IT happens more often than people expect. You find the apartment, the villa, the little townhouse that finally feels right.

The agent is friendly, the price makes sense, and before long you’re signing documents you don’t fully understand in a language that isn’t yours.

Then something surfaces. Maybe the property has an outstanding debt attached to it, one that transfers to the new owner on completion.

Maybe the built surface area at the Land Registry doesn’t match what’s physically there, or the catastral certificate tells a different story from what the seller described. Or a terrace was built without a licence and never declared, a detail that affects insurance, mortgages, and any future sale.

None of this is unusual. Spanish property transactions involve multiple registries, tax agencies, and administrative layers that work very differently from what most foreign buyers are used to, whether they’re coming from the UK, France, Russia, or anywhere else in Europe.

An estate agent’s job is to close the deal. Most are professional, but their legal obligation to you is limited. And the documents you’re signing carry real consequences.

Then there are the contracts. Arras agreements, the deposits paid to secure a property before completion, are often signed quickly and without much scrutiny.

Many buyers don’t realise these deposits can be non-refundable, or that the terms commit them to obligations they hadn’t anticipated. Some have signed exclusivity agreements with agencies without understanding what that means in practice.

At Delaguía & Luzón, a Valencia law firm with long-standing experience advising international clients from across Europe and beyond, these situations come up constantly.

A couple who signed quickly and later found undeclared debts at the Land Registry. A retired buyer whose reservation deposit was non-refundable under conditions nobody had explained. A family who discovered after completion that works had been carried out without planning permission.

In most cases, the problem wasn’t negligence. It was the absence of independent legal review before anything was signed.

Delaguía & Luzón’s property team carries out full due diligence before any client commits: Land Registry checks, catastral verification, outstanding community fees, urban planning compliance, and tax clearance.

The firm also attends the notarial signing to make sure clients understand what they’re agreeing to. In Spain, there’s no separate exchange and completion like in many other countries. It all happens at once, in front of a notary, in Spanish. Having someone in the room who is there specifically for you matters.

But property purchases aren’t the only situation where foreign nationals find themselves lost in the Spanish legal system.

A parent dies. They owned a property in Spain, maybe a holiday home, maybe a permanent residence. Their family, based abroad, is suddenly trying to work out what comes next.

Sometimes there is no Spanish will. Sometimes there are siblings with conflicting ideas about what to do with the property. Sometimes the estate has been sitting unresolved for years because nobody knew where to start.

Spanish inheritance law works very differently from what most foreign nationals are used to. There are strict deadlines, in most cases six months from the date of death, for accepting or renouncing an inheritance. Miss that window and penalties apply.

Then there’s the Impuesto de Sucesiones, the Spanish inheritance tax, which varies by region. Valencia has its own rates and exemptions, different from those in Andalucía or Madrid. Non-resident property owners also face specific tax obligations that many families only discover after the fact.

Selling an inherited property adds further complications: confirming all heirs agree, resolving co-ownership conflicts, clearing issues with banks, notaries, or property administrators. Without proper legal representation, these processes stall for months or years.

Delaguía & Luzón guides international families through the entire inheritance process: from locating any existing Spanish will and obtaining the death certificate, all the way through to registering the property in the heirs’ names.

The firm works in English and French, and regularly assists clients from a wide range of countries navigating Spanish legal and tax procedures for the first time.

The two situations feel very different. But the underlying challenge is the same. Spain has a clear legal framework. It just wasn’t designed with foreign nationals in mind, and it doesn’t come with instructions in your language.

If any of this sounds familiar, whether you’re about to buy, in the middle of a purchase that’s raising questions, or trying to work out what to do after losing a parent with assets in Spain, don’t wait for the problem to get bigger. A first conversation costs nothing and can save you a great deal more than money.

Delaguía & Luzón offers multilingual consultations in Valencia, including English and French. Contact the team at delaguialuzon.com or call +34 963 74 16 57.

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