Buying land is often the dream of many people. The motives can range from wanting to have a house tailored to your preferences to wanting to have it as a method of saving to build in the future.

The truth is that, although it is an excellent idea and plan, the purchase of a plot of land must be approached properly. If you want to avoid problems, read on. We will tell you how to buy land, have everything in order and be able to enjoy it.

Buying land: necessary formalities

In order to buy a land properly, it is necessary to carry out some previous steps. These are important to certify that the parcel is really what its documentation indicates and that there are no falsified data. These are as follows:

– Requesting a nota simple at the Land Registry Office

This type of note verifies who the real owner of the parcel is. The person who sells it must be the person who appears as the owner of the land in this document. It will also let you know if the land has no debts. This note is requested at the Land Registry of Alicante.

– Ask for the “cadastral status” at the Cadastre’s headquarters or on its website:

This certificate can be of 2 kinds. One of them informs the field data related to the economic, legal and physical fields(descriptive and graphic certificates). The second type of document(literal certificate) contains data such as ownership, location, area and cadastral reference, among other things.

What must be taken into account is that the information found both in the nota simple and in the cadastral statement coincides with what is indicated in the deed. In turn, it is necessary to contrast both documents with each other to verify that the information described in them also coincides.

Check taxes

Once the above documents have been reviewed and contrasted with what is in the deed, it is time to check other issues. Municipal taxes is one of them.

It is important to verify if the last IBI receipt has been paid. If you do not have this at hand, it is possible to go to the town hall of the municipality and verify that it does not have any debt.

You should also pay attention to the taxes that you will have to pay when making the purchase. VAT and ITP (property transfer tax) are some of them. This will allow you to know exactly how much you will have to pay when you sign the deed.

Remember that you will also have to cover notary and agency fees. Both fees are imposed by the State and are related to validating that there is a sale transaction between 2 persons and that it is legal.

Other legal issues

Not only the tax burdens must be up to date to avoid problems when buying the land of your dreams. It is also necessary to be certain, from a legal point of view, that everything is in order.

It is necessary to request the deed from the first moment and to have the data of the seller of the plot. This way you will be sure that all your documentation is legal.

You should also corroborate other issues:

• If the soil is suitable for the work you have in mind.
• If the plans match the description of the land shown on the deed.
• Whether the land is classified as “urban”, “urbanizable” or “non-urbanizable”. This is determined by the urban classification of the plot.
• If the subsoil of the plot is in a condition to support a construction. This can be checked through a geotechnical study.

You must not forget that you must verify, together with an architectural professional, that the land is suitable for construction, both from the legal and urbanistic point of view.

Once you have completed the steps we have mentioned here, you will be ready to buy land legally and without any inconvenience.