It is the cheapest check and the one that prevents the most trouble. Do it before paying any deposit, as we explain in how to buy a rural estate.
1. Nota simple from the Land Registry
It is requested online from the Land Registry with the registry details or the owner's name. It tells you who the owner is, the registered area, mortgages, seizures and easements.
How to read it without being a lawyer:
- Ownership: the seller must be the registered owner, or all the owners if there are several. If the estate comes from an unregistered inheritance, require it to be registered first.
- Charges: mortgages (cancelled at the deed with the price), seizures, usufructs and easements. Everything that appears must be resolved or accepted in writing.
- Description: registered area and registry boundaries, which you will compare with the Cadastre and with reality.
2. Cadastre
With the cadastral reference (20 characters) you can see in the Cadastre's Electronic Office the area, polygon and plot, cadastral crops and declared buildings. Many listings already include it.
Three practical uses: download the plot map to guide the visit, verify that the buildings in the listing are declared, and compare the area with the registry one. If the listing does not give a cadastral reference, ask for it: refusal to give it is a bad sign.
3. SIGPAC
The SIGPAC viewer shows the agricultural enclosures, their use (wooded pasture, arable land, olive grove, irrigated land…) and their slope. It is the reference for the PAC.
What SIGPAC tells you and the listing does not: whether the estate is mostly woodland or scrub even though the listing says "dehesa", whether there are water bodies or watercourses inside, and whether the slope rules out machinery or plantations. Crossing the SIGPAC map with a visit on foot is the quick way to spot exaggerations.
When the areas do not match
It is very common for Registry, Cadastre and reality to give different figures. Ask for a topographic survey if the difference is significant and fix in the contract which area and boundaries are being sold.
The ways to fix it, depending on the case:
- Small differences: usually accepted, buying "a cuerpo cierto" (as a whole, as described) with the registry description.
- Cadastre with fewer square metres than real: a technical measurement can be submitted so that the Cadastre corrects it.
- Registry with fewer square metres: there are procedures (expediente de dominio, acta de notoriedad) to enlarge the registered area; they are slow, so it is better for the seller to start them before the sale.
- Boundaries disputed with the neighbour: a judicial boundary settlement is slow and expensive; consider whether the deal is worth it to you with that front open.
The topographic survey
A surveyor measures the estate with precision GPS and delivers a georeferenced map that fits the Cadastre and SIGPAC. It costs money, but on large estates, with doubtful boundaries or when you plan to fence or split off, it is the investment that prevents decades-long conflicts. Ask for it georeferenced to the official system so that it is valid before any administration.
Other useful checks
- Planning classification at the town council (see building on rural land).
- Protected areas (see Natura 2000).
- Water registrations (see water on estates).
Document checklist before the arras
- Updated nota simple (less than a month old).
- Validated cadastral reference and downloaded map.
- SIGPAC enclosures reviewed on the ground.
- Latest IBI receipt and payment status.
- Water papers, if the estate has water.
- Deed showing how the seller acquired it, if there are doubts about ownership.
Frequent mistakes that this check uncovers
- The seller is not the sole owner: there are siblings, a pending inheritance or a company behind it.
- The advertised estate is actually two registry estates, or half of one.
- There is an old mortgage not cancelled in the registry even though it has been paid (cancelling it takes paperwork that you should require of the seller).
- The "cortijo" in the listing does not exist in the Cadastre or in the deed: see legality of buildings.
- A right of way in favour of the neighbouring estate, or worse, the estate has no right of way and depends on the neighbour's tolerance to get in.
How much it costs and how long it takes
The nota simple costs a few euros and arrives in hours or a few days when requested online. Cadastre and SIGPAC queries are free and immediate. That is: for less money than a meal you have the complete map of what you are going to buy. If something does not add up, the next step - surveyor, agent or lawyer - does have a cost, but it comes with a clear diagnosis of what needs fixing and who should pay for it.
A typical case, step by step
Estate advertised as "50 ha dehesa with house". The nota simple says 47 ha registered and a mortgage cancelled financially but not in the registry. The Cadastre draws 51 ha and a 80 m² building. SIGPAC shows 30 ha of wooded pasture, 15 of scrub and a water body. On the visit, the real fencing matches the Cadastre. What to do? Ask the seller to start the registry cancellation of the mortgage, accept the purchase "a cuerpo cierto" with the registry description if the difference is acceptable, verify that the house declared in the Cadastre can be regularised in the deed, and deduct from the price the 15 ha of scrub that are not dehesa. All negotiable, all known before signing: that is buying well.
Official tools you should know
- Cadastre Electronic Office: free search by reference or by map, with download of maps and descriptive certificates.
- Registrars' Portal: notas simples online, paid by card.
- SIGPAC viewer: free, with layers of uses, slopes and water bodies.
- Environmental viewers of the Junta de Extremadura: protected areas, livestock routes and watercourses.
With these four tools and an afternoon's work you can do the first filter of any estate yourself, and go to the professional (lawyer, surveyor, agent) only when the filter has detected something that deserves their fee.
Final rule: everything you discover in these checks is negotiating material. Each documented discrepancy is an item someone will have to pay for; decide before the arras whether the seller pays for it in the price or you take it on with your eyes open.