Spanish court property auctions: how they work, step by step

A Spanish court auction usually reaches you as a short line in the official gazette, the Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE): a court, a case number, an address on the auction portal. Behind that line sits a procedure set out deadline by deadline in the Spanish Civil Procedure Act, the Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil of 2000 (LEC). The figures below come from the consolidated text on boe.es in the version in force since 3 April 2025, consulted on 25 September 2026.

Which kinds of court auction will you come across?

Three. The enforcement auction (subasta judicial en vía de apremio) sells a property to pay a debt that a court is enforcing, often a mortgage. The voluntary auction (subasta voluntaria) takes place outside any enforcement, at the request of the person entitled to sell. The insolvency auction (subasta concursal) sells assets of a debtor in insolvency proceedings.

Each has its own law. Enforcement auctions are governed by the LEC, with special rules for real property in Articles 655 to 675. Voluntary auctions are regulated in Articles 108 to 111 of the Voluntary Jurisdiction Act (Ley 15/2015 de la Jurisdicción Voluntaria); the LEC applies only where the conditions of sale (pliego de condiciones) say nothing else. Insolvency auctions follow the consolidated Insolvency Act (Texto Refundido de la Ley Concursal, Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2020). Ley 15/2015 also introduced voluntary auctions before a notary, held on the same portal.

Enforcement

• A debt enforced by a court, often a mortgageLEC Arts. 655 to 675
• Earlier charges stay, the buyer takes them overLEC Arts. 669 and 670
• Award thresholds set by statuteLEC Art. 670

Voluntary

• Requested by the person entitled to sellLey 15/2015 Art. 108
• The applicant sets the minimum priceLey 15/2015 Art. 111
• No bidder or no acceptance closes the fileLey 15/2015 Art. 111

Insolvency

• Assets of a debtor in insolvencyTRLC, RDLeg 1/2020
• Charges for insolvency claims are cancelledTRLC

Enforcement dominates.

Of 2,221 auction announcements Claronda recorded from the BOE between 20 June and 22 September 2026, 2,042 were enforcement auctions. Voluntary auctions accounted for 128 and insolvency auctions for 51. That is a three-month window from a regional selection, and insolvency auctions may also run on other portals that specialise in selling assets. Current listings in English are on our court auction pages.

Where is an auction announced, and what does the notice tell you?

In the BOE, and the notice tells you very little. Under Article 646 LEC it contains the date, the court office in charge, the number and type of the case, and the electronic address of the auction on the Portal de Subastas, the auction portal of the Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado. The official portal is authoritative for everything else.

The auction itself is called by decree. The court official who runs the enforcement, the letrado de la Administración de Justicia (LAJ), issues it once the valuation has been fixed (Article 644 LEC). The award at the end comes from the same office.

The property is described in the edict on the portal. For real property Article 668 LEC lists what it must contain: the registry details of the plot (finca), the unique registry code (código registral único), the cadastral reference where one exists, the registry certificate of ownership and charges, the valuation and whether the property is occupied. How to use that cadastral reference is explained in the Spanish cadastral reference.

The court requests that certificate from the land registry before the call (Article 656 LEC); if it is more than 6 months old, an updated land registry extract (nota simple) can be added to the portal. Occupants who are not the debtor have 10 days to present their titles (Article 661 LEC).

The procedure has been electronic since 15 October 2015, when Ley 19/2015 came into force. To register on the portal you need a recognised or qualified electronic certificate that identifies you by DNI or NIE. For most British buyers that means the NIE. The LEC sets no separate rules for bidders who live outside Spain.

How long does bidding run, and when does it close?

Twenty calendar days from opening, without extension (Article 649 LEC). Weekends and holidays count.

The auction opens at the earliest 24 hours after the notice appears in the BOE, and only once the portal has the details it needs (Article 648 LEC). It cannot close on a Saturday, a Sunday or a national holiday. Nor can it close between 24 December and 6 January, or at any point in August.

Bids stay secret.

The portal shows neither how many there are nor how high they go. Only at the close does it show the best bid, or that nobody bid. Each bid carries an electronic timestamp, and of two equal bids the earlier one wins (Article 648 LEC). On the last day you still do not know what you have to beat.

If the auction is suspended for more than 15 calendar days, it is cancelled and the deposits are returned; for property it is then published again as if it were a new auction (Article 649.2 LEC).

You can ask the court for a viewing during the bidding period, and the court asks the occupier for consent. An occupier who cooperates can earn the debtor a debt reduction of up to 2 per cent of the award value (Article 669.3 LEC). How often a viewing actually happens is not recorded in any official evaluation.

1. 1Preparation5 days' hearingLots are formed, the registry certifies ownership and charges (Arts. 643 and 656 LEC).
2. 2CalldecreeIssued by the LAJ once the valuation is fixed (Art. 644 LEC).
3. 3Notice in the BOEthe triggerDate, court office, case number, portal address (Art. 646 LEC).
4. 4Openingat least 24 hours laterOnce the portal has the details (Art. 648 LEC).
5. 5Bidding20 calendar daysSecret bids, no extension (Art. 649 LEC).
6. 6Awardthe day after the closeAt 70 per cent of the auction value or more (Art. 670 LEC).
7. 7Balancewithin 20 daysPrice minus deposit (Art. 670 LEC).
8. 8Registrationcopy of the decreeEarlier charges remain (Arts. 673 and 674 LEC).

What does the auction value mean?

It is the figure every percentage refers to, and it is lower than the valuation. For real property the auction value (valor de subasta) is the valuation minus all charges and rights that rank ahead of the claim being enforced, as shown in the registry certificate (Article 666 LEC). If those earlier charges reach or exceed the value of the property, enforcement against that property is suspended. In a mortgage enforcement the starting figure is the value agreed in the mortgage deed. It may not be lower than 75 per cent of the valuation (Article 682.2 LEC).

Earlier charges survive the sale.

By bidding you accept the title documents on file, or their absence, and you agree to take over liability for the charges that rank ahead of the enforced right (Article 669 LEC). These come on top of your bid. Later entries go: at the buyer's request, the enforced mortgage and every entry after it are cancelled in the register (Article 674 LEC).

Insolvency turns this round. In an insolvency auction the court orders the cancellation of all charges created before the insolvency in favour of insolvency claims, and the buyer bears the cost of cancelling them. The exception is an asset sold expressly with its charge kept in place; the buyer then steps into the insolvent debtor's obligation.

For voluntary auctions the Act does not settle the point. Ley 15/2015 applies the LEC only where the conditions of sale are silent, so the pliego for that auction is where to look.

None of this tells you what the plot itself carries. A property check puts together official sources for one property, identified by its cadastral reference.

How much is the deposit, and how does the money move?

Under Article 669.1 LEC, in the version in force since 3 April 2025, you deposit 20 per cent of the auction value before you bid, or at least 1,000 euros. The LAJ may raise or lower that percentage to suit the auction. For movable goods Article 647 LEC sets 10 per cent.

Practice differs from the statute.

In 226 auctions in Claronda's data that state both the auction value and the deposit, 210 show a deposit of 5 per cent of the auction value; 10 show 20 per cent and 5 show 10 per cent. The cause is unresolved. Use the statutory rate as background only: the deposit stated in the announcement for the specific procedure is authoritative.

The deposit is paid electronically through the portal, which uses services of the Spanish tax agency (AEAT) and its partner banks (Article 647 LEC). Deposit and balance run through the court deposit accounts (Cuentas de Depósitos y Consignaciones Judiciales). The enforcing creditor may bid without a deposit.

At the close the portal returns every deposit straight away, except the best bidder's, which is held as security and counts towards the price (Article 652 LEC). An unsuccessful bidder can ask for theirs to be held too, a reserved bid (reserva de postura), and stays next in line until the balance is paid.

The best bidder pays the difference between deposit and total price into the court deposit account within 20 days of the close (Article 670 LEC). If you need a mortgage for that, you can ask for a certified copy of the award decree before paying; the payment period is paused until the copy is handed over (Article 670.6 LEC). Whether a lender can complete in that time is a matter for the lender.

A bidder who does not pay loses the deposit. The award can then pass to a reserved bidder, whose bid counts together with the forfeited deposit (Article 652 LEC). Otherwise the law speaks of a failed auction (quiebra de la subasta) and the property is auctioned again (Article 653 LEC).

1. Depositbefore biddingPaid through the portal using the tax agency's services and partner banks (Art. 647 LEC).
2. CloseimmediatelyThe portal returns all deposits except the best bidder's and any reserved ones (Art. 652 LEC).
3. Balancewithin 20 daysThe best bidder pays the rest into the court deposit account (Art. 670 LEC).
4. Enforcing creditorfirstThe price goes towards the enforced claim (Art. 654 LEC).
5. Later creditors30 days to prove claimsA surplus is held for creditors registered after the enforcing one (Art. 672 LEC).
6. DebtorlastWhatever remains after that (Art. 672 LEC).

When does the best bid win the property?

At 70 per cent of the auction value or more, the LAJ approves the award by decree on the day after the close (Article 670.1 LEC). Below that, the outcome depends on what the debtor does next.

The debtor has 10 days from the close to name another person who offers at least 60 per cent of the auction value, or enough to pay the creditor in full. That person first pays the same deposit as a bidder and then has 10 days to pay the rest. If the debtor names nobody, the award goes ahead at 50 per cent of the auction value or more. A lower bid also succeeds if it settles the creditor's claim completely, though not below 40 per cent (Article 670.3 LEC). The debtor's main home (vivienda habitual) is protected more strongly. There the award cannot go below 70 per cent of the auction value, and only if it is made for the full amount owed can it go down to 60 per cent. These articles do not say how a bidder can tell from a listing that a property is the debtor's main home.

Up to the award the debtor can still redeem the property by paying principal, interest and costs in full. If nobody bids at all, the attachment is lifted at the debtor's request (Article 671 LEC).

Voluntary auctions work differently. The applicant sets the minimum price. If the best bid falls short of it, or the applicant reserved approval, the applicant has 3 days to respond; with no bidder or no acceptance the file is closed (Article 111 of Ley 15/2015). That Article refers only to the applicant's minimum price, not to the LEC thresholds.

What happens after the award?

The decree becomes your title. A certified copy of the award decree (testimonio del decreto de adjudicación), issued by the LAJ, is what the land registry records (Article 673 LEC). At your request the enforced mortgage and all later entries are cancelled; earlier charges stay.

Possession depends on who lives there. An empty property is handed over on request. If it is occupied, you must apply for the removal of occupants without sufficient title within one year of the acquisition (Article 675 LEC). The court decides after hearing the occupants, who have 10 days. After the year has passed, only ordinary proceedings remain.

Some questions are answered elsewhere. Whether unpaid community fees under the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal or arrears of local property tax (IBI) pass to the buyer does not follow from these LEC articles. The LEC sets individual deadlines, and no official statistic shows how long it takes from the order to registration. Taxes and fees on the purchase are set by the regional tax office, the land registry and the notary; ask them before you bid.

For the wider checks a buyer makes before any purchase in Spain, see what to check before you sign.

In short

• Enforcement auctions under the LEC are the most common; voluntary auctions follow Ley 15/2015, insolvency auctions the TRLC.
• The BOE notice is the trigger; the property details are in the edict on the official portal.
• Bidding runs for 20 calendar days with secret bids.
• The deposit stated for the specific procedure is authoritative, whatever the statutory rate.
• Earlier charges survive an enforcement sale. The balance is due within 20 days, and the decree is your title.