Surveys and checks

When the checks happen

Most checks are carried out by your lawyer, with a building surveyor for the physical condition if you hire one. Timing matters more than anything. Once a deposit contract is signed, pulling out can mean losing the deposit, so the checks that could change your mind need to be done before that point, or the contract needs conditions that let you withdraw. The buying process explains how deposit contracts work, and choosing a lawyer covers what to expect from yours.

1. 1

   Before you make an offer

   Ask the agent or seller for the cadastral reference, a recent nota simple, the energy certificate and the cédula de habitabilidad. Look the property up on the cadastre website and compare its map with what you saw.

2. 2

   Before the deposit contract

   Your lawyer reviews the registry, planning status, licences, debts and any holiday-let registration. A surveyor inspects the building if you want one. Anything unresolved can be written into the contract as a condition, a deadline for the seller or a price adjustment.

3. 3

   Between deposit and completion

   The seller gathers the community debt certificate, the latest IBI receipt, recent utility bills and any missing paperwork, such as a cédula that has expired.

4. 4

   At the notary

   Before the signing, the notary must obtain up-to-date registry information and ask about unpaid IBI, and the key certificates are attached to or recorded in the deed. This is a last check. It does not cover planning or the building’s condition.

Nota simple

A short information extract from the land registry showing the owner, the description and the registered charges.

Catastro

The cadastre: the state’s property map and tax database, separate from the land registry.

Referencia catastral

The cadastral reference: the code that identifies a property in the cadastre. It appears on the IBI receipt.

Arras

The deposit paid on signing a private contract before completion.

The land registry and the nota simple

The Registro de la Propiedad (land registry) records who owns each property and the rights and charges over it. A nota simple is a short extract from it. It can be ordered online through the Colegio de Registradores for €9.02 per property plus taxes, with a link to download it as a PDF sent by email, and an English translation for €30 plus taxes (prices on its website in October 2026). A nota simple is for information only. A formal registry certificate (certificación), signed by the registrar, is the document that proves what the registry says.

• The registered owner matches the seller, including every co-owner or heir.
• Mortgages, embargo notes (court or tax attachments) and other charges, and how each will be cancelled at completion.
• Rights held by others, such as a usufruct (someone’s right to use the property for life), a right of way or an option to buy.
• The description: plot size, built area, and whether the house, pool or extensions are registered at all.
• Notes of tax liability (afecciones fiscales) and any notes about planning proceedings or the coastal boundary.
• Whether the plot is coordinated with the cadastre map (explained in the next section).

Cadastre, boundaries and what is really there

The Catastro is the state’s property map. It records each property’s plot outline, built area and use, and its values are the basis for IBI, the yearly property tax. Anyone can look up a property free of charge on the cadastre’s website by address or cadastral reference and download its description and plot map. Owner names and cadastral values are protected data that need identification.

The registry and the cadastre are separate systems and often disagree, especially for older and rural properties. Since 1 November 2015 (Ley 13/2015), registry information must state whether a plot is coordinated with the cadastre map. Once it is, the registry presumes the plot has the location and boundaries shown on that map. Correcting either record is possible, but it takes time, may need a surveyor’s georeferenced plan, and neighbours are notified and can object.

• A built area in the cadastre larger than in the registry, which can mean extensions were never declared.
• A pool, guest house or garage that exists on the ground or on the map but is missing from the registry.
• A plot size or shape that differs between the registry, the cadastre and the fences on site.
• A cadastral use, such as storage or agricultural, that does not match a home.

Planning, licences and illegal building

Registry and cadastre entries do not prove that a building is legal. That depends on licences from the town hall (ayuntamiento). An architect or your lawyer compares what is built with the licensed plans: the licencia de obra (building licence) for the original house and for each later change, and the licencia de ocupación o de primera utilización (occupancy licence) that allows a finished building to be used. Planning documents are public and can be consulted at the town hall or online. Town halls enforce planning law, and in Mallorca the Consell de Mallorca’s Agència de Defensa del Territori also inspects and acts against unlicensed works, including under powers some town halls have delegated to it.

From 1 January 2018 until 13 December 2024 the no-time-limit rule covered all rustic land. Ley 7/2024 narrowed it to protected rustic land from 14 December 2024. For the extraordinary legalisation procedure described below, the law lets the newer, more favourable rule be applied to older works (Ley 7/2024, additional provision 7.1.a); for other purposes, ask your lawyer how the change applies to works finished before that date. Whoever claims the eight years have passed must prove when the works were finished, so dated photos, aerial images and old cadastre records matter.

Licencia de obra

The town hall’s building licence for new construction, extensions and most renovations.

Licencia de ocupación o de primera utilización

The town hall’s licence confirming a new or altered building can be occupied. Since 29 May 2024 it replaces the first-occupation cédula in the Balearics; ten years after it is granted, a renewal cédula is needed.

Fuera de ordenación

The status of a building that does not comply with planning rules. Works on it are restricted.

Obra nueva

The deed declaring a building on a plot, which is how a house gets into the land registry.

Habitability, energy and building reports

The cédula de habitabilidad is the Balearic certificate that a home meets minimum standards for living in. In Mallorca it is issued by the Consell de Mallorca (island council). It is required to live in or rent out a home, and utility companies must ask for it, or an occupancy licence, before signing permanent electricity, water, gas or telecoms contracts (Ley 5/2018, article 16). It expires ten years after issue (Decree 145/1997, article 13), and renewal needs a certificate signed by an architect, technical architect or other competent technician.

A missing cédula does not stop a sale: the contract or deed must include a copy of the valid one or state expressly that there is none. That statement does not fix the problem, so ask why it is missing and who will renew it. Since 29 May 2024 (Decreto-ley 3/2024, replaced by Ley 7/2024) new homes no longer receive a first-occupation cédula; the town hall’s occupancy licence does that job, and ten years after it is granted a renewal cédula is needed (Ley 7/2024, article 53). Buildings finished before 1 March 1987 that never had a cédula can apply for a cédula de carencia.

Every existing home offered for sale needs an energy performance certificate (Real Decreto 390/2021), with narrow exceptions such as stand-alone buildings with less than 50 m² of useful floor area and buildings bought to be demolished or substantially renovated. Since 23 July 2026 the owner claiming that last exception must file a formal declaration with the Balearic Government (Real Decreto 659/2025). The rating, from A to G, must appear in adverts, and a copy of the registered certificate is attached to the sale contract. It is valid for up to ten years, or five if rated G, and only counts once registered with the Balearic Government. Unless regulations set other levels, homes used for holiday lets must reach at least F if built before 2008 or D if built from 2008 (Ley 8/2012, article 50.5).

In older blocks, ask the community administrator for the building evaluation report (informe de evaluación del edificio, IEE). It covers the structure, facades, roofs, shared installations, accessibility and energy. Since 14 June 2026 (Balearic Ley 4/2026) owners or communities must obtain it once a building is 50 years old and then every ten years, and register it with the Balearic Government’s register (RIAE) before filing it with the town hall. Before that change, the condition survey applied from 30 years. Defects in the report can lead to repair orders.

Debts that stay with the property

Some debts stay attached to a property after it is sold. The seller remains liable, but the property itself can be used to recover them, which means the new owner pays in practice. Your lawyer checks each one before completion, and amounts owed can be settled out of the price at the notary. See buying costs and taxes for the taxes the buyer pays in any case.

The community debt certificate is compulsory unless the buyer expressly waives it in the deed, and waiving it removes a safeguard. Also ask for the minutes (actas) of recent owners’ meetings. They reveal approved works and special levies (derramas), disputes, and any vote on holiday lets. The contract can say who pays levies approved before completion but due afterwards. By law the community’s reserve fund must be at least 10% of its last ordinary budget.

• Recent paid electricity and water bills, and who holds each contract.
• Whether the home has mains water and sewage, or relies on a well, a rainwater cistern or a septic tank, and what paperwork exists for each.
• That permanent supply contracts are in place, since companies need a valid cédula or occupancy licence to sign new ones.
• Meter readings on the day of handover.

Holiday-rental licence status

If you plan to let to tourists, or the listing mentions an existing licence, check its status before signing. In Mallorca the Consell de Mallorca keeps the register of homes declared for holiday letting, and the register is published as open data with each registration number, building type, municipality and number of tourist places. Ask the seller for the registration number and the DRIAT (the formal declaration that started the activity) and compare them with the register.

• Since 16 April 2025, no new holiday-let declarations can be filed anywhere in the Balearic Islands for homes in buildings divided into separately owned units (horizontal property), such as flats. Terraced and semi-detached houses are excepted and, since 14 June 2026, so are detached houses that share a plot with other buildings. The separate scheme for letting your own main home for up to 60 days a year is outside the ban (Decreto-ley 4/2025, additional provision 2, amended by Balearic Ley 4/2026).
• Where a new declaration is still possible, the home must be in a zone declared suitable for holiday letting, tourist places must be acquired from the island’s pool, and by default the home must have been in residential use for at least five years (Ley 8/2012, articles 50.3, 50.17, 50.22 and 88.2).
• An existing declaration for a home in a building with shared access or common parts lasts five years by default, and the extension must be filed in the month before it ends. If it is not filed, or the home no longer meets the rules, the activity ends and its tourist places return to the pool (Ley 8/2012, article 50.3).
• In a community of owners, Balearic law says the statutes must not forbid holiday letting and, unless they expressly allow it, owners who are a majority and hold a majority of the shares must have voted for it (Ley 8/2012, article 50.7). Since 3 April 2025, national law also requires prior express approval by three-fifths of the owners, holding three-fifths of the shares (Ley de Propiedad Horizontal, articles 7.3 and 17.12). An owner already letting under the tourism rules before that date can continue; ask your lawyer whether that position passes to a buyer.
• After a sale, the change of holder is processed by the tourism administration. It cannot be approved while a final tourism fine on the home is unpaid, and no holiday letting is allowed while a final penalty for a serious planning breach stands and the breach has not been put right (Ley 8/2012, article 50.4).
• As a rule, no new holiday letting is allowed in homes on protected rustic land (Ley 8/2012, article 50.18). Homes legalised under the extraordinary procedure for rustic land cannot be let to tourists unless they were lawfully let to tourists before 29 May 2024 and that title is still in force; the ban is written into the licence and entered in the land registry (Ley 7/2024, additional provision 7.8 and transitional provision 4).

Coast, flood risk and rustic land

The Ley de Costas (coastal law, Ley 22/1988) protects the public shoreline, the dominio público marítimo-terrestre. Inland from it run a 6-metre strip kept open for public access, a protection strip normally 100 metres wide (20 metres on land that was already urban in 1988) where new homes are generally banned, and a zone of at least 500 metres where planning must respect coastal limits. Lawful existing buildings in the protection strip can be repaired and improved, but not enlarged in volume, height or floor area, and such works may also have to improve the building’s energy efficiency and water use.

Flood risk is mapped. The national flood-zone viewer (SNCZI, run by the Ministry for Ecological Transition) shows the flood zones that have been mapped and added to it, and Balearic planning documents mark areas for the prevention of flood risk. Homes in flood zones are excluded from the extraordinary legalisation procedure described below, so ask your lawyer or surveyor to check whether the plot lies in one.

On rustic land (suelo rústico, land outside towns and villages) building is tightly limited, so each extension, pool or guest house on a finca is checked for a licence separately. Mallorca’s extraordinary legalisation procedure for time-barred buildings on rustic land (Ley 7/2024, additional provision 7) accepts applications for three years from 15 February 2025, when the Consell de Mallorca’s agreement was published. One application must cover every unlicensed building and use on the plot, legalising the time-barred ones and demolishing any part against which the authorities can still act. It costs 10%, 12.5% or 15% of the construction cost for applications made in the first, second or third year (October 2026 falls in the second year), plus the usual licence fees and taxes. Reductions apply to some lower-income applicants who pay Spanish income tax.

Among other exclusions, the procedure is not available on public land, in road protection zones, coastal or watercourse easements, or flood zones. Since 14 June 2026 (Balearic Ley 4/2026), an application not decided within six months counts as refused. Two constitutional challenges covering the procedure (cases 1840-2025 and 7410-2025) had no ruling listed in the BOE in October 2026. How the procedure works, and what it means for a finca you are buying, is explained in buying a finca.

Hiring a building surveyor

Spain has no compulsory or standard pre-purchase survey, and a bank valuation (tasación) assesses value for the lender rather than the building’s condition. Buyers who want an inspection usually hire an arquitecto técnico (technical architect, also called aparejador) or an arquitecto (architect). Fees are agreed freely, since professional associations may not publish fee scales (Ley 2/1974, article 14), so ask for a written quote and scope. See mortgages for non-residents for how bank valuations work.

• Structure, roof, damp, cracks, and signs of woodworm or termites.
• Electrics, plumbing, drainage, septic tank and pool.
• A comparison of what is built with the licensed plans, the registry and the cadastre, flagging possible unlicensed works.
• Whether the home would meet the standards for renewing its cédula.
• For flats, the state of the common parts and the findings of the latest building evaluation report.
• Rough costs of necessary repairs, as a basis for negotiating the price.

Questions buyers ask