Process & legal · 1 October 2026 · 4 min read
Getting an older house surveyed before you buy.
Irish buyers often assume someone checks the building along the way. In Spain, nobody does unless you pay them to. Your lawyer checks the legal side, the title, the debts and the permits, and that's in what a good lawyer checks. The roof, the walls, the damp and the wiring are yours to find out about. On a newer flat that matters less. On an older house, or a cheap one that needs work, it's the check that saves you the most money.
Who to get
Ask a qualified building professional for a written report: usually an arquitecto técnico, also called an aparejador, or an architect. Ask them to look at the specific things you're worried about and to put a rough figure on any repairs they find. A builder's opinion is useful too, but it isn't a report you can rely on later.
What they look at on an older house
The roof and whether it's holding water out. Cracks in the walls and whether they're old and stable or still moving. Damp, rising or coming through. The wiring and plumbing, which in an old house may never have been brought up to date. And on a country house, where the water comes from and where the waste goes, because many aren't on mains drainage. Have them compare what's actually built with what's on the paperwork too: a room or a terrace added later is a legal question as well as a building one.
Country houses in Andalusia: the AFO
Plenty of older houses on rural land in Andalusia were built or extended without permission years ago. Once the time for the council to act has run out, the owner can apply for a declaration called AFO, asimilado a fuera de ordenación. It lets the house be entered in the land registry and connected to water, drains and electricity. It doesn't make the building legal, though, and it generally only allows the works needed to keep the house maintained. If your plan involves extending or reworking a country house, that last point matters, so your lawyer should confirm whether the house has an AFO, or needs one, before you commit.
When to do it
Before you sign anything that puts money at risk. Once you've paid a deposit under the usual arras contract, walking away because the roof is bad usually means losing it. Either get the survey done first, or ask your lawyer whether the contract can be made conditional on a satisfactory report. How the deposit contract works is in the arras contract explained, and why a low price can still turn out expensive is in why cheap is expensive.
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