Notarial Correction of Cadastral Discrepancies (Art. 18.2 TRLCI): The Fast-Track Tool to Fix Surfaces, Boundaries and Descriptions of Your Property
The procedure under Article 18.2 of the Spanish Cadastre Act allows owners to correct, through notarial intervention, discrepancies between the physical reality of a property and the Cadastre. A key tool for inheritances, sales and first registrations on the Costa Blanca.
Why cadastral discrepancies matter
In Spain, three layers of property information coexist: the physical reality of the property, the registry description (Land Registry) and the cadastral description (Directorate-General for the Cadastre). When those three layers diverge, problems arise: difficulties to sell, to inherit, to mortgage, to develop, and even to correctly assess IBI, municipal plusvalía, ISD or IRPF.
Article 18.2 of the Spanish Cadastre Act (TRLCI) sets up an agile, effective procedure to resolve these discrepancies through the notary, incorporating into the deed updated surfaces, boundary changes or adjustments derived from technical measurements, with direct effects on the cadastral database.
1. What is the Article 18.2 TRLCI discrepancy correction?
It is a specific channel to correct the divergences between the cadastral description and the physical reality of the property at the time a legal act or transaction is executed before a notary (sale, inheritance, gift, segregation, grouping, declaration of new construction, horizontal division, etc.).
The notary, as a public officer of legality, includes in the deed or notarial act the elements required to correct the discrepancy and communicates them electronically to the Cadastre through the SEC (Cadastre Electronic Office), which validates and updates its database.
> Key idea: it is not a stand-alone "go to the notary to fix the Cadastre" procedure; it is a tool used within a wider legal transaction (typically an inheritance, a sale or a segregation).
2. Which discrepancies can it correct?
Article 18.2 allows the title and the Cadastre to be updated regarding:
- Updated surfaces of the plot or the building.
- Boundary modifications and rotations relative to the cadastral cartography.
- Adjustments derived from technical measurements carried out by surveyors or geomatic engineers.
- Inclusion or exclusion of buildings that exist but are not in the Cadastre, or vice versa.
The result is a public deed with a correct cadastral description, perfectly ready for Land Registry registration and for the future graphic coordination between Cadastre and Registry under Law 13/2015.