IMPORTANT: This post analyzes Law 7/2022 on Waste and Contaminated Soil for a Circular Economy, in accordance with the regulatory framework in effect at the time of its enactment. Currently, any real estate transaction, transfer of property, declaration of potentially polluting activities, registration notice, environmental liability, or action involving contaminated soil must be reviewed in accordance with the current text of Law 7/2022, its implementing regulations, applicable regional legislation, and current administrative criteria regarding environmental, urban planning, and registry matters.
Adoption of New Law 7/2022 on Waste and Contaminated Soil
On April 10, the new Waste and Contaminated Soils regulation, Act 7/2022, was passed, strengthening Spain’s circular economy strategy. With more than 1,300 amendments, the approved law seeks to intensify sustainability in order to transform the current linear economic model.
It transposes various European directives into the Spanish legal system, thereby framing the fight against climate change, the environment, health, and the sustainable development goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.
To this end, the Act sets out guidelines for applying the waste hierarchy principle, preventing waste generation, increasing reuse and recycling targets, mandatory separate collection, as well as the mandatory minimum requirements applicable to Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and hazardous waste.
The most important and distinguishing feature introduced by this Waste and Contaminated Soils Act is that it eliminates hidden encumbrances. Users now have a new safeguard, as all hidden encumbrances must be disclosed in the Land Registry.
The Act requires the transferor of any property to declare whether a potentially contaminating activity has taken place on the property. This statement will be published as a marginal note in the Land Registry. In this way, anyone wishing to acquire the property has the right to know the characteristics of the land.
The publicly available information in the Land Registry will record whether the soil to be acquired has been declared contaminated or borders contaminated land. In addition, once the land has been remediated, it will be the public authorities who must record this, as the Ministry for Ecological Transition may carry out investigations and mapping of potentially contaminating areas.
Once the Administration declares that the decontamination works have been carried out, the notice in the Land Registry is removed and the property is cleared. Likewise, developers are also required to declare contaminated soils so that any buyer is aware of the property’s situation.
Likewise, all these features, requirements, and approaches can be found in the extensive and detailed Act 7/2022 of April 8 on Waste and Contaminated Soils for a Circular Economy, within Spain’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
For more information, see the Official State Gazette (BOE): Law 7/2022 on Waste and Contaminated Soil for a Circular Economy
The aforementioned law took effect the day after its publication in the “Official State Gazette,” which occurred on April 8, 2022 (with the exception of Title VII of this law, which will take effect on January 1, 2023). For more information, please consult the BOE here.
Author: Francisco Javier Paredes Hermida
Lawyers Specializing in Contaminated Land | In Diem: Málaga, Seville, Madrid, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Almería, Huelva…
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