How to know the land is his to sell

Start at the registry, not the site

The Directorate General of Land Registry and Cadastre holds the record. Every registered parcel has a cadastral section and number, and an extract showing the registered owners, their shares, and any burdens recorded against it.

Ask for that reference before you drive anywhere. A seller who will not give you the section and plot number is telling you something, and it is rarely good.

What the extract tells you

• Who owns it, and in what fractions — the test for undivided inheritance.
• Mortgages and liens registered against the parcel.
• Servitudes: rights of way, water rights, and burdens running in either direction.
• Any registered promise of sale already given to another buyer.
• The recorded area, which should be checked against the survey.

Land with no title at all

In parts of the interior, particularly at altitude, land was never brought onto the cadastre. What exists instead is possession — long, uncontested, locally acknowledged, and legally fragile.

This land is often beautiful and often cheap, and both facts follow from the same cause. It can sometimes be registered, through a process that is slow and not guaranteed. It should never be bought on the assumption that registration will follow.

Boundaries and the survey

The registered area and the fenced area are not always the same. Terrace walls move, neighbours extend, and old surveys were not always precise.

Commission a licensed surveyor to set the boundaries against the cadastral plan before you complete. Where the discrepancy is meaningful, it is a price conversation, and occasionally a reason to walk away.

The sequence that works

• Get the cadastral reference from the seller.
• Pull the title extract and read the owners, fractions and burdens.
• Confirm one person is empowered to sign, with a power of attorney if acting for others.
• Commission a survey against the cadastral plan.
• Confirm access is registered.
• Only then discuss a deposit.