Judicial, notarial or tax auction: why the type matters
Last updated:
On the BOE portal every auction looks the same: the same registration, the same bidding screen, the same clock. The differences sit in the legal regime underneath. That regime decides how much you must deposit beforehand, how long you have to pay the rest, on what conditions your bid is approved, and what route is open to you if the property turns out to be occupied.
Three families, and who orders the auction
The Spanish auctions this article is about are published through the Portal de Subastas of the Boletín Oficial del Estado. Since the 2015 act that has been the central electronic channel for them. What differs from one auction to the next is who orders it and under which set of rules.
In a judicial auction a creditor has a seized property sold by force on the basis of an enforceable title. The procedure is run by the Letrado de la Administración de Justicia, the legally qualified court officer who conducts the enforcement — not by the judge. Two sales that are not enforcement at all fall under the same heading: the division of jointly owned property between co-owners who cannot agree, and a sale out of an insolvency estate. That distinction matters, because part of the rules applies only to the enforcement auction.
A notarial auction is the out-of-court enforcement of a mortgage — possible only where the mortgage deed contains that clause — or a voluntary sale in which the owner chooses the auction as a sales channel. In a tax auction a public authority is collecting: the national tax agency, a region, a province or a municipality. Separately, an authority sometimes sells its own surplus property; that is not debt collection.
The auction number is an indication, not a legal regime
Every auction number begins with SUB- followed by two letters. A J points to the judicial family, an N to the notarial one, an A or R to tax collection by the national agency or by a regional or local body respectively, and a G to an ordinary public-sector sale. The second letter refines it: JA is the judicial enforcement auction, JV the voluntary judicial sale, JC the insolvency auction.
Use that code as a first indication, not as a legal conclusion. Within JA the portal does not separate a mortgage enforcement from an enforcement based on, say, a judgment, and which rules apply exactly follows from the announcement and the case file. The BrickChoice platform shows the auction type for every auction and derives the underlying regime from the auction number and the case number; that is an aid to reading the file, not a replacement for it. A fuller explanation of the ten labels the portal uses and of the bidding and award process is on our page about BOE auctions.
Five moments that are often conflated
An auction runs through five steps that do not coincide: the highest bid at the close of the bidding period; the approval of the bid (aprobación del remate), which is subject to conditions; the award decision (decreto de adjudicación), which is the title for registration; payment of the balance; and ownership and, separately again, actually taking possession.
Making the highest bid is therefore not the same as getting the property, and getting the property is not the same as being able to enter it. What thresholds the law sets for that approval, and what happens if your bid falls below them, is set out in our article on bid approval.
The deposit and the payment term
In a judicial auction the amount depends on when the procedure was instituted. Under the previous regime the deposit is 5%; under the regime in force since 3 April 2025 it is 10% of the value of the assets with a minimum of one thousand euros, and the court officer may adjust that percentage per auction. Which of the two applies to a given auction — for most of those published today, still the previous one — and what payment term goes with it is set out in our article on bid approval; under the new regime that term is not a single figure. If you do not pay, you lose the deposit in either case.
In a notarial auction the deposit and the term follow from the notarial rules and, in a voluntary sale, from the conditions the owner sets. In a tax auction the deposit is 5% of the auction value as soon as real estate is included, and the difference must be paid within fifteen days of notification of the award.
One general rule sits above all the percentages above: the auction announcement itself is decisive. The amount is stated there, which means you do not have to work out for yourself which regime applies to that procedure.
Beyond the type: two things often attributed to it
Charges. Charges ranking ahead of the enforced claim stay on the property in every type. Charges ranking after it are cancelled — including at a tax auction, where the collection rules provide an express order for that. Only in a voluntary sale is there no enforced claim to measure rank against, so there the sale clears nothing by itself. Our article on the charges that remain goes into this.
Possession. Only within a judicial enforcement is there a route to request eviction inside that same procedure, and that route is limited in time. At a notarial or tax auction a separate court procedure may be needed. In every case the outcome depends on the occupant's legal position; our article on occupancy status describes that.
What to look up before you bid
Start with the two letters in the auction number, as a first indication of the regime. Then read the actual deposit amount and payment term in the announcement. Obtain the land registry extract and compare the registered charges with the claim being enforced. Read the occupancy statement literally, and treat an unknown status as a separate risk. If you want to buy for or with someone else, arrange that before you bid, not after; why it cannot be done afterwards is set out separately. And on a concrete file, have the decisive points reviewed by a Spanish lawyer.
Sources. Judicial auction, consolidated Ley 1/2000 de Enjuiciamiento Civil as in force since 3 April 2025 (Ley Orgánica 1/2025): deposit and declaration of representation art. 647; payment term and survival of earlier charges art. 670; possession and occupants art. 675. Tax auction, Real Decreto 939/2005, Reglamento General de Recaudación: deposit and payment term art. 101; cancellation of later charges art. 110(2) and art. 111(3), which refer to art. 175, rule 2, of the Reglamento Hipotecario. Notarial auction: Ley del Notariado art. 72-77, and art. 129 Ley Hipotecaria with art. 234 ff. Reglamento Hipotecario. Public property: Ley 33/2003 del Patrimonio de las Administraciones Públicas. The electronic auction portal: Ley 19/2015, de 13 de julio. Auction types and numbers: Portal de Subastas of the Agencia Estatal BOE. Consulted on 19 October 2026.
This is general information, not legal advice. Conditions differ per auction, per procedure and per region; always consult the auction announcement and the case file themselves, and a Spanish lawyer where needed.