Stage 5 of 6

Stage 5: Own the home and, one day, sell it

§ 1Where this stage sits in the purchase

The deed is signed and the keys are in your hand. Four stages brought you here: you decided to buy, worked out the money, chose a place and a property, and checked the papers through to the notary. This stage starts at completion and has no end date, because it lasts as long as you own the home.

The order of the work matters less than knowing which parts have a clock. Insurance should run from the day of completion, so it cannot wait for the internet installer. Supplies and the first-month checks fill the first weeks. Who looks after the home becomes a question on the day you leave it. How you hold the property is the odd one out: the deed fixes it, so the choice belongs before you sign, even though it comes late in this stage. Selling comes last in time, but the papers a sale asks for start to pile up on day one.

If you plan to let the home, the next stage covers holiday and long lets, and the pages here already say that a let changes what you must tell your insurer. The section on owning and selling holds all five chapters of this stage and works as the index when you want to jump to one question.

§ 2What this stage settles

You should finish with five things, and each leaves a name or a paper behind.

The first is the supplies. Electricity, water, gas and internet stand in your name, and you hold the seller's last readings, the bills and the contracts. The second is the policy: it is in force, it describes the home and its use honestly, and the sum insured matches the cost of rebuilding. The third is a person. Someone in Spain can open the door, pay a bill and call you, and holds only the authority you wrote down. The fourth is the deed and the registry note, which show who owns what and with which rights. The fifth is the selling folder: the deed, the registry note, the energy certificate, the cadastral reference and the tax receipts in one place, on paper and in a scan.

No page of this stage gives a price for a supplier, an insurer, a manager or an agent. The authors found no official price data and name no company.

§ 3The first weeks: put every contract in your name

On the day of the handover, photograph each meter with the date visible, collect the latest bills and ask the seller for the supplier's name and customer reference for each supply. Setting up the home in the right order puts these tasks in sequence. Its warning is that the old holder stays responsible until the supplier records the switch, so a home with unnamed contracts can collect bills in a former owner's name. It also says a gestor can change holders for you under a limited power of attorney, which suits an owner abroad.

Electricity and water

Start with electricity, the one supply with a clear official procedure. The regulator describes the change of holder as simple, quick and free, and says it takes between one and twenty business days. Changing the electricity contract holder separates the two routes, keeping the old contract or signing a new one on the retailer's terms, and explains the CUPS, the code on every bill that identifies the supply point.

Water is local, and its page says plainly that the authors found no national procedure and no official price list. Putting the water contract in your name tells you to start from the latest bill and to ask the seller for the last paid receipt, because a supplier may refuse a new contract while a debt linked to the home stands. In a block of flats one meter may serve the whole building, and then you pay through the community charges.

Gas, internet and the first month

Gas and internet bring a different problem: appointments. An installer needs access to the home, which is hard from abroad, and a fixed-term internet contract on a home you rarely use costs money every month. Checking gas and internet before you sign tells you to find out what is already installed and to ask the community before any work on the common parts. Never reconnect a gas appliance that has stood unused without a check.

The first-month checklist after completion gathers everything into one order, from day one to month end. Its sharpest advice is to give the community administrator your name and an address for notices, because the law makes the new owner answerable with the property for unpaid community expenses of the expired part of the current year and the three previous calendar years.

§ 4Insurance: the policy and the claim

A mortgage lender will normally ask for cover, and the community normally insures the common parts of a block. The duties the insurance contract law gives you reads the statute and finds three duties: answer the insurer's questionnaire truthfully, report changes that raise the risk, and report a loss quickly. Getting the first wrong is costly: if you misstate something, the insurer can rescind the contract within one month of learning of it. The chapter also tells you to insure the building for the cost of rebuilding it, because the market price includes the land and the location.

How to read a policy schedule shows the parts: a sum for the building, a sum for the contents, liability, exclusions, conditions and the excess. The rule to know is the proportional rule. If the sum insured is lower than the value at the time of the loss, the insurer pays only the same proportion of the damage, unless the contract says otherwise. The same note says the authors read no policy and not the rules of the compensation consortium, so ask your insurer in writing what happens after a flood or an earthquake.

Owners who live abroad should go next to telling the insurer about an empty home. It lists the facts the insurer needs: how many months the home is occupied, how long it can stand empty, who holds keys and whether it is let. Many policies attach conditions to a long vacancy, such as closing the main water tap or arranging inspections, and a claim after a leak can fail if you ignored them.

Read the steps and deadlines of a claim before you need it. You must notify the insurer within seven days of learning of a loss, unless the policy allows longer, and the insurer must pay the minimum it may owe within forty days of your declaration. The authors did not verify the limitation period for a home policy, so ask a lawyer if the insurer has not paid.

§ 5Managing the home when you are not there

A plan for running the home from abroad starts from four questions. Who inspects the home and how often? Who pays the bills, and from which account? Who represents you at the owners' meeting, the town hall and the tax office? Who calls you when something fails? It then deals with authority: a power of attorney can be general or limited to named tasks, and the chapter advises limiting it, keeping a copy and setting an end date. It also says a non-resident files returns even for an empty home, and sends you to the costs section for the detail.

You then choose between a company and a person. Hiring a holiday home management company lists what to put in the contract: the tasks, how often it inspects, the price, the term, who holds the keys and how you leave. It asks for a report with photographs after each visit. The authors read no official register of such businesses, so the note sends you to the local trade register or a lawyer.

Using a caretaker or keyholder fits a neighbour or friend who lives nearby. A key gives access but no authority to sign, and anything that needs a supplier or the tax office needs a notarial power limited to the task. If you pay for regular work, the arrangement may count as employment, which brings duties for the payer. The authors did not read the domestic employment rules, so the note says to ask a lawyer or a gestor first.

Whichever you choose, read the risks of leaving the home empty. Water comes first: leaks are the most common claim in blocks, and the owner can be liable for damage to neighbours. The note adds damp, heat and break-ins, and says occupation of empty homes is a recognised concern whose current rules the authors did not read. Keep a record of each visit, because it is your evidence that you met any vacancy condition in the policy.

§ 6How you hold the home

Read this part before signing the deed. The different ways to hold a Spanish property says each structure should appear in the deed and in the land registry, and it tells you to ask for the registry note after completion and check that it shows what you bought. It also gives the questions to put to a lawyer in every case: who is named and in what shares, what the registry will show, which taxes arise now and later, what happens when an owner dies and how an owner can leave. The chapter states that the authors could not read the civil code articles on co-ownership and usufruct, so those pages explain ideas and tell you to ask a lawyer about the rules.

Owning with others

What to settle before buying with others starts with the deed, which names every buyer and share. If one person pays more, the deed and a written agreement should say whether the extra is a gift, a loan or a larger share, because the answer affects tax and the rights on a sale. The agreement should also cover use, costs, decisions, letting, a way to value the home and what happens on a death.

Translating freehold and leasehold into Spanish terms explains that Spain does not use those words and that full ownership is the usual form: a house comes with its land, a flat with a share of the common parts. Limited rights exist, such as a concession on the coast, and the authors found no official support for long leases as a normal way to buy a home.

Offers that look like ownership

Offers of shares or fractions in a home reports that no official Spanish part-buy, part-rent scheme turned up. Private offers sell a share of a company, a share of the property or a right to use, and the difference matters for the registry, for tax and for resale. If an offer gives yearly use of accommodation for more than a year, the timeshare law may apply.

Your rights if offered a timeshare reads that law of 2012. You may withdraw within fourteen calendar days without giving a reason, advance payments are banned until that period ends, and a regime lasts no more than fifty years from registration. It also cannot be called multipropiedad, because it does not give ownership.

How a usufruct splits use from title shows where a usufruct appears: gifts from parents, wills, and sales where the seller keeps the right to live there. A buyer of the bare ownership pays less and waits for an uncertain time, and the repair and tax duties belong in the deed.

§ 7Selling: start the file on day one

The steps, papers and tax of a sale gives the sequence: a price, a buyer, terms, a private contract with a deposit, the documents, the deed before a notary, the release of any loan and the taxes. A non-resident seller meets two special features. The buyer withholds 3% of the agreed price and pays it to the tax office within one month of the transfer, as an advance on your tax. For the municipal tax on the rise in value of urban land, the text the authors read makes the buyer the substitute taxpayer when the seller is a non-resident individual, so agree who bears the cost. The tax on the gain itself is in the costs section.

The sequence and the papers

The steps from offer to handover follows the sale in order. The private contract is usually called arras, and the effect of a withdrawal depends on its wording, so a lawyer should read it. After the deed you cancel the supply contracts, tell the community and the town hall, and cancel the insurance only after the handover. The checklist of papers a sale needs names the deed, a recent nota simple (the registry extract), the energy certificate, the community certificate, the property tax receipt and the cadastral reference. A power of attorney granted abroad may need legalisation and a sworn translation, and a registry entry that differs from the real home, such as an unrecorded extension, should be corrected before the deed.

Time, agents and the loan

Why we print no time to sell says no official statistic on the time between listing and completion could be found, and that agents' averages come from agents. What to check in a listing agreement gives fees the same treatment: no official scale, so ask about the fee, any tax added, the period, exclusivity and who holds the deposit.

Repaying a loan at the deed covers a home that still carries a mortgage. Ask the lender for a written payoff statement, expect the repayment at the deed and allow weeks for the cancellation of the charge in the registry. If the price is below the debt, the lender has no duty to release the home for less. Before you accept any offer, subtract the payoff, the agent's fee, the taxes, the withholding and your advisers' fees from the price.

§ 8Where owners get stuck

Most of the trouble the pages describe comes from a step that looked finished. Owners assume the seller closed the accounts, and bills keep arriving in the old name. A water supplier refuses a new contract because of a debt the seller left. A long internet contract is signed before anyone checks coverage. The community has no address for notices, and a vote on a special charge passes without the owner.

Insurance fails in quieter ways. A sum insured set at the market price, or left unchanged for years, can trigger the proportional rule. A vacancy condition goes unmet and no record shows that anyone visited. A loss happens while the owner is abroad and nobody in Spain can report it in time.

Informal arrangements fail next. A caretaker paid every month may count as an employee, and no page advises handing a manager control of a bank account. Co-owners with no agreement find the gap when one wants out, or when an owner dies and the heirs become co-owners. A timeshare salesperson who asks for payment on the day is breaking the rule on advance payments.

Sales stall on the papers: a registry entry that does not match the home, unpaid community charges, a lender slow to release, a power of attorney nobody arranged.

Some gaps remain. The authors could not read the civil code on co-ownership and usufruct, the current rules on occupation of empty homes, the rules on agents, or any official data on water, gas and internet prices, agent fees and the time to sell. Each page says so at the fact it affects.

§ 9How to know you are ready for the next stage

You are ready to leave this stage, or to start letting the home, when you can tick each of these:

• Electricity, water, gas and internet are in your name, or you know in writing why one is not.
• The insurance schedule shows the right use, the right sum and the keyholder, and you have the claim steps and the insurer's number to hand.
• The administrator has your name, an address for notices and a person in Spain who can open the door.
• The authority you gave to anyone is written, limited and dated, and you hold a copy.
• The registry note shows the owners, the shares and the rights you expected.
• The selling folder exists, on paper and in a scan, and you have a rough idea of the net figure a sale would leave you.

If a box stays empty, the section above names the page that shows what to ask and of whom. Once all six are filled, a leak or a bill in the old name has a person to call and a paper to point to.

Legal note. How the process works in general. It is not legal advice, and it never replaces an independent Spanish lawyer acting for you.