What should you do when the defendant's address is unknown?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

You can still bring the claim. The claim states that the address is not known and gives all the information you have about the defendant, such as their last address, their workplace, their phone number or their email, so that the court can look for them in the public registers it has access to and notify them wherever it finds them. If it does not find them, notification takes the form of a notice by publication (“edictos”), that is, official announcements, without this halting the proceedings. The order for payment procedure (“proceso monitorio”), on the other hand, cannot be used if the debtor cannot be located, except for debts owed to an owners' association (the “comunidad de propietarios”), so in other cases it is advisable to go straight to the “juicio verbal” (the simplified procedure) or to ordinary proceedings (“juicio ordinario”). What goes in the claim The law requires the claimant to state the defendant's address and any other information that helps to locate them. If you do not know it, say so and provide everything you have: The last known address and any address that may appear in the “padrón” (the municipal register of residents) or in an official document. The place where they usually work or run their business. Their identity document number, their phone number and their email address. If it is a company, the registered office shown in the Companies Registry (“Registro Mercantil”) and the addresses of its directors. You can give several addresses, in the order in which you think it will be easiest to find them. The law generally requires an attempt to reach an agreement before a claim is brought. If that attempt is not possible because you do not know the defendant's address or any other means of contacting them, it is enough to declare this, on your own responsibility, when filing the claim. In Barcelona, it is a criterion agreed by the court clerks (“letrados de la Administración de Justicia”) that this declaration is only valid when the lack of knowledge is absolute. If a known address emerges from the claim itself, they ask for proof of the attempt to reach an agreement. It is also a criterion agreed by them that WhatsApp conversations, phone calls and text messages are not valid for that attempt. If you only have the debtor's email address, invite them to negotiate by that means and keep proof that they received it. How the court searches When the claimant says that the address is not known, the court clerk, who runs the court office, makes enquiries to find it using the means at their disposal. The clerk can consult the municipal register of residents and other public registers. The clerk can also approach public bodies, professional associations, organisations and companies. The law does not allow an address to be treated as unknown if it appears in a public register to which the court has access. If an address is found, the defendant is notified there. If none is found, or if the notification cannot be delivered at the address on record either, notification takes the form of a notice by publication. The notices are published on the official online notice board (“Tablón Edictal Judicial Único”). The proceedings then continue without the defendant, in what is known as default. The judgment is also notified to them by publication. Points to bear in mind The order for payment procedure does not allow notice by publication, except for debts owed to an owners' association. If the court cannot locate the debtor, it closes the procedure and you have to start again, usually with a claim under the “juicio verbal” or in ordinary proceedings. So if the debtor's whereabouts are unknown, it is usually better to start directly with those proceedings. Notice by publication is the last resort. If it is later shown that the defendant had an address that could have been found and it was not properly searched for, the notification and everything done afterwards may be annulled. It is therefore advisable to give the court all the information you know, even if it is out of date. Winning the case is not enough to get paid. For the purposes of attachment, the court can also investigate what assets the debtor has, even if it is not known where they live. If you know that they live in another country, notification follows other rules, because it has to be made there.