawyer instead, and the lawyer acts for you either way.
Whose name should the property go into?: Yours, both spouses, or something else depending on your family and financial situation. There is no single right answer. How the property is held can later affect inheritance, taxes and the sale, so it is better decided with the lawyer and a tax adviser before the purchase contract rather than at the notary. If you are buying as a couple, have children, hold significant assets in Spain or are thinking about buying through a company, say so to the lawyer at the very start.
Do I have to come to Spain for the legal side?: Not for the check itself. With a power of attorney the lawyer can handle most of the process, including the signature at the notary. We would still rather you came at least once, and the power of attorney is easier to arrange while you are here than from your home country, where it usually means extra formalities, an apostille and a translation.
How much does the legal check cost and who pays it?: You pay it, directly to the law firm rather than through us. The firm we recommend charges about 1 % of the purchase price including VAT, and that covers the whole job, not only the check. We receive no share of it.

Not sure how far your budget really goes?

Talk it through with us