What is the catastro?

MADRID (+Opinion) – If you own a property in Spain it must be registered at the Catastro that belongs to the province where the property is located. The word itself (aside from the fact that it is the beginning of another one: catastrophe or catastrofe in Spanish, which describes it pretty well for most of the country) is translated as cadastre in English, but it is not something you hear about much in the UK, I’m told. So what is a cadastre?
The definition in Spanish according to the Royal Academy of Spanish (RAE) dictionary (translated here by yours truly) is as follows:  Statistical census and register of rural and urban properties. The definition for cadastre in English from the Oxford English Reference Dictionary (adapted for present circumstances): Register showing extent, value and ownership of land, especially for taxation. It adds that it comes from the late Greek katastikon, meaning register or list. Okay, so what’s the problem?

Registration at the catastro is a job for your lawyer to oversee when you buy a property. It is very difficult to sell unless it is registered therein. However, past practices have managed to allow these expensive legal eagles to get away without doing so. In the province of Cádiz, for example, the cadastre was in such a mess (for which nobody got fired or imprisoned, of course) that they, the lawyers, managed to get away with it. But then computers came into being and now the cadastre for Cádiz has been digitalised, though I can’t say if it is any more efficient.

Nevertheless, and I can confirm this from personal experience, it is important to check that this job, which costs nothing (except what you pay the lawyer), has been done. Most notaries will tell you that they can do it, too, which is true, since it is they who have to register the property with the local Property Registry (Registro de la Propiedad).

What, two property registries?

Alas, yes. An expensive duplication, but jobs for the boys must be found. In any case, many of the country’s top politicians are Notaries and Property Registrars as well as lawyers (lucrative occupations all three). They all know something about geese and golden eggs, for sure.