The completion date at the notary is rarely chosen by the buyer. The bank needs its time, the seller needs theirs, and suddenly the signing is three weeks away, mid-week, with two flights and a hotel night as the only way to be there. This is why most of our foreign clients sign through a representative instead.
The instrument is called a poder notarial, a notarial power of attorney. Drafted properly it solves the problem completely. Drafted badly, you are standing in the notary’s waiting room on completion day being told the power is insufficient. It happens more often than people imagine, and it is almost always avoidable.
What a poder notarial actually is
A poder notarial is a document executed before a notary in which you (the poderdante) authorise another person (the apoderado) to act in your name. In a property transaction the attorney is normally your own lawyer. A private written authority is not enough in Spain: to sign a public deed (escritura pública) before a notary, the power itself must be notarial.
Three ways to grant it
1. Before a Spanish notary
The simplest and cheapest option if you are in Spain anyway – during a viewing trip, or when the deposit contract is signed. The power is executed in Spanish, often in a bilingual version, and the notary will call an interpreter if you do not speak Spanish. You need your passport and your NIE. It is ready the same day.
2. At a Spanish embassy or consulate
The Spanish missions in Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen and elsewhere can execute the power in consular form. The advantage is that the document is already in Spanish and effective in Spain immediately: no apostille, no translation. The drawback is the waiting time for an appointment, which can be considerable. Book early.
3. Before a notary in your own country
You may also sign before a local notary public. Two further steps are then required: an apostille under the 1961 Hague Convention, and a sworn translation into Spanish by a traductor jurado appointed by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A translation by a translator certified only in your own country is not always accepted – let your Spanish lawyer commission the translation.
In all three cases the wording should be drafted by your Spanish lawyer and sent to the notary in advance. A power drafted to a domestic template is rarely read as sufficient by a Spanish notary.
General or special power?
A poder general grants very broad authority – to sell, buy, borrow, and represent you before public authorities. A poder especial is limited to one defined transaction.
Our recommendation is almost always the special power: it should identify the property, the counterparty and the commercial limits of the deal. Never grant a general power to someone with whom you have no established relationship of trust, and never to the other side’s estate agent or to the seller’s representative. A power of attorney is a tool – its scope should match the job, no more and no less.
What the power should contain
- Full details of you and your attorney, including passport number and NIE.
- Identification of the property: address, land registry reference (finca registral) and cadastral reference.
- Authority to sign the deed and to pay or receive the price, with the price or a price range stated.
- Authority to apply for a NIE, open and operate a bank account, and sign the cheques required for the transaction.
- Authority before the tax office and the town hall: to declare and pay transfer tax, plusvalía and any other charges.
- Authority before the Land Registry, the Cadastre, the community of owners and the utility and insurance providers.
When the purchase is financed with a Spanish mortgage
This deserves particular care. The power must expressly authorise the attorney to borrow and to mortgage the property, and many banks additionally require the loan terms – amount, term, interest rate – to appear in the power itself.
Beyond that, Law 5/2019 on real estate credit agreements requires the borrower to receive the statutory pre-contractual documentation and to attend the notary’s free information act (acta previa) before the loan deed is signed. Whether that act can be attended through an attorney needs to be confirmed with the bank and the notary in advance – practice varies, and you are entitled to choose which Spanish notary holds it. Raise this with your lawyer as soon as the loan offer exists, not the week before completion.
Cost and timing
Before a Spanish notary a power normally costs a few tens of euros. A consular power carries a modest fee but requires an appointment. The local-notary route is the most expensive once the apostille and the sworn translation are added, and in our experience takes one to three weeks from signature until the original is on the lawyer’s desk in Spain. Plan accordingly: start the power when the deposit contract is signed, not once the completion date is fixed.
Validity and revocation
A Spanish power remains in force indefinitely unless an expiry date is stated, and ends when you revoke it before a notary (revocación de poder) or on death. The revocation should be notified to the attorney. If you want an additional safeguard you can give the power a fixed expiry date – but leave a margin, because an expired power cannot be used even one day later.
Four mistakes we keep seeing
- Too narrow. It covers the purchase but not the tax return or the electricity contract, and a second power has to be granted.
- Too broad, to the wrong person. Give the power to your own representative, not to the other side’s.
- The wrong translation. It must be done by a traductor jurado recognised in Spain.
- Started too late. Apostille and translation take time that nobody has once the date is set.
Work out the full cost
The power of attorney is a small item in the budget, but it rarely comes alone. Our purchase cost calculator for Spanish property shows the transfer tax, notary, registry and remaining items for your particular purchase.
Contact us
We draft powers of attorney for Spanish property transactions every week and coordinate the whole process with the notary, the bank and the sworn translator.
Kontakta oss / Contact us / Contáctenos:
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +34 629 549 430
Web: www.colas-abogados.com
Hugo Gutiérrez Colás – Lawyer no. 6.539 ICALI – Colás Abogados / Advokater, Alfaz del Pi (Alicante).