Having the title of homeowner is not always achieved by buying it. Sometimes, there are those who enjoy and own the house for a certain time and who, after the years, manages to be the owner of the property: it is what is known as usucapión.

In legal terms, the possession of a home is known as possession and possession may be held as owner or fork of the house to preserve or enjoy it. In this case, the owner can claim the home against the owner. And if this does not occur and there is an extended course of years, then the owner can acquire the property without contract of sale through, as Salvador Salcedo, partner of the firm Ático Jurídico recalls.

Two types of purchasing or usucapion prescription:

The ordinaryone: the basis of which is the existence of an acquisition title, such as a contract of sale, which, on some circumstances, has only granted possession to the acquirer. To become an owner it will be necessary, among other requirements, to have a fair title, good faith and to own the property for at least 10 years, which in some cases can amount to 20 years.

The extraordinary:in this case the person who invokes the user does not have a title of acquisition, being only necessary to possess as owner, public, peaceful and continuously for a period not less than 30 years.

In both cases it will be essential that the holder of the property acts as an owner, that is, that publicly behaves as if he were the owner of the property, otherwise the essential budget will not be given to use the property. In this sense, the case-law has been considering that the possession as owner can be manifested in the payment of taxes and contributions of the property, the realization of works and repairs in the house, the leasing of the property, etc.

Come this far

The holder must bring the appropriate procedure by court. It is normal to file a lawsuit requesting the action of dominance against the owner or his heirs. The aim is for the court to recognize ownership of the plaintiff by us, provided that the required requirements are met.

The heirs could apply for the property after many years of disillusionation and abandonment of the property, but the owner could object by asserting his right to acquire the property by usher.

And when it comes to taxing

The usucapion being a different way of buying a home also has a different tax treatment. Because the first difference is that uscapion is not a transmission, but a mode of acquisition.

The acquisition of a property by us, as recognized by the Administration itself, is not subject to any of the modalities of the Tax on Property Transfers. In the form of onerous transfer (TPO) there is no support for lacking one of the elements of the taxable event such as the transfer. Nor in the form of documented legal acts (AJD) can be considered subject, since the document allowing access to the Land Registry is not a notarized deed, record or testimony.

In the Tax on the Increase in the Value of Lands of an urban nature, also called municipal capital gain, exactly the same thing happens, since the non-transmission does not produce the taxable event, leaving the usucapion not subject to that tax, Salcedo underlines.

There is also no taxation in the IRPF. This tax will only be paid if the property was ever transferred. And for the purposes of such future transmission, the date of acquisition will be the date of acquisition of the day on which the property was acquired for compliance with the legal deadlines (30 years, for example). And this, regardless of the date on which the court ruling falls.

The same would be the same in the municipal Plusvalía tax, computing the period of generation of the increase in value, in the face of a future transmission, from the day in which, for the fulfillment of the civil deadlines, the property was acquired by uscapion.