Getting married in a civil ceremony in Spain and choosing your marital property regime

A civil wedding means marrying before a State authority, with full legal effect and without a religious ceremony. It is the usual route when you do not opt for a religious wedding.

Before the wedding, the law requires a pre-marriage file (expediente matrimonial), or a notarial deed, in which it is checked that both parties have the legal capacity to marry and that there is no legal impediment or obstacle.

Since Ley 20/2011 del Registro Civil (the Spanish Civil Registry Act) came fully into force on 30 April 2021, that file is no longer handled by a judge: it is processed at the Registro Civil or before a notario in the district where one of the parties lives and, depending on what each office offers, it can be started on the electronic office of the Ministerio de Justicia (the Spanish Ministry of Justice).

Managora gathers the documents, files the expediente at the competent office and follows it up until the decision authorising the marriage is issued.

Civil marriage is open to people of full legal age (or emancipated minors) who are not bound by an earlier marriage that has not been dissolved and who are not related to each other within a degree prohibited by law. The marriage may be between people of the same or of different sex.

The usual documents for the file are: a valid DNI (the Spanish national ID card), NIE (the Spanish foreigner identification number) or passport for both parties, a full birth certificate for each party, a certificado de empadronamiento (proof of registration on the padron, the town hall's residents roll, which evidences where you have lived in recent years) and a sworn declaration of marital status. If there was an earlier marriage, you provide the final divorce or annulment judgment, or the death certificate of the deceased spouse.

At least 2 witnesses of full legal age are needed for the ceremony, and they sign the record.

If one of the parties is a foreign national or does not live in Spain, additional documents are requested, such as the certificate of legal capacity to marry from their country, with a sworn translation and legalisation or apostille. Managora identifies exactly which papers apply to your case and prepares them for you.

Since 3 April 2025, following Ley Orgánica 1/2025 on the efficiency of the Public Justice Service, a civil wedding can be held before 3 authorities: the registrar in charge of the Registro Civil (at the General Office), a notario freely chosen by the couple, or the mayor or a councillor acting under delegation, that is, at the town hall.

An important change: Jueces de Paz (justices of the peace) no longer perform civil marriages. Anyone who had booked a date with a Juez de Paz for after 3 April 2025 must move the ceremony to any of the other authorities.

The pre-marriage file is processed where one of the parties lives, but the wedding can be held at a different town hall, because the power to officiate belongs to the municipality where it takes place.

Managora books the date with the authority you prefer and coordinates the paperwork so that the ceremony goes ahead without a hitch.

The marital property regime decides who owns the assets and the debts during your life together and how everything is divided if the marriage ends. It is one of the most important financial decisions a couple makes.

If nothing is agreed, in common law territory the default is the sociedad de gananciales, the joint property regime (article 1316 of the Código Civil, the Spanish Civil Code): whatever either of you earns or acquires during the marriage belongs to both of you in equal halves. In Cataluña and the Islas Baleares the default regime is separation of assets, and other autonomous communities with their own foral law have their own regime.

To choose a different regime (separation of assets or participation) you must execute capitulaciones matrimoniales, a marital property agreement, in a public deed before a notario (articles 1325 to 1327 of the Código Civil). They can be signed before or after the wedding and changed as many times as you wish; if they are signed before the wedding and the marriage does not take place within 1 year, they lapse (article 1334).

The capitulaciones are recorded in the margin of the marriage entry at the Registro Civil so that they take effect against third parties. Managora drafts the capitulaciones to suit you, executes them before a notario and handles their registration.

The sociedad de gananciales is dissolved by divorce, annulment, the death of a spouse or by switching to separation of assets (article 1392 of the Código Civil). Dissolution and liquidation are different things: dissolution closes the regime and liquidation divides the joint estate.

Liquidating means drawing up an inventory of the joint assets and liabilities as at the date of dissolution, valuing them, paying the debts of the partnership and dividing the remainder in equal halves between the two of you (articles 1396 onwards; the division in halves is in article 1404).

The liquidation can be done by mutual agreement in a public deed before a notario or, if there is no agreement, through the courts by means of the procedure for liquidating the marital property regime (articles 806 onwards of the Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil, the Spanish Civil Procedure Act).

As for tax, if the division is made in equal halves and with no excess allocation, the transaction is exempt from Impuesto sobre Transmisiones Patrimoniales (Spanish transfer tax) (article 45.I.B.3 of the consolidated text of the ITP and AJD Act), it is not subject to plusvalia municipal (the municipal tax on the increase in urban land value) (article 104.3 of the consolidated text of the Ley de Haciendas Locales, the Spanish Local Taxes Act) and it generates no gain for IRPF (Spanish personal income tax) purposes (article 33.2 of the Ley del IRPF). Only excess allocations that are not compensated are taxed. Managora prepares the inventory, the liquidation deed and its registration.

The full birth certificate is free of charge on the electronic office of the Ministerio de Justicia and the file at the Registro Civil carries no tasa (official fee). The notarial route (pre-marriage deed, ceremony, capitulaciones and liquidation) is governed by the notarial fee scale. A wedding at the town hall may carry a municipal tasa, which varies with the municipality, your residence and the time slot.

Timings depend on how busy each office is: gathering the documents and processing the file usually takes several weeks and, once it is authorised, the wedding date is booked within the period for which the decision remains valid.

The price of the Managora service for each stage (pre-marriage file, civil wedding, capitulaciones and liquidation of gananciales) is kept up to date on the page for each procedure. You can see the price on the relevant page. Managora prepares and files each step for you.