How to bid on Spain's BOE auction portal

What do you need before you start?

Three things: an electronic ID the portal accepts, a bank account at one of the Tax Agency's collaborating banks, and the deposit money available. Without registering you can search auctions and see their public details, but you cannot pay a deposit, bid, or see the documents the managing authority has not made public.

How to register on the BOE auction portal

• Only individuals can register. To bid for a company, you register yourself and state, when bidding, that you act on its behalf.
• You identify yourself with a recognised or qualified digital certificate carrying your DNI or NIE, or with Cl@ve PIN or Cl@ve Permanente.
• Cl@ve credentials only work if you obtained them in person or with a digital certificate. Those obtained online with an invitation letter do not meet the portal's security level.
• Having Cl@ve is not enough: you must register on the portal itself, which sends one code by email and another by SMS. The email and phone cannot be shared between users.

How much is the deposit and how is it paid?

The deposit is paid only through the portal, which uses the Tax Agency's payment gateway. The account must be at a collaborating bank, you must be its holder or an authorised representative, and accounts that need several holders to sign are not accepted. You can pay at any point in the twenty days, but the portal itself advises leaving more than a day before closing.

How do you bid?

The auction accepts bids for twenty calendar days from opening (article 649.1 LEC and article 104.2 of the General Collection Regulation). On your first bid the portal asks whether you act for yourself or for a third party, and later bids follow the same choice. If you bid for someone else and win, you have three days to prove the representation to the court, or you lose the deposit (article 647.1 LEC).

• Check the figure before confirming: a confirmed bid cannot be withdrawn or changed.
• In a judicial auction bids are secret (article 649.1 LEC): you do not see the highest bid until closing. In a tax auction each bid is published at once and the outbid bidder is notified (article 104.2 of the Regulation).
• Where the managing authority provides for it, a bid that beats the highest one in the last hour extends the auction until an hour remains again, up to 24 hours beyond the planned closing.
• A judicial auction cannot end on a Saturday, Sunday, national holiday, between 24 December and 6 January, or in August (article 649.1 LEC).
• Other bidders' details are not public, during the auction or after it.

What is a bid reservation?

It means asking for your deposit to stay held even if you do not win, so that if the best bidder fails to pay the rest of the price the asset can go to the next bidders in order (article 652.1 LEC; article 103 bis.2 of the Regulation). The portal asks only once, on your first bid in that auction or lot, and your choice applies to every later bid. Where the highest bid is public, you can only bid at or below it if you accept the reservation.

Getting your BOE auction deposit back

• No reservation and no win: returned when the bidding period ends.
• With a reservation: held until the managing authority makes the award and closes the auction. The portal cannot tell you how long that takes, because it depends on that authority.
• If the managing authority cancels the auction or the lot, it is returned at cancellation. If it only suspends it, the deposit is held for the restart; in a judicial auction, a suspension longer than fifteen calendar days cancels the auction and releases deposits (article 649.2 LEC).
• The Tax Agency gateway only returns one deposit of the same amount to the same person per day: several identical deposits come back on consecutive days.
• Each deposit's status is under My profile, My deposits tab.

What happens when the auction closes?

The portal does not make the award: at closing it sends the winning bid to the managing authority (article 649.3 LEC), which decides. In a judicial auction of a property, if the best bid reaches 70 per cent of the auction value, the clerk approves it the next day and you have twenty days from closing to pay the difference between the deposit and the price (article 670.1). Below that 70 per cent, the debtor has ten days to bring someone who improves the price (article 670.3), and only then is your bid approved or not.

In a tax auction the board meets within fifteen calendar days, awards the asset if the best offer reaches 50 per cent of the reference price and, below that, decides whether it is enough. Once notified of the award, you have fifteen days to pay the rest (article 104 bis of the Regulation). If you do not pay, in both cases you lose the deposit.

Bidding at auction carries risk: undetected charges, occupancy, timing and an uncertain final price. This guide is for information only, reflects the rules and the portal's FAQ at the update date and does not replace professional advice on a specific deal.