Starting this year, as part of the digital modernisation of Ibiza’s land registry offices, the land registrar (“registrador”) has been attaching a short register certificate (“certificación registral”) to the deed of sale when there is a change of ownership. This replaces the simple land register extract (“nota simple”) that was used before.

The main difference between these two documents is that the “nota simple” is purely informative, but the register certificate is a public document that is digitally signed by the land registrar and legally confirms the content of the land register when a deed of sale is registered.

In Spain, anyone can order a “nota simple” directly in person from the relevant land registry office, or online at registradores.org. This is usually sufficient to find out the finca number, or the name of the owner and their tax number for the property you are enquiring about. The applicant for this information must declare that they are seeking this information because it is required for “a legal check” of the land in question. The Spanish land register is complex because it is not divided into sections by type of transaction. All entries, are entered consecutively one after the other, regardless of whether they are a purchase, sale, creation or cancellation of a mortgage, right of way, seizures, etc. In addition, no deeds or plans are kept or stored in the land registry.

You can obtain something called a cadastre, which is a plan of the property, but it is only an approximation, and is not officially correct. These are controlled by the Spanish Ministry of Finance and the municipalities, whose main concerns in these matters are involve determining taxes. Lately there has been improvement in accuracy of these cadastres as a law in 2015 allowed for more cooperation and coordination between the land registry and the cadastre. However, the size of a plot indicated in the cadastre is still not guaranteed to exactly match the actual information in the land registry.

The structures on the property are often fully recorded in the cadastre, because its main concern it is not about the legality of the structures, but about how they generate additional revenue in municipal property taxes. However, their size in square metres does not appear in the “nota simple” because it is only allowed to enter structures for which all permits have been duly submitted. In summary, you cannot fully rely on a cadastral entry, as the land register is the only one that is legally binding. In addition, the “nota simple” does not contain any information about previous owners, or any rights that may have been cancelled. It is only in the comprehensive register that you can find all of the important information, and this has been attached to all deeds of sale since 2024.

It is best to order this detailed register certificate directly from the land registry. The “certficado historial” can provide information about how the transfer of ownership of the property has transpired through the years. For example, you can check whether a building licence was applied for after the new building declaration thirty years ago, and under what name. These are important clues for finding the building licence in the archives of the local authority’s building department. Deeds that are submitted for registration are transferred directly to the land register according to their essential content. This can make the register certificate very confusing, particularly when the land register is very extensive - depending on how many transfers of ownership and mortgages have taken place. The cost of applying for the register certificate therefore also depends on the number of these entries.

As you can see, the register certificate is the only way to have the entire content of the land register extract notarised. It is a public document, so it is officially signed by the land registrar. In practice, the land registry serves its purpose very smoothly. Everyone involved in land transfers knows the impor-tance of the land register when buying property. What is written in this public register is valid for and against all parties, and its contents are incontestable. The only thing the parties need to be clear about in a property transaction is what kind of proof of ownership they want to request from the land registry.