How to buy a flat at a judicial auction

What a judicial auction is, and where the discount comes from

A judicial auction is the procedure by which a court sells a property to pay a debt, almost always an unpaid mortgage or an attachment. It goes out at a value set by the court and is awarded to the best bid, provided that bid reaches the percentages the law requires. It is one of the few routes where the price is set not by a seller trying to maximise it, but by a procedure trying to collect a debt.

That is the source of the discount, and of the risk too. Nobody answers for hidden defects and the property may be occupied. What you buy is not a home with commercial warranties: it is a position in a procedure.

Two different routes that end on the same portal

It pays to know how the flat reached the auction, because the starting value is calculated differently in each case.

• Ordinary enforcement: the court attaches an asset of the debtor and puts it up for auction. The auction value is the appraisal minus the amount of all prior senior charges shown in the registry certificate (article 666 LEC). If those charges equal or exceed the value of the asset, enforcement over that property is stayed.
• Mortgage enforcement: the mortgaged asset is pursued. The auction benchmark is the appraisal price agreed in the mortgage deed, which cannot be lower than 75 per cent of the value of the appraisal carried out (article 682). The auction is called once twenty days have passed since the payment demand and the notifications (article 691).

The BOE auction portal

Every judicial auction in Spain is electronic and held on the auction portal run by the Spanish Official State Gazette agency. The notice published in the BOE is deliberately terse: the date, the judicial office, the case number and the electronic address of the auction within the portal. Everything else lives there. It has been this way since 2015: auctions used to be held in person at the court, which sharply limited who could bid, and today anyone with electronic identification and the deposit lodged can do it from home.

To take part you must be registered as a user and log in with secure electronic identification and signature mechanisms, so that every bidder is fully identified. The auction opens at least twenty four hours after the notice is published in the BOE.

What the notice contains, and what to read first

The notice published on the portal is the document that actually matters, and the law requires it to contain far more than most buyers read. Article 668 requires, among others, these elements.

• Identification of the property, its registry details, the unique registry code and the cadastral reference if it has one.
• The certificate of ownership and charges issued at the start of the enforcement.
• The appraisal or valuation serving as the benchmark, including the external valuation report recorded in the enforceable title.
• The reduction for senior charges, if any, with the updated status of those claims.
• The occupancy status of the property, if it appears in the enforcement file.
• The warning that charges, encumbrances and entries ranking ahead of the claimant's credit survive, and that by the mere act of bidding the bidder accepts them and agrees to assume the resulting liability.

In addition, the Land Registry supplies through the portal registry information on the property, kept up to date until the auction closes. If the auction request was delayed more than six months after the certificate of charges, the court clerk may request an updated extract and publish it there. That is the document most worth hunting for: the original certificate can be years old.

Requirements before bidding

• Registration as a user of the auction portal with electronic identification and signature.
• A declaration that you know the general and particular conditions of the auction.
• The prior deposit. Since Organic Act 1/2025 the deposit to bid on a property is 20 per cent of the value of the asset, with a minimum of 1,000 euros where that percentage comes out lower (article 669.1 LEC). The court clerk may raise or lower it given the circumstances, so the auction notice always governs.
• Stating whether you bid in your own name or for a third party, and whether you consent to the bid reservation.
• Real capacity to pay the balance within the legal deadline. If you do not, you lose the deposit.
• Having reviewed the charges and the occupancy status. The portal does not require this, and it is what decides the deal.

The auction step by step

The twenty bidding days

The auction accepts bids for a non extendable period of twenty calendar days from opening (article 649.1 LEC). It cannot end on a Saturday, Sunday or national holiday, nor between 24 December and 6 January inclusive, nor during August. If the auction is suspended for more than fifteen calendar days it is cancelled and the deposits are returned.

Bids are secret. During the auction the portal does not report whether bids exist or how much they are, and only on closing does it publish the best price offered or the fact that it drew no bidders. If two bids match in amount, the earlier one wins. That changes strategy completely compared with an open outcry auction: you cannot keep outbidding a rival by a euro, because you do not know the rival is there.

Bid reservation, the second chance almost nobody uses

When bidding you can ask that, if you are not the best bidder, your deposit be kept in reserve. If the winner fails to lodge the balance in time, the award can be approved in favour of the next bidder in order of bids, provided that reservation was made and their amount plus the forfeited deposit reaches the failed award. It is a way in that gets lost by not ticking a box.

The thresholds that decide whether your bid counts

This is the part that ruins most deals, because being the best bidder is not the same as getting the flat. Article 670 sets a ladder of percentages over the value at which the asset went to auction.

• Bid equal to or above 70 per cent: the court clerk approves the award by decree the day after the close. You then have twenty days from the close to lodge the difference between the deposit and the total price (article 670.1 LEC). That deadline was forty days before Organic Act 1/2025.
• Bid below 70 per cent: the debtor has ten days from the close to present another person willing to improve the price by offering at least 60 per cent of the auction value, or a lower amount that is enough to fully satisfy the creditor. That person must have lodged the deposit and has ten days to pay the balance.
• If the debtor does not use that option or the improvement does not go through: the award is approved in your favour if your bid reaches 50 per cent of the auction value, or the amount sufficient to fully satisfy the creditor without falling below 40 per cent.
• Below those percentages the court clerk decides after hearing the parties, weighing the debtor's conduct, the loss of assets involved and the benefit to the creditor. That decree can be appealed for review.
• Debtor's primary residence: the award is not approved for less than 70 per cent of the auction value, unless it is made for the amount owed to the creditor on all counts, and in that case never for less than 60 per cent.

What happens if the auction draws no bidders

If there is no bidder, the court clerk lifts the attachment at the debtor's request. Even so, once the auction has drawn no bidders the debtor, alone or at the creditor's suggestion, may name a person willing to take the asset for an amount equal to or above 50 per cent of the auction value, or for the amount sufficient to fully satisfy the creditor without falling below 40 per cent. The parties can also jointly request a new auction.

For an investor this moves where the opportunity sits: an auction with no bidders opens a negotiation phase in which access to information weighs more than the bid.

The charges you inherit and the ones that get cancelled

The rule is easy to state and expensive to ignore: charges, encumbrances and entries ranking ahead of the claim being enforced survive, and whoever is awarded the asset assumes the liability arising from them. Later entries and annotations are cancelled by court order at the buyer's request. That is why registry rank is not a technicality: it is the difference between buying a flat and buying a flat plus a debt.

Not every debt affecting the property is registered. Unpaid homeowners' association fees and taxes levied on the asset follow the property on the terms set by their own rules, even if they do not show in the registry extract. Asking the association for a debt certificate and checking the council tax position is part of the analysis.

Occupancy and eviction: the costliest risk

An occupied flat can take a long time to become available, and that wait eats the discount. The law tries to make the fact known before bidding: where the file shows occupants other than the debtor, they are notified so that within ten days they produce the titles justifying their situation, and the auction publicity must state the occupancy status of the property.

• The creditor may ask, before the auction is announced, for the court to declare that the occupants have no right to remain in the property. That declaration is recorded in the auction publicity.
• Where that declaration exists, the court clerk orders eviction immediately, fixing an exact day and time.
• Where it does not, the buyer can request the eviction of those who can be considered occupants in fact or without sufficient title, with a hearing set within the following ten days.
• That request has a deadline: one year from acquiring the property. After that year, eviction can only be sought in ordinary proceedings, a far longer road.

You can ask to see the flat inside

This is one of the least used and most useful options. During the bidding period anyone interested can ask the court to inspect the property, and the court passes the request to whoever is in possession, seeking their consent. It is not an automatic right, but the law encourages that cooperation: if the occupier consents, the debtor can ask for a reduction of up to 2 per cent of the award value. It is always worth asking, and if it is refused, the refusal is information too.

Costs and taxes: the winning bid is not the cost

On top of the award price come the applicable tax, Land Registry fees, an agency if you delegate the paperwork, and the debts that follow the property. The taxable base of transfer tax is the Cadastre reference value, unless the price agreed or the value declared are higher. Put another way: winning very cheaply does not necessarily lower the tax. We develop this in the guide on costs, taxes and charges at auction.

What people ask most before bidding

What are the risks of buying a flat at a judicial auction?

Five weigh the most. Charges ranking ahead of the claim being enforced are not cancelled and you take them on (article 670.5 LEC). The flat may be occupied, and the fast eviction route lasts one year from acquisition (article 675). You often cannot see it inside. If you win and do not pay the balance in time, you lose the deposit. And the debtor can pay before the award is approved (article 670.7).

What is the minimum bid at a judicial auction?

The law sets no minimum amount to bid: the portal accepts any figure unless the notice sets a minimum bid or steps. What it sets are thresholds for approving the award (article 670 LEC): at 70 per cent of the auction value, it is approved the day after the close; below that, the debtor has ten days to improve it and, if not, it is approved from 50 per cent, except for the debtor's primary residence.

How does a judicial auction of a flat work?

You register on the BOE auction portal with an electronic certificate or Cl@ve, lodge a deposit of 20 per cent of the value of the asset, minimum 1,000 euros (article 669.1 LEC), and bid during twenty calendar days. Bids are secret. If at the close your bid is the best and clears the article 670 thresholds, the award is approved, you pay the balance within twenty days and register the award.

What happens to the mortgage if I buy a flat at auction?

It depends which one. The one being enforced is cancelled: at your request the court clerk orders the cancellation of that encumbrance and of every later entry (article 674 LEC). A mortgage ranking ahead of the claim being enforced survives, and by the mere act of bidding you accept taking it on (articles 669.2 and 670.5). That is why you read the rank in the certificate of charges, not just the amount.

The mistakes that cost the most

• Bidding on the original certificate of charges without checking the updated registry extract: new entries can have appeared in between.
• Confusing the auction value with market value. The first comes from an appraisal minus charges.
• Forgetting the article 670 thresholds and ending up in the ten day improvement limbo with your money tied up.
• Not budgeting the tax on the Cadastre reference value.
• Assuming a flat is empty because the notice says nothing. Silence on occupancy status is not evidence of vacancy.
• Taking an occupied property with no budget for the eviction, and letting the one year deadline lapse.

Buying at a judicial auction carries risk: undetected charges, occupancy, long timelines and an uncertain recovery value. This guide is informational, reflects the wording of the Spanish Civil Procedure Act in force at the date of update and does not replace professional advice on a specific transaction.