The three documents that prove what you are buying

The caderneta predial: the tax picture

The caderneta predial urbana is an extract of the tax register kept by the Autoridade Tributária. It identifies the property by parish and article number, states the individual unit where the building is in horizontal property, describes the layout, breaks down the areas (private gross area and dependent gross area) and gives the taxable value with the year of the last assessment. At the end it lists the registered taxpayers and their share.\n\nIt matters for two practical reasons. It is the basis of the IMI you will pay every year, and it is one of the two references for IMT, because the tax applies to the higher of the contract price or the taxable value. An out-of-date VPT well above the agreed price becomes extra tax on completion day. That is why you read the caderneta before making an offer, not afterwards.\n\nCheck three things. That the areas and layout match the house you visited, because an enclosed balcony, a converted attic or an outbuilding missing from the record means unreported work. That the person listed matches the person selling. And that the property is not omissa, meaning unregistered for tax. One caution: being listed on the caderneta is not proof of ownership. That proof lives in the land registry.

The land registry certificate: who owns it and what is attached

The certidão permanente from the Registo Predial is what proves ownership. It is obtained online through an access code that gives live, continuously updated consultation for a limited period. Ask the seller for the code, not a printed PDF. The code shows today's position. The PDF shows the position on the day someone printed it.\n\nThe certificate contains the description of the property (location, layout, boundaries and, in horizontal property, the unit letter and its share of the building) followed by the list of entries. The entries are what matter: the acquisition in favour of the current owner, mortgages in favour of banks, seizures, attachments, usufructs, easements, registered tenancies and various charges, such as controlled-cost housing conditions or temporary restrictions on resale. The header also shows pending submissions, meaning acts filed but not yet registered.\n\nA seller's mortgage does not block the sale. It is the normal position of anyone still repaying a loan: the outstanding balance is settled out of the price at the deed and the bank issues the distrate that cancels the registration. What cannot happen is arriving at the deed without that cancellation arranged with the seller's bank. Seizures, unregistered inheritances and rights of first refusal (the municipality in an urban rehabilitation area, a sitting tenant, co-owners) are a different order of problem. They are cleared or notified beforehand, not on the day.

The use licence: the building may lawfully be lived in

The licença de utilização, also called alvará de utilização, is issued by the municipality and states the purpose the building is authorised for: housing, retail, offices, industry. It is what separates a space you may lawfully live in from one you may not, however much it looks like a home. The notary requires it to execute the deed and the bank requires it to release the loan.\n\nTwo notes. First, very old buildings, predating the date from which the licence became compulsory, are exempt, and what is produced at the deed is a municipal certificate attesting that age. Confirm the applicable date with the municipality, because that is what decides whether a missing document is a problem or a formality. Second, more recent properties also come with a ficha técnica da habitação, handed over by the seller, describing materials, equipment and the parties involved in construction. Ask for it.\n\nWatch the declared use. A property licensed for retail or offices is not housing, even when furnished as such, and changing the use is a municipal procedure with cost, delay and no guarantee of approval. The same applies to converted basements, attics and outbuildings. If the licence does not cover them as housing, do not buy them as if it did.

Cross-checking the three: this is where problems surface

The three documents describe the same property in three languages. The tax authority calls it an article number, the registry calls it a description, the municipality has a planning file. The useful check is simple: the unit carries the same letter in all three, the layout matches, the areas are compatible and the licensed use is housing.\n\nAreas are the commonest source of confusion, and not always in bad faith. The caderneta uses tax concepts, private gross area and dependent gross area. The registry describes the layout. The listing often quotes gross construction area, which is larger. A definitional gap is explained in two minutes. A real gap, square metres that exist on the ground and in no document, is unauthorised work, and it becomes your problem the day the property becomes yours.\n\nCheck the name too. The seller must be the owner recorded at the registry. If an attorney is selling, require the power of attorney with express authority to sell. If the owner has died, the inheritance must be registered in the heirs' names and all of them must take part. If there has been a divorce, check the matrimonial property regime and whose consent is needed.

Discrepancies that stop a purchase, and how they are cleared

Not every discrepancy is fatal. The question is always the same: who fixes it, at what cost and by when.\n\nCleared without much drama: a mortgage still to be cancelled (the distrate on completion day), an out-of-date taxable value (the seller can request reassessment, though it takes time), a certificate with a pending submission (you wait for registration), and a missing technical file on an older property, which may simply not be required. Requiring a prior procedure, often months long: unlicensed work, unauthorised area, a use other than the licensed one, badly constituted horizontal property, and an unregistered inheritance.\n\nThe instrument for all of this is the promissory contract. Whatever is unresolved goes into the CPCV as a condition, with a deadline, a named responsible party and a defined consequence if it fails. Signing first and trusting it will be sorted later is the mistake that costs you the deposit.

Who asks for what, and when

Before making an offer: the access code for the land registry certificate and the caderneta predial. Those two say whether it is worth proceeding at all. If the seller or the agency hesitate to hand them over, that is already information.\n\nBefore the CPCV: all three documents, plus the energy certificate, plus the condominium's declaration of no outstanding charges where the property is a unit, plus the deed constituting the horizontal property and the condominium rules. This is the point at which the checking must be finished, because this is where you take on obligations and hand over money.\n\nBefore the deed: an up-to-date registry certificate, proof of payment of IMT and stamp duty, and the seller's mortgage distrate where there is one. The bank assembles its own file for the valuation and the release of funds, and the notary verifies everything on the day. On the buyer's side, someone has to collect and read these documents before anything is signed. That is what we do at Stonest Partners: we request the documents from the selling side, cross-check them and tell you what is missing, at no cost to you, because the commission is paid by the side that sells.

Where to check the figures

• Portal das Finanças (caderneta predial, matriz, IMI e IMT)
• Predial Online (certidão permanente do registo predial)
• Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado
• ePortugal (licença de utilização e serviços camarários)
• Diário da República Eletrónico (legislação em vigor)

We do not publish tax tables or percentages: they change with each state budget, and an out-of-date number on an agency's own site is a problem rather than a typo. The sources above carry the current value.