The infamous Decree 218 (Decreto 218)

[Stoffer]

At the mention of the “Decree 218″, any self-respecting Estate Agent will start to shudder. The reality of this decree, passed in 2005, is becoming ever more clearer as the Andalucian governing body are sending out their inspectors in droves. Many estate agents, albeit the smaller ones, are being forced to close down due to their inability to pay the huge fines for non-compliance with the decree.

Having said that, there doesn’t seem to be much official help available for people and agencies who wish to comply with the decree. Granted, there are numerous sites and forums with many conflicting opinions but they don’t help the panic stricken individuals trying to comply with the lengthy decree before the untimely visit of an inspector from the “Junta”! My purpose in writing this is to (hopefully) help make things a bit clearer and share our experience with other agencies in a similar situation.

We had an inspector visit us at the end of 2008 and to be honest, it came as a welcome relief. We had been waiting for what seemed a lifetime, hoping that all the effort, time and money we had put into bringing our paperwork in line with the guidelines would finally pay off. I think our hearty welcome actually unnerved him a little! To cut a long story short, he was very pleasant and we passed with flying colours… and we have the paperwork and stamp to prove it!

So just what is the “Decreto 218″? It is basically the Junta de Andalucía’s way of trying to protect the buyer’s or tennant’s interests when dealing with Real Estate. Anything you advertise with regard to a home has to be backed up by official documents. What are they? We’ll discuss that later. Suffice to say that for this blog I have attached an official copy of the “Decreto 218″. Yes, it IS in Spanish but then all the legal documents you create for your properties will need to be copied verbatim from the various appendices. I will try and find an English version to use as an aid to understanding its content.

In summary, there are 6 main sections and each one relates to a different section of the Real Estate market:

ANEXO 1 (page 2): This applies to all homes.
ANEXO 2 (page 6): For homes in the planning stage or that are under construction. Your resulting document should be 8 pages long.
ANEXO 3 (page 7): Refers to the sale of new homes. Your resulting document should be 9 pages long.
ANEXO 5 (page 9): Refers to resales of homes (second hand). Your resulting document should be 3 pages long.
ANEXO 6 (page 9): This applies to rental homes. Your resulting document should be 5 pages long.

It’s worth mentioning that this decree applies to homes “viviendas” only. It does not apply to plots of land, commercial properties etc. You will also notice that after each appendix I have mentioned the number of pages that your “Information Document” should be. It is important to stick to this when creating your info documents for each property you have for sale or rental.
You can download a copy of the Decree 218 here:
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