Documents needed to sell a house in Spain: the seller's file

The documents needed to sell a house in Spain: deed, nota simple, energy certificate, occupation licence, IBI and community certificates, and what slows a sale.

Last checked 17 October 2026

What you will learn

• The documents a buyer's lawyer and the notary will ask for
• Why the energy certificate comes before the advert
• What changes when the seller does not live in Spain

The documents needed to sell a house in Spain fall into three groups: proof that you own it and of the charges on it, proof that it legally exists and can be lived in, and proof that its taxes and fees are paid. The buyer's lawyer will ask for all of them, and the notary will not sign without some of them. Putting the file together before the house goes on the market is the simplest way to keep a sale on schedule.

Ownership, identity and the registry

The title deed. Your copy of the escritura by which you acquired the house. If you inherited it, expect the buyer's lawyer to want the inheritance formalised and registered in your name before the sale.

The nota simple. A current extract from the land registry, showing the owners and any mortgage or other charge. Buyers order their own, but reading it early lets you find surprises first, for example a mortgage paid off years ago that was never cancelled in the registry. The registrars' online service issues it, with an English translation on request.

Identity and tax numbers. Your passport and NIE, and those of every co-owner. Spanish notarial law requires everyone who signs a property deed to show their tax identification number. All registered owners must sign, and if the house is your family home, your spouse's consent may be needed even when the house is in your name alone.

Documents needed to sell a house in Spain: the certificates

The energy certificate. You need it before you advertise. Under Real Decreto 390/2021, anyone who publishes a sale, whether an agency, a portal or a printed advert, must include the energy rating, and a copy of the registered certificate and its label is annexed to the sale contract. A certificate is valid for up to ten years, or five years for a G rating. Commission it before the photographs, not after the first offer.

The occupation licence. The Valencian building law says that once ten years have passed since a home's first occupation licence, the licence must be renewed when the property is sold again and when a new water, gas or electricity contract is signed. A house that never had one needs one in the same cases. Today this is usually done with a declaración responsable for second occupation at the town hall, supported by a certificate from an architect. Check the date on yours early.

Taxes, fees and the community

The IBI receipt. The last receipt of the annual property tax. It carries the cadastral reference that the notary uses to identify the property and shows that the tax is paid. Unpaid IBI stays attached to the property after the sale, so buyers insist on seeing it.

The community certificate. If the house belongs to a community of owners, the law requires you to declare at the deed that the community fees are paid and to bring a certificate of any debts, signed by the community's secretary with the approval of its president. The secretary must issue it within seven calendar days of your request. Without it the notary cannot sign, unless the buyer expressly waives it.

The community papers. The statutes and the minutes of recent meetings. A buyer who plans to let will want to know whether the community has voted to limit or ban tourist lets, which Spanish law allows by a three-fifths majority.

Utility bills. Recent water and electricity bills are not a legal requirement, but buyers ask for them to judge running costs and to move the contracts into their own names.

Plans, licences and the buyer's questions

Plans and licences for any work. The building licence and the end-of-works certificate for the house, and licences for any extension, pool or annexe built later. The buyer's lawyer compares them with the Catastro and the registry. In the Valencian region the town hall can act against works without a licence for fifteen years after completion, and with no time limit on non-developable land, so unlicensed additions are a frequent reason for a sale to stall.

What the buyer may ask for. Under article 31 of the Spanish housing law, Ley 12/2023, a buyer can ask, before signing and before paying any money, for the seller's identity, the full price, the habitability certificate, the useful and built areas, the age of the building and of major works, its services and installations, the energy certificate, accessibility, whether it is occupied, and the registry details with the charges and the community share. A seller who has this ready answers the first questions at once.

If you do not live in Spain

The 3% retention. If you are not tax resident in Spain, the buyer must hold back 3% of the price and pay it to the tax agency within one month, on form 211. The amount is a payment on account of your own Spanish tax on the sale, which you then settle with a non-resident tax return.

The plusvalía. The municipal tax on the increase in the value of the land is the seller's tax. When the seller is a non-resident individual, the law makes the buyer the substitute taxpayer, so expect the buyer's lawyer to keep back an amount at the deed to cover it. Our guide to selling property in Spain as a non-resident explains both taxes.

Costs at the notary. Under the Civil Code, the seller pays for drawing up the deed and the buyer pays for the first copy and what follows, unless the contract says otherwise. Agree this in the private contract rather than at the signing.

What slows a sale. The usual causes of delay are an occupation licence that is missing or out of date, an extension that appears in neither the licences nor the registry, an old mortgage still showing in the registry, an inheritance not yet formalised and a community certificate requested too late. Each can be solved, but each takes weeks, and buyers do not always wait.

Your own case may raise tax or legal points that need professional advice, so confirm them with an independent lawyer or tax adviser before you list. The practical step: put this file together before the first viewing, and read getting a house ready for the market for what comes next. Our selling service starts with exactly that check.

Written by Nicolas Strebel.