Before acquiring a property, it is very important to hire a specialized and duly trained professional in the area of urban law, as it is essential to develop an in depth due diligence of all the legal aspects related to the same property, as there are many upheavals that can be found by the owner, some of them with fairly grim consequences.

Among the several situations that may happen during the research we have the case of discrepancy of cadastral and land registry´s surfaces.

With regards to the above, it is important to bear in mind that both surfaces normally do not match. This is due to the fact that the surface from the Land Registry are taken for measurements developed by architects and those of the cadastral office are taken from pictures via satellite; however, sometimes those differences are due to different measurement methods as the variation is too big.

The previously expressed facts may be the consequence of, for example carrying out extensions in the property that were not registered at the Land Registry, which derived in the fact that the cadastral surface will be higher than that of the Land Registry, not showing the complete description of the property to be acquired officially in the Land Registry; in such case, the description shall be updated following the relevant procedures.

Other circumstance that may take place and may derived in a difference in surfaces is the non-declaration on purpose of the total surface of the properties of a complex for saving taxes made by the developer.

The new owner may be liable to pay the unpaid amounts

Whatever the case, it may result in the fact that later on the tax office may try to make the new owner (therefore the tax liable individual) pay for the unpaid amounts or apply the inability for developing building works in the property without regularization of its reality.

At Lexland Lawyers, our department of Urban Law has a wide experience in finding out the real situation of the property to be acquired from the Surface purposes, offering different means of action against the vendors pursuing the defense of his interests, as well as, proceeding in each case to the updating of such reality in the bodies that may be applicable.

Moreover, in order to develop the hereinabove explained actions, we actively work with professionals within the sector, whether they are technicians, architects, etc., to obtain documentation necessary for carrying out the given task.