Your second-hand home has hidden defects: six months to claim

The case, in five lines

What is brought

The action for hidden defects under articles 1484 to 1490 of the Civil Code, either in its redhibitory form (setting the sale aside and recovering the price and expenses) or in its estimatory form (reducing the price as assessed by experts). If the defect makes the house unusable or the seller concealed it, termination for breach and the action for fraud are joined in the alternative.

Before which court

The sección civil of the Tribunal de Instancia (the civil section of the first-instance court) for the seller's domicile, through the juicio verbal (the shorter form of civil proceedings) if the amount claimed does not exceed 15,000 euros and through the juicio ordinario (ordinary proceedings) if it does. The claim must be accompanied by proof of the prior settlement attempt required by article 5 of Organic Act 1/2025.

Deadline

Six months, a lapse period (caducidad), counted from handover (art. 1490 Civil Code). In a sale by public deed, executing the deed counts as handover unless the deed itself shows otherwise (art. 1462 Civil Code). A letter of complaint does not stop it; a formal request to open an appropriate dispute resolution process suspends it (art. 7 Organic Act 1/2025). In the alternative: five years for breach of contract (art. 1964 Civil Code) and four years from completion of the contract for annulment on grounds of fraud (art. 1301 Civil Code).

Who can bring it

The claim is brought by the buyer named in the deed; if several people bought, all of them should sue. It is brought against the seller, who is liable even if unaware of the defect, and against every seller if there were several. If the building is recent, a further claim may be made against the developer, builder and technicians under the Building Act.

Financial risk

If the defect is not proved to be hidden, serious and prior to the sale, or the claim arrives out of time, it is dismissed and the loser-pays rule applies: whoever has all their claims rejected pays the other side's costs, unless there were serious doubts of fact or law. The expert report is paid up front. And refusing the settlement attempt without good reason can count against you when costs are decided.

Hidden, serious and prior to the sale: the three filters

Article 1484 of the Civil Code makes the seller liable for hidden defects that render the home unfit for its intended use, or that reduce that use to such an extent that, had you known of them, you would not have bought it or would have paid less for it. Article 1485 adds that the seller is liable even if unaware of them. You do not need to prove bad faith to win: the defect only has to pass three filters, and the seller will always attack the weakest one.

Hidden does not mean invisible to a technician, but not recognisable by an average buyer viewing the house with normal care. The law excludes defects that were obvious or in plain sight, and also those the buyer should easily have spotted as an expert by reason of trade or profession: an architect who buys has a harder case. You were not required to be a technician, but a stain on the ceiling, a smell of damp or a visible crack make the defect apparent. By contrast, a freshly painted wall or new plasterboard in the basement does not make it apparent: it is usually the best sign that someone covered it up.

Serious means that it affects the use of the home, not its appearance. Prior means that the cause existed on the day of handover, even if the symptom appears later: a wall without waterproofing was already in that state in March, even if the water only comes in during September. And in a second-hand home there is a limit almost nobody expects: wear and tear due to the property's age is not a defect, and a 1989 house is not judged like a new one. There is even a case the law classifies directly: the fifth additional provision of Act 37/2003 on Noise treats as a hidden defect a property's failure to meet the acoustic quality objectives set for its indoor space.

Six months from handover, even if the defect appears in the seventh

Article 1490 states that the actions for hidden defects are extinguished six months after the handover of the item sold. The Tribunal Supremo (the Supreme Court) treats it as a lapse period (caducidad), not a limitation period, and that changes everything: it is not interrupted by out-of-court demands, it does not start again with each burofax (a certified letter) and the court can apply it even if the seller does not raise it. Once the last day has passed, the action no longer exists.

The starting point is handover, and in a home purchase handover is almost never the day you move in. Article 1462 provides that, where the sale is made by public deed, executing the deed is equivalent to handover, unless the deed itself states or clearly implies otherwise. If the deed provided that the seller would remain in the house until a later date, the period starts when possession was actually handed over, and that day must be provable with a document recording the handover of keys.

What almost nobody tells you is that the period runs even if the defect has not yet shown itself. The Supreme Court counts the six months from handover, not from discovery, so damp that appears in the seventh month is born with no action for hidden defects left. The count runs from date to date, and August and public holidays count. That is why the first thing we do is fix day zero with the deed in hand and calculate the exact deadline, before discussing anything else.

A burofax does not stop the clock; a properly made request to negotiate does

Article 5 of Organic Act 1/2025 requires in civil matters, as a condition of admissibility, prior resort to an appropriate dispute resolution method, with identity between what is negotiated and what is later litigated. A claim for hidden defects is not among the matters excepted in its paragraph 2, so without that attempt the claim is not admitted. The Act treats the requirement as met by direct negotiation between the parties or between their lawyers, mediation, conciliation or a confidential binding offer. It is not needed, on the other hand, to apply for preliminary inquiries or interim measures before the claim.

Here is the piece that changes the calculation. Article 7 of that Act provides that the request sent to the other party to open negotiations, if it properly defines their subject matter, suspends the lapse period from the date on which the attempt to deliver it is recorded, at the other party's address or through the electronic channel the parties had been using. The suspension lasts until agreement is reached or the negotiation ends without one, and the period resumes if the first meeting does not take place or there is no written reply within thirty calendar days of receipt.

Suspending is not restarting: the time already used up is lost and only what remained is left. And not every letter suspends. A burofax complaining about the damp lets the clock run; a formal request to negotiate, identifying the contract, the defect and what is being sought, stops it. Because of the identity-of-subject requirement, that request must include everything that will later go into the claim, including the alternative actions, or the seller will argue that part of what is sought was never negotiated.

Hand the house back or cut the price: what to ask for and where

Article 1486 gives you a choice: withdraw from the contract, being reimbursed the expenses you paid, or reduce the price by a proportionate amount, as assessed by experts. If the seller knew of the defects and did not disclose them, you have the same choice and in addition are compensated for loss and damage if you opt for rescission. With a price reduction, the text provides for no additional compensation: that is why proof of what the seller knew is worth money.

In practice, almost all buyers choose to keep the house with a reduction. Handing it back means undoing the purchase with a live mortgage in the middle, recovering the price from a seller who may already have spent it, and starting the house hunt again. The reduction, by contrast, is quantified by the expert, usually as the cost of repair plus any residual loss of value. You may seek rescission as the main claim and the reduction in the alternative, and decide with the expert report in front of you which suits you.

The claim goes to the sección civil of the Tribunal de Instancia (the civil section of the first-instance court) for the seller's domicile, because it is a personal action. If the amount claimed does not exceed 15,000 euros the juicio verbal (the shorter form of civil proceedings) applies, and above that, ordinary proceedings. The document proving the prior settlement attempt must be attached. On costs the loser-pays rule applies: whoever has all their claims rejected pays the other side's costs, unless there were serious doubts of fact or law, and the court may take into account who refused to negotiate without good reason.

If the six months have gone, three other doors remain

The first is breach by delivery of something different, what the courts call aliud pro alio. If the defect makes the home wholly unfit to be lived in, what was sold was not delivered, and the contract can be terminated under article 1124 with damages under article 1101, within the general five-year period of article 1964. But the Supreme Court reserves it for total unfitness and frustration of the contract's purpose: a house that cannot lawfully be used as a home, yes; damp that is repaired for 31,000 euros, no. Forcing it to get round the lapse period ends in dismissal with costs.

The second is fraud (dolo), and there is a nuance worth understanding: the fact that the seller knew of the defect does not on its own extend the six months, because article 1490 also covers the compensation under article 1486. What extends the time is changing the action. If the seller induced you to buy through scheming or through a silence contrary to good faith, serious fraud under articles 1269 and 1270 allows you to seek annulment, which lapses four years after completion of the contract under article 1301; if the fraud only made you pay more, it is incidental and gives a right to compensation. The burden of proving it is yours, and that is where the case is won or lost.

The third depends on the age of the building. If the damage appears within ten years of the handover of the works, where it is structural, or within three, where it affects habitability, article 17 of the Building Act also protects subsequent acquirers against the developer, builder and technicians, with two years to sue from when the damage occurs, under article 18; we explain this in our guide on construction defects. And if what comes to light is not a physical defect but a charge or easement that was not apparent and that the deed did not mention, article 1483 gives one year from the deed to rescind or seek compensation, and a further year from discovery for compensation only.

“As it stands” does not protect a seller who knew

Almost every second-hand deed states that the home is sold as it stands, or as a specific whole (como cuerpo cierto). The seller will show you that phrase as if it closed the case. Article 1485 says otherwise: an agreement excluding liability for hidden defects only applies where it was stipulated and, in addition, the seller was unaware of the defects. The clause protects a seller in good faith; it does not protect one who knew of the defect and kept quiet.

Moreover, a sale as a specific whole refers to floor area and extent, not to construction defects, and a general reference to the condition of the home is read as acceptance of what was in plain sight, not of what was covered up. If the seller is a professional, such as a fund, a bank or an investor who buys, refurbishes superficially and resells, and you buy as a consumer, that pre-drafted clause may also be reviewed as unfair. And whoever has just carried out the refurbishment will hardly be able to claim not to have seen what lay underneath.

That is why what the seller knew is the heart of the case: it decides whether the clause holds, whether there is compensation and whether the fraud route remains open. It is proved with circumstantial evidence that must be gathered early: neighbours who saw the seller pumping out water, the old listing on the property portal with photos from before the refurbishment, invoices for pumps or waterproofing products, claims made to the home insurer, owners' meeting minutes where leaks were discussed. A document dated before the sale carries more weight than any testimony.

How we run the case, step by step

1. 1

   Fix day zero and the deadline

   We read the deed to establish whether signing it counts as handover or whether a later handover of possession was agreed, and we calculate the last day of the six months from date to date. Everything else is organised around that date.

2. 2

   Expert before builder

   Our expert inspects before any repair, opens test holes, takes dated photographs and establishes three things: the cause, its age relative to the sale and whether it was visible during a normal viewing. If urgent action is needed, only what is essential, and documented.

3. 3

   Find out what the seller knew

   We gather the listing through which the house was sold and any earlier ones, speak to neighbours and former occupants, and locate invoices, insurance claims and owners' meeting minutes. Compensation, the effect of the exclusion clause and the fraud route all depend on this.

4. 4

   Formal request to negotiate

   We send the seller a request to negotiate that defines its subject: contract, defect, expert report and what is sought, including the alternative actions. It suspends the lapse period from the attempted delivery and meets the requirement of article 5 of Organic Act 1/2025.

5. 5

   Claim with the actions in tiers

   If within thirty days there is no meeting or written reply, or the negotiation fails, we file the claim before what remains of the period runs out: hidden defects as the main action and, where the facts allow, breach or fraud in the alternative.

6. 6

   Hearing, expert evidence and recovery

   At trial the expert confirms and defends the report against the seller's, and the witnesses to the prior condition give evidence. With judgment in hand, we enforce: recovery of the reduction, or return of the price and expenses against handing back the home.

The law that applies

• Art. 1484 CC. Makes the seller liable for hidden defects that render the item unfit for its use or reduce that use so that the buyer would not have acquired it or would have paid less, and excludes obvious defects and those that a buyer who is an expert should easily have recognised. BOE-A-1889-4763
• Art. 1485 CC. The seller is liable for hidden defects even if unaware of them, unless otherwise agreed and, in addition, the seller was unaware of the defects in what was sold. BOE-A-1889-4763
• Art. 1486 CC. The buyer may choose between withdrawing from the contract with reimbursement of expenses or reducing the price proportionately as assessed by experts; if the seller knew of the defects and did not disclose them, the buyer is also compensated for loss and damage on choosing rescission. BOE-A-1889-4763
• Art. 1490 CC. The actions arising from the five preceding articles, including those for hidden defects, are extinguished six months after the handover of the item sold. BOE-A-1889-4763
• Art. 1462 CC. The item sold is deemed handed over when placed in the power and possession of the buyer; in a sale by public deed, executing the deed is equivalent to handover unless the deed states or clearly implies otherwise. BOE-A-1889-4763
• Arts. 1124 y 1964 CC. The power to terminate is implied in reciprocal obligations where one party fails to perform, with damages and interest; personal actions with no special period are subject to a five-year limitation period from when performance can be demanded. BOE-A-1889-4763
• Arts. 1269, 1270 y 1301 CC. There is fraud where a party is induced to contract by insidious words or schemes; to annul the contract it must be serious, and incidental fraud only gives rise to compensation. The action to annul for fraud lapses four years after completion of the contract. BOE-A-1889-4763
• Arts. 5 y 7 LO 1/2025. Requires prior resort in civil matters to an appropriate dispute resolution method, without excepting this subject, and provides that a request to negotiate that defines its subject suspends the lapse period from the attempted delivery until agreement or the end of the negotiation, resuming if there is no meeting or written reply within thirty calendar days. BOE-A-2025-76

Each article checked against the consolidated text published in the BOE (the Spanish official gazette).

Frequently asked questions