Land surveyor in Jávea

Buying a villa in Jávea without surprises in the title deed

Many of the houses for sale in Xàbia were built in the 1970s and 1980s, when plots were described by hand and areas were rounded off. Today the title deed says one thing, the Cadastre another and the wall around the garden a third. If you are about to buy, and especially if you come from another country and do not know how the Cadastre and the Land Registry (Registro de la Propiedad) relate to each other here, you should know which of the three is right before you sign.

We measure the plot with GNSS and a total station, draw the walls, house, pool and porches, and overlay it all on the cadastral map. The report says what matches, what does not and what can be put right afterwards. Sometimes the difference is four square metres of no importance. Other times it is a covered terrace that was never declared, or a wall that swallowed part of the road. Better to know while there is still room to negotiate.

If you live abroad: how we work remotely

Many owners in Xàbia spend much of the year in another country. You do not need to be here for us to survey your property. Send us the cadastral reference, the title deed or the land registry extract (nota simple) if you have it, and what concerns you: an area that does not add up, a wall, an undeclared porch.

With that we review the paperwork and send you the proposal. On the day of the visit, someone you trust only has to let us in, whether a neighbour, the property manager or your lawyer. The plan and the note with the conclusions reach you by email, and we explain them by video call or in writing, calmly and without jargon.

Hillside plots: the Montgó, Cap de la Nau and la Granadella

Slope rules much of the municipality. On the south face of the Montgó and on the hillsides that climb towards Cap de la Nau and la Granadella there are plots with tens of metres of difference in level between the street and the bottom of the garden, taken up by terraces and walls that nobody ever drew. For the architect this is not a detail: the height of the house, the number of storeys and the position of the pool are all measured from natural ground level, and you have to know where that is.

We give the architect a survey with contour lines every 50 cm, levels at the foot and the top of every wall, the trees worth keeping and the position of the neighbouring houses. In DWG, georeferenced in ETRS89, so it opens directly in their software without redrawing anything.

The valley, the riu-raus and inherited properties

Between the old town and the Arenal, and in the partidas (rural districts) facing Jesús Pobre and Gata, there are still country houses with a riu-rau, almond trees and old terraces of Muscat vines. They are usually properties inherited by several siblings, with boundaries marked by a carob tree or an upright stone that only the eldest remembers. When the time comes to divide or sell them, we carry out the boundary demarcation (deslinde) on site with any neighbours who wish to come, place boundary markers and prepare the plot subdivision (segregación) with the GML file (the georeferenced parcel format the Cadastre and the Land Registry require) that the notary's office asks for.

Topographic plans for building permits and new builds in Jávea

The design of a house or a pool has to respect the setbacks from the boundaries and from the road, and that can only be checked with a reliable topographic plan. When the work is finished, the notary will ask for the cadastral building location report (ICUC), with the coordinates of the house footprint, to register it. And if what was built is old and was never declared, the route usually goes through a certificate of age. We sign all three ourselves as chartered surveyors (colegiado), with our registration number, and we tell you what each one proves and what it does not.

On plots that look onto the cliffs or a cove, the coastal protection easement (Costas) has to be added. We place that strip on the survey from the start, so that the project does not have to be redone.

Typical cases in Xàbia / Jávea

Someone buying a resale villa who wants to know whether the porch and the pool appear in the Cadastre. The architect about to design on a slope of the Montgó who needs the level of every terrace. The family that inherits a house with a riu-rau in the valley and has to divide it three ways. The lawyer who needs a signed report because the neighbour's wall is not where the urbanisation plan shows it.