Notice
Your NIE and the date at the notary
The offer is accepted and the notary has a date. Why the NIE belongs at the start of a purchase, not in the week before the signing.
Buying a flat in Benidorm can move quickly. A viewing in the spring, an offer the same week, a reservation signed before the flight home. The part that often lags behind is the smallest one: the NIE that every buyer must show before the notary signs the deed.
The number is needed well before the deed itself. The bank asks for it to open an account and to process a mortgage. The lawyer needs it to draw up the contracts. The tax office needs it for the purchase taxes. Without it, each of those steps waits.
A buyer who will go on living abroad asks for the number as a non-resident, on form EX-15, and names the purchase as the reason. A reservation contract or a letter from the lawyer usually shows it. In Benidorm, the comisaría on Calle Apolo XI lists NIE assignment, and booking is through the cita previa system for the province of Alicante.
If you cannot be in Spain for an appointment, there are two other ways in. A Spanish consulate in your country can receive the request. Or, when neither calendar suits, you can ask Gestoraz to request the number online on your behalf.
Couples should remember that two buyers on the deed means two numbers. And the name on each NIE certificate must match the passport exactly, accents and middle names included, because the notary compares them carefully.
Once the keys are yours, the same number follows you through the years: the community of owners, the local property tax, the utilities and, one day perhaps, a sale or an inheritance. Keep the certificate somewhere safe, with a copy in Spain.