Registration of a pool

Dear Sir,

We bought our house at the end of the 90s from a well-respected construction company, with a very good reputation.

It was a new construction and we have been very happy over the years with the quality of the building and the urbanization.

After so many years, we sadly find ourselves in a situation where we have to sell the property and we have found out that the swimming pool is not registered in the land registry. The pool was part of the deal and was built at the same time as the house, so we can’t understand why it was not registered at the time.

We would be grateful if you could explain the reasons why this was not registered at the time, and what steps we need to take to rectify this.

ANSWER

I can’t tell you why the pool was not registered at the time, but it was sometimes done. Perhaps it was to save some money at the time, but it was not unusual to not register the pool, for whatever reason.

In order to sell the property, it is often the case that the buyer’s lawyer will want everything to be duly registered in the land registry, so you will have to sign a document at the notary’s office. The document you will have to sign is called ‘ampliación de obra nueva’.

In order to prepare the documents that the notary and land registry will require in order to register the pool, you will need to have a certificate from an architect which will describe the pool, the year it was built and will also have to include the geographical coordinates positioning the pool on the plot of land. This last bit is to prove that the pool has been built on your land and not on the next plot.

While the architect is visiting the house, you might as well ask if the property can be examined against the ownership title (escritura) that you have to make sure that it is all correct.

The reason I say this, is because sometimes during construction, someone may thing that it would be convenient to build, say, a storeroom or something else, that is not included in the original architect’s project and therefore it will not be registered.

While the architect is there, it would be advisable to check and when you go to the notary’s office, it can all be signed at the same time.

Once the new deeds have been signed, a stamp duty will have to be paid.

This stamp duty is 1.5% of the value given to the work that is being declared. After the stamp duty has been paid and duly filed, the documents can then be presented to the land registry for registration.

The whole process can take two or three months, so the sooner you can start, the sooner you will have everything in order.

You are not the only ones with this situation, as it is quite often the case that something, for whatever reason, was not duly registered at the time of completion of the purchase, especially at the end of the 90s.

Our advice would be for anyone who is thinking of selling their property to check with a professional in the field all the documentation regarding the property to make sure that there are no surprises.