FOR many Brits purchasing a property in Spain, signing an Arras Contract feels like the perfect solution.
The private agreement is one of the most common legal steps in Spanish property transactions, particularly among expats purchasing off-plan homes.
It is completed at a notary and in most cases sees the buyer pay a deposit while both sides commit to completing the sale under specific conditions and within an agreed timeframe.
Anthony Briggs and his wife signed one of these contracts for an off-plan property after communicating with a ‘reputable Barcelona-based legal firm’.
“They conducted due diligence and reviewed the developers’ Arras Contract,” he told The Olive Press.
“The completion date was the critical factor for us; we made it clear that failure to meet this would be unacceptable.”
Despite this contract, the developer missed the completion date in May 2025 and is still yet to provide Briggs with a finished property.
While Arras Contracts tend to include a timeline for the project, Spanish courts may allow for a degree of flexibility if construction is still actively progressing.
This creates frustration for buyers who initially believe that the completion date on the contract will act as a strict legal deadline.
“Developers are well aware that they can delay completion by a minimum of six months, as they know a court would reject any claim if this period of time had not been granted by the buyer,” Briggs explained.
Once this period passes, the buyer has to follow a formal legal process which includes issuing a ‘Demand to Complete’ with 28 days to respond, ‘proceeding to court filings with an additional 28 day response window and ultimately entering a legal system that may take 12 to 18 months before a claim is even heard’.
Essentially, as Briggs stated, developers know they have a potential 18 to 24 months ‘beyond the original contract completion deadline, before facing any meaningful penalties’.
Briggs and his wife are currently going through this process as their developer has still not completed their property.
READ MORE: Spain faces deficit of 730,000 homes as 2.3 million foreigners arrive in just two years
The couple sold their Barcelona flat prior to the May 2025 completion date and have since been renting.
They say they are being forced to return to the UK in June ‘for two to three months’ because the rent in Spain is too high.
Briggs’ wife’s non-lucrative visa is also being threatened as she no longer has a permanent Spanish address.
Now the pair are forced to ‘wait and hope’ that they get a court date which states the developer ‘must finish’ the build or it be taken off them.
They want those looking into Arras Contracts to know that developers can ‘work the hours on the contract to their advantage as they know that they’re going to have a grace period of at least a year which you’re not going to be able to do much about’.
Click here to read more Property News from The Olive Press.
