The escritura signing is the only Spanish property meeting most foreign buyers will ever attend in person. It runs 60 to 90 minutes. The notary reads the document aloud in Spanish, the price is reconciled in real time, and the keys move across the table. One thing does not happen in that room. The notary does not withhold the tax: the buyer — in practice the buyer's lawyer — files the return and pays. Buyers who treat the meeting as a formality miss the three or four moments where the deal can still collapse.
The escritura pública de compraventa is the notarial public deed signed at a Spanish notaría that legally transfers ownership of the property. Meeting duration: 60–90 minutes (longer for off-plan, branded residences, or mortgage drawdowns). All parties must be present in person or via valid Spanish power of attorney — there is no remote-Zoom alternative in Spanish property law. The notary reads the entire deed aloud in Spanish; sworn-translator interpretation is mandatory if the buyer does not certify Spanish fluency. Notary and land-registry fees are statutory tariffs (Real Decreto 1426/1989 and Real Decreto 1427/1989), not percentages of the price. ITP on a resale, or AJD on a new build, is self-assessed on Modelo 600 and paid to the Junta de Andalucía within two months, counted from the day after the deed is signed (Article 69 of Ley 5/2021). The deed is then submitted to the Registro de la Propiedad de Marbella for inscription. See our closing checklist for the parallel completion workflow.
The notary is a neutral legal officer — they represent neither buyer nor seller. They certify that all parties consent freely and that the document complies with Spanish law. Buyers from common-law jurisdictions sometimes mistake the notary for a lawyer; they are not. Bring your own lawyer.
The notary's office will request these documents 5–7 days before signing for pre-vetting. Missing items cause same-day rescheduling.
The notary's oficial cross-checks each document against the deed draft. Discrepancies between the deed and the nota simple — a different surface area, a missed charge, a wrong cadastral reference — trigger an on-the-spot redraft, which can extend the meeting by 30–60 minutes.
The signature is the point at which the deal becomes irreversible. Once the parties have signed and the notary has authorised the deed, ownership and funds have changed hands. Anything you wanted to renegotiate had to be raised before that. The tax is not part of that moment: it is self-assessed on Modelo 600 afterwards.
Spanish notarial law (Reglamento Notarial, Art 150) requires that any party who does not understand Spanish must be assisted by a sworn translator (intérprete jurado) approved by the Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores. The buyer may not self-certify fluency casually — if the notary suspects insufficient Spanish, they will refuse to proceed without a translator.
Sworn translators are booked 2–4 weeks ahead in Marbella's high season. Your lawyer typically handles booking. Bringing your own translator (a friend, a relative, the agent) is not legally sufficient — the translator must be Ministerio-jurado.