One of the strangest things that people find when they are buying a property in Valencia and Spain is that everything seems to go smoothly until it doesn't. And because of all of the background work we at Valencia Property do along with the lawyers we recommend, the currency companies we work with and any number of people we work with it always seems smooth... until we get to something we don't control, the final signing at the Notary's office.  Now, unless you have signed a power of attorney so your lawyer can sign for you, you have to be at the signing at the notary and sometimes this will take time. After reading the following list of reasons why it may take some time in the Notary's office to complete your signing, and even before when you go to the bank to collect your bank draft, you may even want to make sure you do sign a power of attorney but remember this doesn't always happen, these are just things that may happen so don't get too annoyed if you have to spend a few hours in the Spanish notary's office before signing for your property. 

1. The bank is looking for non resident bank drafts - You pay for your purchase with a bank draft drawn from your Spanish bank account. As a non resident in general there is a different draft than if you are a resident and banks don't have too many of those. They have to remember to ask for them, especially if you are using a notary and bank not in a major city centre. Sometimes they forget or can't find them. 
2. The bank can’t find a printer that works - This happened just last week. The bank eventually found the non resident bank drafts, they had four luckily enough as we needed two. The printer then mangled the first two. 
3. The notary is on a coffee break - We generally make an appointment for between 11am and 12pm at the notary. This is a delicate balancing operation. We don't want to be too early so we arrive late because of problems at the bank but equally we don't want to be too late so that any accumulated problems from the morning are backed up or signings that are overrunning already delay us more. More importantly notaries and their officials will most probably go for a coffee between 10 and 11!
4. You haven’t got a copy of the account number of the account you sent the money from for the deposit - This is important. The deeds need to state where the funds came from (It's all about avoiding money laundering) Therefore make sure your lawyer gets a copy of the original deposit transfer, or transfers if there are more than one, with details of origin and destination accounts. 
5. Or the date it was sent - And make sure to include the date the money was sent from the origin account. A lawyer spent half an hour last week asking for this information from two banks, the clients' Spanish and Dutch accounts.
6. The foreign names have all been mangled by the notary’s official - Not a biggie this but when the draft copy of the deeds is brought in generally there will be a mistake in the foreign names or their home addresses. The draft needs to be corrected therefore. Many Notaries now don't print out the draft until the foreign client has checked these details on a screen to try and save a little bit of paper at least. 
7. There is a discrepancy between the property registry and the catastro. - When buying a house as opposed to an apartment there is often a discrepancy between the property registry and catastro. Usually this is not a big problem but the notary needs to point it out. Oftentimes the discrepancy can be sorted in the new set of deeds and therefore changed down the line in the registry, as is the case of new builds such as extensions etc... Sometimes it's just different ways of measurement. 
8. The property registry system is down and we cannot get the latest "Nota Simple". - On the morning of the signing the Notary Office connects to the Spanish property registry to get the latest Nota Simple, making sure there are no new charges or liens on the property so it is sold with clear title. A few months back we had a signing at our normal time of 11am. The registry website was down. It was 3pm before it came back online. In 99% of cases a previous Nota Simple would have sufficed as nothing had changed since the lawyer did the original searches but without the updated Nota we cannot be sure a charge hasn't been incurred in the previous few days so neither the lawyer for the buyer nor, more importantly, the Notary will allow a signing until the Nota Simple arrives. 
9. The owners haven’t arrived yet because they are arguing downstairs about who should get the most money from the inheritance. - In cases of inheritance there are often arguments among family members. In some cases we have had family members who cannot stand each other sat in different rooms and the notary moves from room to room for the signings and delivery of bank drafts because they don't want a "Situation" to develop. 
10. Or there are ten of them and it’s like herding cats. - And also in the case of an inheritance sometimes there are many members of the family who have to sign and they all have to be at the Notary's office at the same time on the same date and with all of their paperwork, we also have to have a different cheque for each one of them each in their own name. Our record is 23 sellers (12 inheritors and their respective spouses, one was single), along with two family lawyers, two bank representatives, me as a translator and representative of the agency, the notary, the notary's official and our two clients along with their own lawyer and his PA. We needed a big room and lots of patience. 
11. The paperwork hasn’t been sent from the bank for the mortgage. - In theory the bank sends all the paperwork to the Notary's office when there is a mortgage or a cancellation of a current mortgage on behalf of the seller. Sometimes something is lacking. 
12. The guy from the bank to sign off the payment of the mortgage hasn’t arrived yet. - Usually they are "on their way" ("En camino") from the bank. In practice this normally means they are in a coffee shop somewhere waiting for the desperate call of "Where are you?", because heaven forbid they should arrive on time for the signing, just like us they know any of the above or below situations can happen and they will be waiting around twiddling their thumbs for the longest time. 

What we are saying here is be patient. The signing at the Notary's office is the last step before you get your Valencia Property. It usually goes smoothly and takes around an hour. However if you have to sit around for a bit longer then don't worry, we have probably seen it all before, especially the verbal sparring between the relatives. Any questions or to tell us your experiences in Notary's office in Spain then contact us by mail.

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