The Declaration of New Building - or New Work Title Deed- is a simple formal assent, and a request, for the inscription of a construction, new or pre-existent, in the Land Registry. As act of registre transcendence, it is bond to the Legal Standing Principle and to the Sequenced Registration Principle, which must be granted by the current registered owner (although a previous owner had executed the building). It is a purely unilateral act, by means of which the owner of the building declares his will to register or inscribe it. As declaration of will producing juridical effects it must be granted before Notary, in Public Title Deed.

So, the inscription of the new building in the Property Registry must be done based in a notarised deed named Declaración de Obra Nueva, in which there is described, at least, the number of floors, the area of the plot occupied by the building, the built square meters, and the in-house distribution.

We must differentiate completed new building and begun new building. In both cases it is necessary to prove the procurement of the building permit.

To authorize and to inscribe deeds of declaration of new building in construction, apart of the building permit will be required the certification of the architect that prepared the building project proving that the description of the new building declared in the deed corresponds exactly to the building project that obtained the building permit. In this case the owner must, once the construction is finally concluded, prove the conclusion of the construction by means of notarised certificate incorporating the architects certification of termination of the building.

Complementary documents

For the registration of the deed of declaration of new building or of its completion, it must be accompanied with a certified copy of the granted license. If the license has been obtained by positive administrative silence, the deed must incorporate (in original or notarised copy) the application of request for the license (with the original stamp and date of presentation), with express declaration of the grantor that the Town Council has not communicated to him the refusal of the license in the legal term of two month. In this case, the registrar has to report to the town hall that he has proceeded to register the new building under this circumstances.

Architects Certificate: Final Works Certificate

If the building is finished, the architect certifies that the already finished building coincides with the project for the one that the permit was granted. If the execution of the building only has been begun, the architect certifies that the building, as described in the notarised declaration, coincides with the project that obtained the permit; later, the owner will have to prove the conclusion by means of notarised deed that incorporates the architect’s certification stating that the building has finished and that is in accordance with the approved project.

The architect can certify by means of personal appearance together with the grantor on the deed, or by means of certificate containing the description of the new building incorporated to the deed, if the notary declares to know him and recognizes his signature.

Declaration of New Building by means of Certificate of Antiquity

The registrar can inscribe the declaration of new building of a completed building, although he does not have a building permit, whenever the grantor proves, by means of certification - of the Cadastre, the Town Council, or of an Architect – incorporated to a Notarised Deed, the completion of the building in, or before, a certain date with an age of at least four years - term foreseen by the Spanish legislation for the prescription of the town planning infractions- and the description of the building identical with the description contained in the Deed, and declares that in the Property Registry doesn’t exist Preventive Note about the existence of an administrative Town-planning Discipline proceeding on the plot where the building was executed.