Property Sale Lawyer Cartagena
Selling Your Spanish Property
with a Property Sale Lawyer in Cartagena.
There are many different aspects to take into account when selling a property in Spain, and they fall into two parts: the paperwork and the money. We handle both, from our offices in Cartagena and Hacienda del Álamo.
Why You Need a Property Sale Lawyer in Cartagena Before You List
Sell your property easily .
A property sells more easily when potential buyers can get all the information they need to make an offer, simply and directly. The buyer's lawyer will scrutinise your property before their client commits — and anything unexpected that surfaces at that stage delays the sale, weakens your position, or loses the buyer altogether.
Having your legal position checked and documented before you go to market means you negotiate from a position of strength, with answers ready instead of problems to explain.
The documents you need:
To put your home on the market you will need at least: a copy of the purchase deed (Escritura), the receipt for the last local taxes paid (IBI), a copy of the Nota Simple from the Land Registry and also an energy performance certificate.
Having these ready from the start means no delay in supplying them to interested buyers.
The Legal Health Check - our recommendation to every seller
We offer clients an option we believe is valuable for any seller. We call it the Legal Health Check.
In essence, we carry out for you the same checks that a prospective buyer and their lawyer would carry out before making an offer. From the deed and the last local tax receipt, we verify the legal status of the property, any outstanding debts, planning issues and so on. We then issue a documented certificate covering every point a buyer will want to see.
If any question needs resolving before or alongside the sale, it comes to light early. The buyer knows from the outset what the relevant issues are and how they will be corrected, and you have the security of knowing they can be corrected. The result is a more confident buyer and a smoother sale.
The fees for this work are deducted from the fees for the subsequent sale.
Managing the sale and taxes you pay when you sell
Once instructed, we request the documentation from you, provide the buyer's side with everything they need to run their own checks, contact the administrator if there is a Community of Owners, and review the purchase contract.
Alongside this, we prepare a full budget of costs and taxes so you know, before committing, the net amount you will actually receive once everything has been deducted.
There are two taxes to take into account in every sale:
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Plusvalía:
A local tax. The amount varies from one City Council to another and depends on the value of the land and the number of years you have owned the property.
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Capital gains tax:
Charged on the difference between the price you paid for the property (plus the costs you incurred at the time) and the price you sell it for (less the costs of selling).
The 3% Retention
Why Your Tax Residency Matters.
At the point of sale there is one fundamental difference from the seller's perspective: whether or not you hold the status of fiscal resident in Spain.
Being a fiscal resident is not simply a matter of having requested and obtained the corresponding certificate from the police station. It means being required to submit an annual Spanish income tax return (IRPF).
If you are a non-resident
The buyer is legally obliged to withhold 3% of the sale price and pay it to the Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT) within thirty days.
You must then submit a declaration of any capital gain. The 3% withheld counts as a payment on account: if you made a gain, it is offset against the tax due; if you made no gain, or the retention exceeds the tax, it is refunded in whole or in part.
One condition for obtaining that refund is having filed your Non-Resident Income Tax (IRNR) for the last four years. If you have not, we will prepare and submit it for you. In almost every case the amount due for that tax is far lower than the sum withheld — which is precisely why it is worth filing, so that the AEAT returns the retention.
If you are a fiscal resident
No retention is applied. As a Spanish taxpayer you are expected to declare any capital gain in the following year's income tax return. If the property sold was your habitual residence, the applicable tax reliefs apply — including reinvestment in a new home, or the exemption for sellers over 65.
what happens when you accept a buyer's offer
We verify the terms of the contract
It is normal to retain sufficient funds from the sale proceeds to cover any outstanding utility bills, and — unless no Capital Gains Tax is expected — the 3% retention is deducted from the proceeds and later refunded by the tax office once the paperwork has been approved and filed. All of these items appear in the list of expenses we prepare for you.
Do you need to attend? The Power of Attorney
You can choose whether to attend completion yourself or leave it to us. Most clients leave it with us, which we do through a Power of Attorney (POA). In fact, even if you would prefer to be at the notary's office in person, granting a POA is advisable.
Beyond signing on your behalf, a POA is increasingly necessary to resolve anything that arises afterwards: transferring funds, providing documents, dealing with tax office queries, terminating utility contracts and closing bank accounts.
How you receive the money
An important question before completion is how you want the proceeds paid. Depositing the price in our client account and transferring it on to you is never a problem — the issue is the cost of doing so.
If you have no favourable arrangement with your own bank, or the commissions are high, it is worth contacting one of the specialist currency exchange and transfer companies (Moneycorp, Currency Direct, HiFX and others) to compare conditions.
We will also ask for the IBAN of your UK current account, so we can make any transfer on your behalf — remaining balances when accounts are closed, for example — and so the 3% retention can be refunded to you directly.
What Your Property Sale Lawyer in Cartagena Does After Completion
What's next?
Once the sale deed is formalised, we check the actual outgoings against the estimate and pay you any difference in your favour.
We then prepare and submit the non-resident income tax return (IRNR). Once approved, we request the refund of the 3% retention — or, if there is a capital gain, make the corresponding payment.
From signing to the end of the process usually takes four to six weeks. Note that this is not the timescale for the refund of the 3% retention, where applicable: that typically takes five to six months, and the AEAT now pays it directly into the client's UK current account.
Because the refund is handled directly by the tax administration, it is no obstacle to finalising your costs with us in the meantime.
And although the sale is complete, our work does not necessarily end there. We remain available to resolve any issue arising from the sale of your home. It is not unusual for us to act as keyholder when more than one agent is marketing the property, and we are often asked to check the inventory of furniture and fittings where these are sold with the house.
Tell us about your situation.
We do not work for developers or estate agents. Our only client in the transaction is you.
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