Claim Your Mortgage Expenses Back: How to Recover Notary, Agency & Registry Costs in Spain

If you signed a mortgage (hipoteca) in Spain between approximately 2012 and 2019, you may be entitled to recover a significant portion of the costs that were unfairly charged to you by your bank. Thanks to landmark rulings by the Spanish Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo) and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), millions of borrowers can now reclaim these expenses.

What Expenses Can You Claim?

The Spanish courts have ruled that banks improperly imposed certain costs on mortgage borrowers that should have been shared or borne entirely by the bank. The claimable expenses include:

• 50% of notary fees (gastos de notaría): The Supreme Court ruled that notary costs must be split equally between the bank and the borrower, as both parties benefit from the public deed
• 50% of agency/management fees (gastos de gestoría): The gestión or administrative fees charged by the bank's chosen agency for processing the mortgage must also be shared equally
• 100% of property registry fees (gastos de registro): The registration of the mortgage in the Land Registry (Registro de la Propiedad) benefits the bank exclusively, so these costs should be borne entirely by the lender
• 100% of the mortgage tax (Impuesto de Actos Jurídicos Documentados — AJD) for mortgages signed before November 2018: Following the Supreme Court's ruling of October 2018, this tax was shifted to banks from November 2018 onwards. If you paid it before that date, you can claim it back

Which Banks Are Affected?

This applies to all banks operating in Spain, including:

• Banco Santander
• BBVA
• CaixaBank
• Banco Sabadell
• Bankinter
• Deutsche Bank España
• ING Direct
• Unicaja
• Abanca
• And any other bank that issued mortgages in Spain

The Legal Basis

The claims are founded on several key rulings:

Supreme Court Ruling of 23 January 2019 (STS 44/2019): Established that the clause in mortgage deeds imposing all costs on the borrower is abusive under Spanish consumer protection law (Ley General para la Defensa de los Consumidores y Usuarios).

Supreme Court Ruling of 14 June 2024: Clarified the prescription period — the 5-year statute of limitations runs from the date you submit a formal claim (reclamación) to the bank, not from the date you signed the mortgage. This means:
- You submit a written claim to the bank
- The bank has a reasonable period to respond
- If they refuse or do not respond, you have 5 years from the date of your claim to file a lawsuit

CJEU Ruling (Case C-224/19 and others): The European Court confirmed that national limitation periods cannot make it excessively difficult for consumers to exercise their rights under the Unfair Contract Terms Directive (93/13/EEC).