Spanish law does protect buyers against hidden defects. What catches foreign buyers out is how short the window is: for a resale bought from a private seller, the general limit is six months from completion.
We are architects, not lawyers. What follows is the general framework every buyer in Spain should understand; for your own case, take legal advice from a Spanish lawyer. What we can do is the technical half: establish what the defect is, how long it has been there and what it costs to put right.
What counts as a hidden defect
Article 1484 of the Spanish Civil Code makes the seller liable for concealed defects in what they sell, where those defects make the thing unfit for its purpose, or reduce its usefulness to the point that the buyer would not have bought it, or would have paid less.
Three conditions, all of which must hold:
- It must be serious, not a cosmetic imperfection.
- It must have been concealed at the time of purchase.
- It must pre-date the sale, even if it only became apparent afterwards.
The trap: «hidden» does not mean «I didn’t notice»
This is where most claims fail. The same article 1484 states that the seller is not liable for defects that were apparent or in plain sight.
If the damp patch was visible on the wall during the viewing, it is not a hidden defect. If the bathroom ceiling was clearly blown, it is not a hidden defect. If the windows were obviously single-glazed aluminium with no thermal break, it is not a hidden defect.
Spanish law assumes you looked. Most buyers look at a property for twenty minutes, with the agent standing there, the seller’s furniture against the walls, and without opening a single consumer unit.
Six months. Not six years.
Article 1490 of the Civil Code provides that actions for hidden defects lapse six months after delivery of the thing sold.
For a second-hand property bought from a private individual, that is the general position, and it expires before many buyers have finished decorating. Spanish courts have treated cases of deliberate concealment by the seller differently, and other routes with different time limits exist, but the general rule is the one above and it is worth knowing before you relax.
If you are coming from a jurisdiction where a surveyor’s negligence or a seller’s disclosure obligations give you years to act, recalibrate. The Spanish system puts the burden of looking on the buyer, and gives the buyer a short window afterwards.
What you can claim, if you prove it
Article 1486 gives you a choice between two routes, and you must pick one:
- Rescind the contract (acción redhibitoria): the sale is unwound and your costs returned.
- Reduce the price (acción quanti minoris): you keep the property and claim the difference, assessed by experts.
If the seller knew about the defect and said nothing, article 1486 adds damages.
New build is a completely different, and much better, regime
If you are buying new from a developer, you are not in article 1484 territory at all. You are under the Ley 38/1999 de Ordenación de la Edificación (LOE), which gives substantially stronger guarantees:
- Ten years for damage affecting the structure: foundations, load-bearing elements, beams, floor slabs, structural walls.
- Three years for damage affecting habitability: damp, thermal and acoustic insulation, weathertightness, sanitation.
- One year for defects in finishing, for which the builder is liable.
This is why inspecting a new build before handover is so worthwhile. Everything documented at that point falls to the developer. Everything you miss becomes your snagging list and, eventually, your bill.
The cheap way to never get here
This guide exists because claiming is slow, uncertain and expensive. You must prove the defect existed, that it was concealed, that it is serious, and that you are in time. That means expert reports, lawyers and months.
The alternative costs €249, takes an afternoon, and happens before you sign.
A chartered architect walks the property, carries out up to 170 checks, photographs every defect and puts a price on it. With that report in hand, what would have been a future hidden defect becomes a known one — and a known defect is one of three things: grounds to renegotiate the price, a condition you write into the contract, or a reason to look at a different house.
None of the three ends up in court.
See pricing · Report within 48 working hours, in Madrid, Málaga and the Costa del Sol.