What should you ask about the building inspection before buying?

What a building inspection is in Spain

The building inspection (ITE or IEE in Spanish) is the periodic review of the common parts of a block of flats carried out by a qualified technician: structure, façades, roofs and shared services. The outcome is a report filed with the town hall or the regional register, stating the building's condition on that date and the works it needs.

Each Spanish region names and scopes it differently. In the Valencia region it is called the building assessment report (informe de evaluación del edificio) and covers the state of repair of the common parts, accessibility and energy efficiency. In the Basque Country and Catalonia it is called the technical inspection (inspección técnica) and focuses on the state of repair. What matters to a buyer is the same everywhere: whether it exists, when it was done, what the result was and which works remain pending.

It is not the same as a survey you commission yourself. The building inspection is ordered by the owners' association (comunidad de propietarios), looks at the common parts and does not enter your flat. In several regions it is entered in an official register, which is why it is one of the first things worth checking.

When it is mandatory and how often it is renewed

Valencia region: mandatory once a residential building is more than 50 years old, and also to apply for public renovation grants. It is valid for 10 years from electronic filing. Owners of a building that should have one and does not commit a planning offence.

Basque Country: mandatory for predominantly residential buildings over 50 years old. Ten years after it was filed with the town hall, a new one must be submitted.

Catalonia: every building with homes must pass it before it turns 45. The result leads to a certificate of fitness whose length depends on what was found: 10 years if the building is fit with no defects or only minor ones, 6 years if provisionally fit because of significant defects, and 3 years if fit only as a precaution because of serious defects.

In other regions the obligation, the building age and the frequency are set by regional law or local by-laws. If the building you like is elsewhere, ask the town hall or the property manager (administrador de fincas) which schedule applies and whether it has lapsed.

Where to check whether the building has passed

Valencia region: the technician registers the report in the regional register, and the Generalitat runs a public search tool for summarised reports, linked from its building assessment report page.

Madrid region: the single integrated register of building assessment reports has a public portal where you search by municipality, street and number, or by registration number. The data come from the town halls and are for information only.

Basque Country: the Basque government keeps the register of technical inspections in EuskoRegite, which includes a building search to see whether a property has filed one.

Catalonia: consulting the Generalitat register requires proof that you own the property or have the owner's authorisation. As a buyer, the practical step is to ask the seller for the certificate of fitness and the full report.

Either way, a register only tells you whether a report exists and its result. The detail (each defect, where it is, the proposed deadline) is in the full report, held by the owners' association. Ask the seller or the property manager for it before you sign the arras, the reservation contract with a deposit that usually precedes completion in Spain.

Favourable or unfavourable: how to read the result

A favourable result means the technician found no defects requiring works, in the areas inspected and on that date. An unfavourable result means works are needed and the owners' association must carry them out within a deadline. What counts is not the label but the list of defects and their urgency.

Maintenance: elements with no damage or negligible damage that routine upkeep can deal with.

Medium-term works: low-importance damage or occasional moderate damage. According to the Valencian guide, these works could be postponed for more than a year.

Urgent works: widespread moderate or high-importance damage. The Valencian guide sets a maximum deadline of under one year for them. If there is also imminent risk to people or property, the technician specifies measures within 24 hours at most, such as propping up or closing off an area.

Catalonia uses a different scale with the same logic: minor, significant, serious or very serious defects, and a shorter certificate the more serious they are. A building with a 3-year certificate is not in the same position as one with a 10-year certificate.

Remedy deadlines: what happens after an unfavourable result

After an inspection with defects, the owners' association must commission the works within the deadlines in the report and prove they have been done. In the Basque Country this is shown with a remedy certificate (certificado de subsanación) signed by the technician who supervised the works and filed with the town hall; the remedy can be complete or partial, depending on which levels of intervention have been resolved.

In the Valencia region the register keeps the status of each report: with urgent works pending, without urgent works, or with urgent works carried out. That label tells you at a glance whether the problem is still open.

For you, the key question is who pays. If the works are approved and pending, you will join an owners' association that has to pay for them. If they are done, ask for the completion or remedy certificate and check that it covers the urgent defects.

How to use the inspection to negotiate or ask the seller

Ask for the full report, not just the summary: cover page, visit date, result, list of defects with deadlines and photo annexes.

Check its validity: the filing date and whether the next inspection falls due before or shortly after you buy.

Ask for the remedy or completion certificate if there were urgent defects, and the minutes of the owners' meetings where the works and their cost split were approved.

Ask the property manager for a certificate of any debts to the association and approved special levies (derramas), and state in the arras contract who pays levies already approved.

If urgent works are pending, you have three reasonable options: ask for them to be done before completion, deduct their estimated cost from the price, or agree that the seller pays their share. If there is imminent risk, the priority is not to negotiate but to have a technician look at the building before going any further.

What the HOUSINGFAX report does with the building inspection

In the Valencia region, the Madrid region and the Basque Country, the complete report queries the official inspection register using the address you type and tells you whether an inspection is on record, its date and its result. In the Valencia region it adds the recorded defects grouped by deadline, plus the state of repair, accessibility and energy data declared in the report.

If nothing is on record, it says so, without assuming the building is fine. Outside those regions, the report tells you what to ask for and from whom. A favourable result is explained for what it is: no defects recorded on that date, not the absence of hidden defects.

The inspection is one of the report's 22 checks, each with an official source and a date: cadastral record, year of construction, flood zone, energy certificate, earthquake risk, ground movement and more. Start with the free report, no sign-up needed; the Essential report costs €11 and the Complete report with building condition €19, as a one-off payment with a PDF in minutes. Check your home for free before you pay the deposit.

The report organises what the registers say and tells you what to check; it does not replace an on-site technical inspection of the building or a survey by a professional you hire.