Decree 218/2005 - How to comply with Decreto 218

What is it?

New to Andalucia, the Decreto 218/2005 Law dictates that all property sales and rental professionals must have available, at all times, information pertaining to all homes that are up for sale, for rent or part of a new development.

The Decreto Law applies to all recognised real estate agencies, property developers and real estate professionals and its main aim is to safeguard the rights of the consumer throughout their search for rental property or while making property purchases.

How does it work?

Consumer protection laws ensure that failure to comply with Decreto 218/2005 Laws will result in legal consequences paid out in fines and penalties. The Ley 13/2003 clearly states that non-compliance with the Decreto shall incur the following fines:

Minor Offences up to €5,000.

Serious Offences up to €30,000.

Very Serious Offences up to €400,000.

Required Legal Documentation for Industry Professionals

• All sales offices to display the Decreto 218 Notice
• All resale property visits to be accompanied by an inventory (Ficha Informativa)
• A Documento Informativo Abreviado (DIA) drawn up for every client enquiry on a new development
• A Documento Informativo Abreviado (DIA) drawn up when requested for every rental home enquiry
• A Nota Explicativa (additional information document) provided for all sale properties

What constitutes an offence?

Whether reported by a member of the public or industry, or detected by an official inspector, failure to comply with the Decreto may be deemed an offence worthy of punishment. The three types of offences described by the Ley 13/2003 of Andalucia can be summarised as follows:

• It is a Minor Offence to not follow the applicable rules when offering documentation or information to a customer.
• This minor offence can escalate to a Serious Offence or Very Serious Offence should the offender be deemed to be blatantly incompliant, habitually and/or intentionally ignoring the law and acting in a manner which may be damaging to clients and customers.

Well, if you have nothing to do with properties, is just another spanish law that you are going to ignore. But, if you are a Real Estate Developer, Promoter, Professional… then you have to get up to date as soon as you can!

Decreto 218 is also complemented with other spanish’s laws, like R.D. 515/1989 and Ley 13/2003, and it is applied to ALL Real Estate Agencies and Property Developers who are selling or renting properties in Andalucia.The main aim of this law is to Protect the Customer. A recent study has shown that the abuses and failures from developers to comply with the law are so habitual that customers begin proceedings already under the illusion that, in order to purchase or rent a home in Spain, they are going to encounter some deception along the way.

Promoters take advantage of the customer’s permissive and often tentative attitude and are known to fail in dates of delivery, material quality and derived expenses that do not match those previously expected. In addition the customers often do not wish to face lengthy court proceedings and so are resigned to the fact that these bad practices will happen and there is little the consumer can do. This is where the Decreto 218 law comes in…to take care of the little guy. Here are some corrections for the Decreto 218 by 2006.

Welcome to comply218.com

We’ve created this site to provide you with information about the “Decreto 218/2005? of Spanish Law about properties. There is a lot of missing and misinformed info about this topic and many people are getting troubled by it.

In a nutshell, Decreto 218/2005 is about the regulation of the information provided to the customers in a buy/sell transaction or a rental transaction throughout the Andalucia region of Spain.

One of the main new points is the procurement of a ‘Documento Informativo Abreviado’ (abbreviated informative document), in which the content should be different in case of buying or renting and, if it is about a buying, it will differ determined on whether it is a resale property, a new build or as part of a development project.

We are going to expand this info in upcoming posts, so check it out soon! Meanwhile, here is a pdf version of Decreto.