Domain file or demon file?
The domain file is a notarial procedure whose objective is to accredit the acquisition of the domain of a property to enable a valid and effective title to serve as a basis for registration when it is not registered in the Land Registry.
It is not a trivial issue that arises when the transfer of real estate, either by purchase or donation, or by inheritance, is carried out without the property being registered in the Land Registry. The Property Registry is a State institution, whose purpose is to provide faith and protection for legal acts, which affect property or real rights over real estate, whether publicly or privately owned. In other words, it publicizes the legal status of a property in terms of ownership, transfers and encumbrances on it (such as mortgages); and safeguards the rights that have entered the registry. It is therefore the basis for legal certainty as regards immovable property.
When a property is acquired, which is not registered in the Land Registry, it can be immatriculated with the so-called “domain file”. This is a notarial procedure that serves to obtain a legal basis to validate and reaffirm your rights over the property and guarantee your access to the Property Registry, either by immatriculating the property in the Registry; or by resuming the registration process; or, finally, by transferring the excess capacity. The Mortgage Law covers all these cases, as well as the processing of the domain file, which is currently regulated by art. 203 LH.
Who manages these domain files?
After the reform of the Mortgage Law and the Cadastre carried out in 2015, the procedures are reunified in a single process, processed through a notary. In theory, this is a faster and cheaper process, but this does not exclude the fact that it is a tortuous process with many requirements and problems in its development, almost always leading to its resolution in a declaratory trial. Our real estate lawyers can help you in this process or with any questions you may have about it.
Although they share the figure of the domain file for its processing, the three figures are very different and attend to diverse situations; the immatriculation of the property in the Registry occurs when of this property there is no type of inscription, that is to say, the immatriculation takes place when it is the first time that the property in question is annotated in the Registry. To immatriculate a property, it can be done through the domain file, and there is also the possibility of doing so through the presentation of a public title transferring the domain, or through a court ruling.
The resumption of the tract (art. 208 LH); the properties registered in Spain have a sheet of paper where their “history” is told, that is to say, where it is seen in a chronological way who has been its owner in a constant and uninterrupted way, which is called successive tract. When one or more owners have not registered their right, the chain is broken, and the successive tract is interrupted. If it cannot be resumed by providing the omitted intermediate titles, the domain name file must proceed.
Excess or defect of capacity (art. 201 LH): if the property has a real capacity higher or lower than 10% compared to what is registered in the Registry, it will be necessary to proceed in the same way to solve it by means of a domain file, sending the article 201 LH to 203 LH, stipulating particularities for its processing.
Contact a professional
The management of all of them requires a very complete study of the case and the collection of documentation, being the optimum the hiring of a lawyer who is a specialist in this important matter. In our law firm in Gijón we will be happy to help you.
