Curious about the Catastro

IF you’re even a little bit curious/nosey you are going to love today’s subject matter, which is looking up ‘official’ property related information yourself.

Some of it technical in nature, most of it just super interesting and not technical at all. If, like me, you’re incredibly nosey get ready to lose a couple of weeks down the mother of all rabbit holes, the rabbit hole super highway.

This whole series of articles is designed to inform and empower you and information really is power, as it happens renewable power so if you learn something useful today please pass it on. You should note at the outset that I am going to say controversial things.

So passing it on isn’t going to be the cake walk you might imagine it to be, you are going to get into arguments. Whether you choose to exercise that power or not, I genuinely hope you’ll feel empowered by taking this journey with me, you are all capable of doing this and even having fun in the process.

As in the UK, and I'd like to believe everywhere else, when you're thinking about undertaking a project or purchase, presenting a project or just checking to see if your neighbour has the right to do what they just did you need data. In all cases but, most especially before lopping off the branches of your neighbour’s tree, which you are NOT, repeat NOT, allowed to do, Article 592 of the Civil Code (Código Civil).

Even more important than that, you need a context for that data, read on and the same article allows you demand that your neighbour cuts those branches themselves or pays to have someone, even you (get written permission from the owner before you do it) to cut them.

That’s what the aim is here, not just to point you to the raw data/ legislation but, to provide a context for that data in cases that are very likely to affect a reader and examine their relative importance.

Just as an aside, and at first glance you might think oddly, you are allowed to cut roots that extend onto your property. I think the rationale being that the roots can damage the supporting capacity of the land for any nearby structures and branches, despite the fact that branches can stab you in the eye, fall on you and skewer you generally, they can’t do that.

From my experience, literally 'my experience' as this is absolutely my default strategy too, nowadays in the absence of knowledge in any given area clearly Plan A is to look on a blog stream.

If it happened to Kevin from Barnehurst, better known as KEV1968BAR, that’s a fact. In essence jurisprudence populi. The most professional amongst us actually print those comments and present them to the corresponding authority as Exhibit A on our list of hearsay ‘evidence’.

Well, good luck with that. I remember my reaction as municipal technical architect to being presented with those ‘helpful’ fait accompli black ops internet research dis-information packs. Best of luck with that and enjoy the view from the back of the queue.

Plan B is paying someone else to get it for you but, today’s article is all about Plan C, which is looking it up yourself. With a little shove in the right direction you really can do most of it yourself and even better than that save yourself some money on the way.

Let’s begin with Catastro. I say begin as this subject, given its relevance and importance, affects everyone that has a property or is thinking of getting a property – and it will require at least a couple of articles, if not more. The inland revenue’s property database is called Catastro. It’s really important, although not as important as I would say most people, including most technicians, think it is but, still pretty important, especially for your pocket.

The other reason you should care what Catastro is, what it isn’t and how it works is that public administrations, other authorities such as notaries and banks love it. They use it, they want you to use it and unless somebody can show them otherwise, that data, at least the publically accessible bit of the data, is assumed to be correct.

The only restricted data on the database is the supposed owner’s name and address and the taxable value of the property. 99% of the data is public and free to access, ‘open source’ I think the term is these days.

I know it’s not for me to say but, here’s an interesting fact you should know, registration in Catastro is free and obligatory, which you may be surprised to discover is the polar opposite of the Land Registry. You are not required by law to register a purchase of a property in the land registry.

Never really understood that logic as the data in the land registry is considered by law to prevail over the data in Catastro in the case of any conflict.

That said, if you want a mortgage your bank will obviously want the property to appear in your name there and everywhere else. So, in conclusion, odd way to begin an article I know, but, in conclusion, Catastro is free to look at except the bits you can’t look at and free to register which is good as you absolutely have to register.

The Land Registry is not free to register, not free to access and not obligatory unless the people lending you money say you must register.

Before we get into the really useful but, as you are about to learn, not probatory data contained in Catastro, the contrarian in me demands I begin with the ‘what Catastro is not’ part of the explanation.

If you happen to be standing close to a property keyboard warrior you might want keep an eye out as they are either going to swoon or start remonstrating loudly. Ready? ... The data contained in Catastro is NOT legal proof of anything. It doesn’t tell you who a property belongs to (“Oh yes it does”, I hear them say in true pantomine style), when it was built (ditto), how big it is (ditto) or where the property limits are (you know what goes here).

Relax if possible and read on. All that data DOES appear in the Catastro database and IS assumed to be correct (article 1 Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2004, de 5th March texto refundido de la Ley del Catastro Inmobiliario) but, ONLY for fiscal purposes NOT legal purposes.

The data in Castastro is a fiscal database, it belongs to the inland revenue (Ministerio de hacienda y función pública), it tells them who to charge and how much to charge, and that’s it. The first words in the records of Catastro (or Capitastrum as it was known) are written in Latin, the reason being it was founded in Roman occupied Spain/ Hispania as it was then. So most of the modern uses of Catastro data started with the popularisation of computers and of course smart phones.

So, if that’s the case I hear you ask, which it is, why oh why do they ask you for it and provide you with it when you go to the council, to the notary office, the bank or even to court? Can it be used as evidence? Yes, but only as supporting ‘indicative’ evidence not as probatory evidence.

Here’s an illustrative, I hope, example that any municipal technician will know by heart, as they see it at least a couple of times a month. Someone, more specifically the owner of a rural property built on green-belt land (‘suelo no urbanizable’ common or protected, it doesn’t matter which) will turn up to the office, Catastro map in hand, to be thrown down with a flourish dismissively on your already cluttered desk. To be swiftly followed by look of indignation and the words: “My property is on urban land! Not, repeat NOT rural land. Catastro says so and if you don’t like it you can take it up with them!”

Not realising, amongst other things that councils are in fact points of entry to Catastro (Puntos de Información catastral (PIC)), they are part of Catastro’s network of data collection points.

The other thing they didn’t realise is that Catastro rates constructions according to their rateable classification list and if it looks like a house, it’s going to get taxed as a house, not as a tool shed.

So when it says ‘urbano’ or ‘urban’ it is merely referring to the rating class of the property not the land class or designation.

The third thing they didn’t realise is what both you and I are now aware of, the data in Catastro has no probatory value, only indicative, so even if Catastro wanted to, which I am assured they do not, not all of them anyway, they could not confer a change in a property’s or owner’s status in any other way than fiscally.

So, although we haven’t seen any of the data is contained in Castastro or how to access it, or modify it, or save it, or anything nearly as useful as that, we do at least know what Catastro is, what it isn’t and why you should care. In other words we’re ready for lift off.

I hope you have a lovely week and, if you can, please join me for the next article in which we will learn to access what data is contained in Catastro and how to make it give you, free of charge, what you need.