My Spanish Property Was Sold Without My Consent: What You Can Do

The short answer

If someone sold your Spanish property without your authority, the sale is null. Article
1259 of the Civil Code is unambiguous: nobody may contract in the name of another without
being authorised by them or holding their legal representation, and a contract made in
another’s name by someone without that authority is null unless the person in whose name
it was made ratifies it.

What that article does not do is give you the property back. That is a second question,
and it is decided by the Mortgage Law, not the Civil Code. Understanding the difference
is the whole of your position.

Why nullity is not the end of it

Article 34 of the Mortgage Law protects a person who buys for value, in good faith,
from whoever appears in the Land Registry as the owner, and who then registers their own
purchase. That protection survives even if the seller’s title is subsequently annulled.
It exists to make the Registry reliable, and it does its job.

So the sequence matters enormously. If the person who sold your property without
authority registered themselves as owner, and then sold on to a buyer who had no reason to
know anything was wrong, that second buyer may be protected — and your remedy shifts
from recovering the property to recovering money from the person who defrauded you. Which
is a considerably worse position, particularly if they cannot be found.

Two things narrow that risk, and both are worth knowing:

• Good faith is presumed, but it is rebuttable. The presumption holds
  only while it is not proved that the buyer knew the Registry was inaccurate. Proving
  knowledge is difficult, but it is not impossible, and it is frequently where these cases
  are won.
• The seller’s registration must come first. Article 34 protects an
  acquisition made according to the Registry. If the person who sold to them was
  not registered at the time of that acquisition, the protection does not attach.

The step that is actually urgent

Ask your lawyer, on day one, about an anotación preventiva de demanda
— a preventive annotation of your claim on the property’s registry entry.

Its function is precise. It puts the existence of your claim on the public record, so
anyone who acquires the property afterwards cannot credibly say they did not know. It
therefore removes the good faith that Article 34 protection depends on. This is why it is
a race: the annotation protects you against everyone who comes after it, and nobody who
came before.

It is a precautionary measure, and the court will want three things: a showing that
without it a favourable judgment could be rendered ineffective by events during the
proceedings, provisional evidence supporting your claim, and normally a bond. None of that
is a formality, and it is why this is not a step to attempt without a lawyer.

What the Registry does and does not prove

Article 38 of the Mortgage Law presumes that registered rights exist and belong to the
holder in the terms recorded. Owners often read this as meaning the Registry cannot be
challenged. It can. The presumption is iuris tantum — rebuttable. It places
the burden on you, but it does not close the door, and Article 38 itself contemplates the
action that contradicts registered ownership. Before anything else, check who is currently registered as the owner.

Practically, this means your case is a documentary one. What you need is not an argument
that the Registry is wrong in principle, but the specific documents that show it.

How this usually happens

In the cases that reach a firm like ours, the mechanism is almost always a power of
attorney. Either one was forged outright, or a genuine one — often granted years
earlier for a narrow purpose, sometimes to a family member, sometimes to a professional
— was used for a sale it was never intended to authorise, and was never revoked.

Documents executed abroad are the recurring weak point. A power of attorney signed in
front of a foreign notary, apostilled and translated, is harder for a Spanish notary or
registrar to interrogate than one executed in Spain, and that gap is what gets exploited.
Absentee ownership compounds it: a property visited twice a year, with utilities on direct
debit and no post arriving in Spain, can change hands without the owner noticing for a very
long time.

If you granted a power of attorney you no longer need, revoking it formally is one of
the cheapest pieces of protection available. An unrevoked power is a live one.

There is usually a criminal case too

Selling a property you have no power to dispose of is expressly covered by Article 251
of the Criminal Code, which carries one to four years. This route runs alongside the civil
and registry work rather than replacing it, and it can help — a criminal
investigation has document-gathering powers a private claimant does not. It does not, by
itself, restore your name to the Registry.

What to do, in order

1. Obtain a current nota simple for the property. It will tell you who is
   registered now, what has been registered since, and on what date. Everything else follows
   from those dates.
2. Get the annotation of your claim considered immediately, before the sale can move a
   further step.
3. Locate the instrument that was used — usually the power of attorney — and
   establish whether it was forged, expired, revoked, or simply exceeded.
4. Preserve what proves you did not consent and were not there: travel records, the
   property’s utility and community accounts, correspondence.
5. Then decide the civil and criminal routes together, on the evidence.

Owners frequently spend the first weeks trying to establish who is to blame. That is
the wrong first question. The first question is what has been registered, and when.

Frequently asked questions

Is a sale of my property made without my authority valid in Spain?

No. Article 1259 of the Civil Code provides that nobody may contract in the name of another without being authorised by them or holding their legal representation, and that a contract made in another's name without that authority is null unless the person in whose name it was made ratifies it.

If the sale is null, do I automatically get my property back?

Not automatically. Nullity of the sale and recovery of the property are two separate questions. Article 34 of the Mortgage Law protects someone who bought for value and in good faith from whoever appeared in the Land Registry as owner, and who then registered their purchase. If the property has already reached such a buyer, your remedy may become a money claim against the person who defrauded you rather than recovery of the property itself.

What is an anotación preventiva de demanda and why does it matter so much?

It is a preventive annotation of your claim on the property's registry entry. It puts your claim on the public record, so anyone acquiring the property afterwards cannot credibly claim they did not know about it. Because the protection in Article 34 depends on good faith, the annotation removes that protection for everyone who comes after it. It cannot help against someone who acquired before it, which is why it is urgent.

Can the Land Registry be challenged at all?

Yes. Article 38 of the Mortgage Law presumes that registered rights exist and belong to the recorded holder, but that presumption is iuris tantum, meaning it is rebuttable. It puts the burden of proof on you rather than closing the question, and Article 38 itself contemplates an action contradicting registered ownership.

How is a property usually sold without the owner knowing?

Most commonly through a power of attorney: either a forged one, or a genuine one granted earlier for another purpose and never revoked, used for a sale it was never intended to authorise. Powers executed in front of a foreign notary are the recurring weak point, because they are harder for a Spanish notary or registrar to interrogate. Revoking a power of attorney you no longer need is inexpensive protection.

Is this a crime as well as a civil matter?

Usually yes. Article 251 of the Criminal Code expressly covers disposing of property when you no longer have, or never had, the power to do so, and carries one to four years. The criminal route runs alongside the civil and registry work rather than replacing it, and a criminal investigation has document-gathering powers a private claimant does not.

What is the very first thing I should do?

Obtain a current nota simple for the property. It shows who is registered now, what has been registered since, and on what dates. Those dates determine your position, and every other decision follows from them. Establishing who is to blame is a later question, not the first one.

This article provides general guidance only and does not constitute legal advice. Registry and limitation questions are highly fact-specific, and the position can change materially depending on what has already been registered. Please obtain advice specific to your circumstances before acting.

Reviewed by María Luisa de Castro, CEO at CostaLuz Lawyers — Updated 2026

This is general information, not definitive legal advice — every case requires individual analysis.