Property Lawyer Marbella

A property lawyer in Marbella provides specialised legal advice on every issue affecting ownership, possession, use and rights over real estate in Spain. This includes drafting and reviewing contracts (sale, lease, opción de compra), claims for construction defects and hidden defects, Land Registry registrations and rectifications, community of owners disputes, boundary and surface discrepancies with the Cadastre, damages claims, lease drafting and litigation. While a conveyancing lawyer focuses on the transaction itself, a property lawyer covers the ongoing legal life of the property, before, during and after ownership.

A conveyancing lawyer focuses specifically on the legal process of buying or selling a property — due diligence, contracts, completion at the notary and registration of the new ownership. A property lawyer in Marbella covers a much broader scope of Spanish real estate law: construction defects under the LOE, hidden defects (vicios ocultos), Land Registry rectifications, community of owners conflicts, lease contract drafting, claims for damages and litigation. In practice, both roles often overlap; the property lawyer is the right specialist when the matter goes beyond the transaction itself.

Construction defects in Spain are regulated by the Building Regulation Law (Ley 38/1999, de Ordenación de la Edificación — LOE), which sets three liability periods running from the date of the completion certificate (acta de recepción):

• 1 year for finishing or aesthetic defects.
• 3 years for defects affecting habitability (leaks, insulation, ventilation, installations).
• 10 years for structural defects affecting the stability of the building — known as decennial liability (responsabilidad decenal).

Once a defect is detected within these periods, the owner has an additional 2 years to file the legal claim. A property lawyer identifies which liability applies, determines the responsible party (developer, builder, architect or technical architect), coordinates the expert report (dictamen pericial) and files the claim before the relevant court.

Hidden defects (vicios ocultos) are pre-existing flaws that were not apparent at the time of purchase, that the buyer could not have detected with reasonable inspection, and that significantly reduce the value or usability of the property. They are regulated by Articles 1484 and following of the Spanish Civil Code (Código Civil), and the legal deadline to claim is only 6 months from the date of completion — one of the shortest deadlines in Spanish property law. The buyer can choose between two actions: rescinding the sale and recovering the price (acción redhibitoria) or claiming a proportional price reduction (acción quanti minoris). Given the very short window, immediate legal advice is essential once a defect is suspected.

Discrepancies between the Land Registry (Registro de la Propiedad), the Cadastre (Catastro) and the physical reality of a property are common in Marbella and the wider Costa del Sol — particularly affecting surface measurements, boundaries, undeclared extensions and older inherited properties. Depending on the type of mismatch, the available procedures include the expediente de dominio, acta de notoriedad, double immatriculation correction and rectification procedures under Articles 199 and 201 of the Mortgage Law (Ley Hipotecaria). Resolving these discrepancies is critical: an unresolved mismatch can block a future sale, mortgage application or inheritance, and a property lawyer ensures the registered situation matches what you actually own.

Yes — and it is one of the smartest preventive steps an owner can take. A property lawyer reviews the rental contract (contrato de arrendamiento) to verify that the clauses comply with the Urban Leases Law (Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos — LAU), that the term, deposit, guarantee, supplies, allowed uses and termination conditions clearly protect the owner, and that the document is enforceable if a breach occurs. A well-drafted contract drastically reduces the risk of future conflicts and makes any potential legal action significantly faster, simpler and less costly.

Communities of owners (comunidades de propietarios) in Spain are regulated by the Horizontal Property Law (Ley de Propiedad Horizontal — LPH). The most frequent disputes affecting international owners in Marbella involve unpaid community fees, challenged resolutions of the general meeting (junta de propietarios), unauthorised tourist rentals in restricted buildings, works affecting common elements and noise or nuisance issues. The LPH establishes specific deadlines to challenge community resolutions — generally 3 months for irregular resolutions and 1 year for resolutions contrary to the law or statutes. A property lawyer can both defend an individual owner’s rights within the community and act on behalf of the community itself.

When a developer fails to deliver an off-plan property by the contractually agreed deadline, Spanish law gives the buyer several legal options. Under Law 20/2015 and the LOE, the deposit and partial payments made by the buyer must be secured by a bank guarantee or insurance policy from the moment funds are received. If the property is not delivered on time, the buyer can demand compliance with the contract (delivery plus damages) or, alternatively, terminate the contract and recover the full amount paid with statutory interest. A property lawyer in Marbella assesses the cause of the delay, executes the guarantee, sends the formal requerimiento and, if necessary, files the corresponding judicial claim.