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How Spain differs
In several northern European countries the buyer is expected to inspect the property, and cannot complain afterwards about what they should have discovered. So a survey is routine. In Spain the starting point is different: the purchase is made “en el estado en que se encuentra” — as seen — and while the law allows a claim against the seller for hidden defects, in practice it is a slow and uncertain road.
The result is that almost nobody surveys. The agent rarely suggests it, the seller never offers it and the notary does not ask. What you get with the purchase is the energy certificate and, in some cases, a certificate that the building has passed the compulsory periodic inspection for older buildings. Neither says anything about the condition of what you are buying.
That does not mean a survey is unnecessary. It means you commission it yourself, pay for it yourself and decide yourself what to do with the result.
Who surveys
The profession that normally carries out surveys in Spain is the arquitecto técnico, formerly called aparejador. This is a building engineer qualified to certify the condition of buildings. Architects and some engineers also do it.
Three things to insist on:
- Independence. Not someone the agent or the seller suggests. We can recommend surveyors we have worked with, but you choose and you pay — then the person works for you.
- A written report with photographs, ideally with an assessment of severity and a rough estimate of remedy. A verbal walk-through is not evidence in a negotiation.
- Membership of the professional body, that is, registered with their college. That brings liability for what is certified.
What is checked
A normal survey is visual — the surveyor looks, taps, measures damp and photographs, but does not open anything up. What is included:
- Structure and foundations. Cracks, settlement, signs of movement. On sloping plots: retaining walls and drainage.
- Roof and terraces. Waterproofing, drainage, damp showing through underneath.
- Façade and windows. Render coming away, frames that have rotted or rusted, sealing.
- Damp, measured in walls and floors — not just what is visible.
- Electrics. Consumer unit, earthing, age of the wiring, whether the installation has a valid certificate.
- Plumbing. Pipe materials, water heater, pressure, drains and traps.
- Heating and cooling. Air-source units, their age and condition.
- Pool and pool plant, where there is one.
- That what has been built matches what is registered. This is not a technical question but a legal one, but the surveyor sees at once whether a terrace has been glazed in or a storeroom has become a bedroom. It must then be checked against the registry — see the buying process.
If you need to go deeper — thermal imaging, pressure testing of pipes, checking reinforcement — those are additional services. The surveyor will say if something justifies it.
Typical defects on the coast
The Costa del Sol has a climate that is kind to people and hard on houses. What comes back in report after report:
- Damp. Almost always, in some form. Condensation in bedrooms shut up all winter, rising damp on ground floors, leaks from the terrace above. Many homes are used a few weeks a year and stand closed the rest — it shows.
- Salt. Near the sea, salt attacks everything metal: reinforcing steel in concrete, railings, window frames, front doors. Concrete cracking with rust-coloured streaks is reinforcement rusting from within. It is a maintenance problem, not necessarily a structural fault, but it costs.
- Terraces. The single most common source of leaks. The membrane under the tiles ages, the drains block, and the water finds its way to the neighbour below. In a community, liability can be disputed.
- Pools. Leaks in the shell or the pipes, pumps past their life, electrical installations near water that do not meet today’s standards. A pool that “loses a little water” rarely loses a little.
- Old electrics. Homes from before the modern electrical regulations may have a consumer unit without earth-leakage protection, mixed cable sizes and unearthed sockets. It is often the single most expensive thing to put right in an older apartment.
- Cast iron and lead in older drains and water pipes.
- Settlement on made-up ground and on slopes, especially in urbanisations built quickly.
What you need not worry about so much are the classic northern problems: mould in crawl spaces, frost damage, missing insulation. The problems here are different, and a surveyor from home does not always recognise them.
When a survey is a must
Honestly: always, except perhaps on a new build from a developer, where it is instead the developer and the contract you should scrutinise. But in two cases we would advise against buying without a survey:
- Villas and townhouses. Here you own the roof, foundations, façade, plot and pool yourself. There is no community to share the cost when something goes wrong, and those are exactly the parts that cost most.
- Anything built before the nineties. Many homes on the coast date from the sixties, seventies and eighties, built fast and with the materials available. Electrics, pipes and waterproofing have normally gone well past their service life unless replaced. The question is not whether something needs doing, but what.
Even in a newer apartment the survey is worth its price if you cannot assess damp and electrics yourself. It is cheap in relation to what you are buying.
Where in the process it belongs
The survey should be done after the reservation and before arras. The reservation gives you time to commission it without the property disappearing; arras is the point after which you cannot use the result for anything but losing your deposit.
Three outcomes:
- Nothing material. You proceed and sleep better.
- Defects that can be priced. The report becomes grounds for a price reduction, or for the seller to fix things before completion, written into the contract.
- Something that changes the picture — structural problems, an illegal extension, an electrical system that must be replaced entirely. Then you walk away, and all you have lost is the survey and possibly the reservation fee. That is what they are for.
Count the survey among the purchase costs from the start, so that it does not feel like an extra expense the day it is needed.
Want us to help you find an independent surveyor for a property you are looking at? Send a search brief and we arrange it as a step in the process.