Notarial acts and proceedings: notoriety, requirements, consignment and voluntary auction

It is the proceeding under article 209 of the Reglamento Notarial (the Notarial Regulation) whereby the notario (Spanish civil law notary), after carrying out the evidence deemed necessary, issues a judgement of notoriety: they declare that a fact is notorious and can serve as a basis to establish rights or legitimise personal or patrimonial situations.

It serves, for example, to prove an identity when your documents show divergent data, continuous residence, an unregistered family relationship, a marriage celebrated abroad, the professional activity exercised or the continuous possession of an asset.

The typical evidence combines a minimum of 2 witnesses unrelated to the applicant who know the facts directly and complementary documentation (empadronamiento, the local town hall registration, receipts, certifications). If the notario foresees that the act may prejudice third parties, they notify them of the start (by writ or edicts) and they have 20 days to make written submissions (alegaciones) as appropriate to their right.

2 special cases have their own channel: the declaration of intestate heirs is a notoriety act with a specific regime (articles 55 and 56 of the Ley del Notariado and 209 bis of the Regulation) and is processed as a separate proceeding; and the rectification of area or the resumption of the registry tract are channelled today through the notarial proceedings of the Ley Hipotecaria (the Mortgage Act, articles 201 and 208 LH), direct heirs of the notoriety act. Managora identifies which one corresponds to your case before starting.

It is the burofax with public faith: according to article 201 of the Reglamento Notarial, the notario records the sending of letters or other documents by post, telematic procedure, fax or any other suitable means. The act proves under notarial faith the full content of the shipment, the date of posting, the certificate receipt and, when it arrives, the acknowledgement of receipt.

Important: this type of act certifies the sending and its content, but not that the recipient has read the communication, and it does not grant them the right to reply in the same act. If you need the notario to convey an intimation and collect the recipient's response, the tool is the notification and requirement act (articles 202 to 206 of the Reglamento Notarial), which we can also process.

The most profitable uses are procedural: interrupting the statute of limitations of a claim (article 1973 of the Código Civil), requiring payment from the tenant more than 30 days prior to the lawsuit to exclude the enervation of the eviction (article 22.4 LEC), documenting a prior claim to a payment order procedure or leaving reliable record of contractual and corporate communications.

Compared to the ordinary burofax, the content is protocolised in the notary's office: the original matrix is kept indefinitely and you can request an authorised copy years later, when the lawsuit arrives.

Through the offer of payment and notarial consignment (articles 1176 to 1181 of the Código Civil and 69 of the Ley del Notariado). It applies when the creditor unreasonably refuses to receive the payment or to deliver a payment letter, is absent or unknown, has limited capacity to receive it, several people claim to collect the same debt or the title of the obligation has been lost.

The procedure is simple: what is owed is made available to the notario; if it is money, securities or financial instruments, the notario obligatorily deposits it in the collaborating financial institution of the Administration of Justice. Then they notify the creditor, who has 10 working days to accept the payment, withdraw the item or make written submissions (alegaciones).

If the creditor accepts, the notario delivers the consigned item, records it in the act and the obligation is extinguished. If they remain silent or refuse, the proceeding is archived and you keep reliable proof that you offered the payment and consigned what was owed, which serves to neutralise the default and stop the accrual of interest. It is worth knowing that the notario does not have jurisdictional powers: they cannot declare the obligation extinguished nor declare the consignment 'well done' when the creditor does not accept. To obtain the full liberating effect of article 1180 of the Código Civil, you must ask the judge to declare the consignment well done, and the notarial act is the main proof of that claim.

There is also a judicial proceeding of voluntary jurisdiction for consignment (articles 98 and following of Ley 15/2015). In that specific proceeding, the intervention of a lawyer or a procurador (a court representative) is not mandatory, regardless of the amount (article 98.3 of Ley 15/2015): the general rule of €6,000 of article 3 does not apply to it. Managora processes the notarial route, which is the agile one; if your case only admits the judicial one, we will tell you before charging you.

Articles 72 to 77 of the Ley del Notariado allow any owner to ask the notario to sell a movable asset, real estate or a right to the highest bidder, with all the guarantees of a regulated procedure. The notario examines the request, checks the ownership, the charges, the possessory situation and the valuation, and consults the Public Insolvency Register before accepting the assignment.

The auction is electronic and is held on the Auction Portal of the State Agency Official State Gazette. The announcement is published in the BOE (and wherever the promoter designates), the auction opens at least 24 hours later and bids are accepted for at least 20 calendar days. To bid, each bidder electronically consigns 5% of the asset's value; the applicant themselves is not required to make this deposit.

Once the auction is closed, the notario authorises the act with the result and, if the asset is real estate, a public deed of sale is granted in favour of the successful bidder upon completing the payment of the price, with access to the Land Registry.

It is the ideal route when all co-owners of an undivided property want to sell with transparency, when in an inheritance there is an asset difficult to distribute or when you seek maximum concurrence of buyers and a contrasted market price. Note: it is voluntary, it requires the agreement of all owners; if a co-owner refuses to sell, the channel is different and we will indicate it to you when studying the case.

The main cost is the notarial tariff (Real Decreto 1426/1989), which depends on the amount, the pages, the copies and the procedures carried out. In notoriety, document remittance and consignment, no tasa (official fee) is involved: only the tariff and accessory expenses (certified mail in the remittance, certifications serving as proof in notoriety or the bank deposit in consignment).

The voluntary auction is the exception: the mandatory publication of the call announcement in the Official State Gazette (article 74 of the Ley del Notariado) accrues the state tasa for the insertion of announcements in the BOE, which is added to the notarial tariff. Its amount is settled according to the current rate of the State Agency Official State Gazette.

As a practical guide, not as a normative rate: a remittance act usually ranges between €50 and €100 in tariff plus postage, and a notoriety act between €90 and €300 depending on the evidence carried out. These are market estimates, because the base tariff is completed in each proceeding with matrix pages, procedures, requirements and authorised copies. In the auction, the successful bidder also pays the ITP or AJD tax of the acquisition (depending on the asset and the autonomous community) and, in real estate, the registry inscription. The exact amount is settled by the notary's office in each proceeding.

Managora's fees for preparing and processing each proceeding do not depend on the notario: you can see the updated amount on the file of each procedure.

You tell us your case in the chat, attach the documentation and we do the rest: we choose the correct tool, draft the requirement or the text to be sent, gather titles and evidence, set up the notario in your preferred province and follow the timeframes of the proceeding until closure.

You will only have to appear at the notary's office for the signature; we drive the rest of the proceeding and deliver the copies to you by email. Certain notarial documents also admit granting by videoconference through the Citizen's Notarial Portal since Ley 11/2023; we will confirm if your act allows it.

You can start the notoriety act, the document remittance act, the offer of payment and consignment or the voluntary auction proceeding right now from its file: Managora prepares and submits it for you.