How can you find out whether abandoned land has an owner?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

Usually it does, because in Catalonia ownership is not lost by ceasing to use the property. To find out who owns it, the usual steps are to obtain a land registry extract (“nota simple”) from the “Registro de la Propiedad”, the Land Registry, to consult the Cadastre (“Catastro”) and to ask the town council and the neighbours. If its owner died without a will or relatives entitled to inherit and their estate is governed by Catalan law, the land passes to the Generalitat de Catalunya (the Catalan government) as heir. If it genuinely has no owner, it belongs to the Spanish State by law, in Catalonia too. Entering it or fencing it off does not make it yours and may be a criminal offence. Abandoned does not mean ownerless In Catalonia an owner does not lose their property by not using it, however many years go by, because the action to recover it never becomes time-barred. They only lose it if another person acquires it by acquisitive prescription (“usucapión”), which means becoming the owner by having possessed it as owner for twenty years, openly, without violence and without interruption. Many plots that look abandoned belong to estates that nobody has sorted out or to owners who live far away. If the owner died without a will or relatives entitled to inherit and their estate is governed by Catalan law, the heir is the Generalitat, which uses the assets for social purposes. If it is governed by the Spanish Civil Code (“Código civil”), the State inherits. A property that genuinely has no owner always belongs to the State, in Catalonia too. This is laid down in the “Ley del Patrimonio de las Administraciones Públicas”, the national act on the assets of public authorities. The State acquires it without needing to claim it. How to find out These are the usual steps: Obtain a land registry extract from the Land Registry, the summary it issues showing who owns a property and what charges (encumbrances) it carries. If you do not know the property's details at the Land Registry, you can give the cadastral reference or the location of the land. A reply from the Land Registry that the property is not registered does not mean that it has no owner, because some properties have never been registered. Consult the Cadastre on its online portal. Using the cadastral reference or the map, you can see the plot, its area in square metres and its use. The holder's name is protected data, which the Cadastre does not give out to just anyone. Moreover, being recorded in the Cadastre does not prove ownership. Ask the town council whether the land is municipal property, for example a path or a green space. Talk to the neighbours and to the owners of the adjoining properties, who usually know who the owner was or who the heirs are. If the owner has died, find out who the heirs are, starting with the deceased's certificate of last wills from the “Registro General de Actos de Última Voluntad”, Spain's register of wills. If, after all this, the land appears to have no owner, you can report it to the “Delegación de Economía y Hacienda”, the provincial office of the Spanish Ministry of Finance, which is the body that investigates assets that may belong to the State. If you are interested in the land The safe course is to find the owner or the heirs and buy it from them by public deed. Do not go onto it or fence it off just because it looks abandoned. Occupying someone else's property without permission may be the offence of unlawful occupation (“usurpación”). In addition, the owner can ask the court to restore possession to them. Nor can a property be acquired by taking possession of it, as can be done with an abandoned object, because, if it has no owner, the law gives it to the State. And if it is public domain property, such as a path, a river bed or public forest land, it cannot be acquired while it remains allocated to that use.