Buyers arrive in Spain braced for the Notary. They should be bracing for the Arras, it is signed weeks earlier, it is three pages long, and it is the document that actually commits them.
What the Arras actually is
The contrato de arras penitenciales is a private deposit contract signed once buyer and seller agree terms. It is not the purchase deed, that comes later, at the notary, but it is the moment the transaction stops being a conversation.
It is governed by Article 1454 of the Spanish Civil Code, and it is short. Most run to three or four pages. The brevity is misleading.
The 10% and what happens to it
The standard deposit is 10% of the purchase price, paid on signature and held either by the seller's lawyer or in escrow.
If the buyer withdraws, the deposit is forfeited. If the seller withdraws, they repay double. That symmetry is the whole mechanism: it is not a penalty clause, it is the agreed price of changing your mind.
Why the date matters more than the money
Every Arras contains a completion deadline. Miss it as a buyer, because your mortgage was slower than expected, because a document was missing, and you are technically in breach.
In practice extensions are usually agreed. But 'usually' is doing a lot of work in that sentence, and the leverage sits with whoever is not in a hurry.
What must be finished before you sign
This is the point of the article. The Arras is not the start of due diligence. It is the end of it.
Title verified. Charges and debts checked. Planning compliance confirmed. Licences, including the ETV, if rental income is part of your case for buying, actually seen, not promised. And what has been built compared against what is registered, because on Ibiza the two frequently differ.
A buyer who signs the Arras and then discovers an undeclared extension has already lost the argument. The 10% is the seller's leverage from that moment on.
The clauses worth negotiating
Completion date, and whether it can be extended by mutual agreement.
A subject-to-mortgage clause, if you are financing. Without it, a declined mortgage costs you the deposit.
What stays: furniture, art, the boat mooring, the staff. Specify it, or it leaves.
Which party bears the plusvalía municipal, and how the non-resident 3% retention is handled.
The short version
Do not sign the Arras until your lawyer tells you to. Not when the agent says the seller has another offer, not when you are flying home tomorrow, not when it feels rude to keep asking questions.
The deposit contract is the point of no return. Everything protective happens before it.
