Caderneta Predial and Certidão Permanente: Portugal's Two Papers

The agent sends a caderneta predial and calls it the title. It is the tax card.

A Portuguese home is described by two documents. The caderneta predial, issued by the tax authority, identifies the property, its owners and its valor patrimonial tributário, the taxable value. The certidão permanente de registo predial, issued by the land registry, certifies every registration in force and any pending request, and costs 15 euros online for six months.

What does the caderneta predial show?

The tax authority's view. The Portal das Finanças defines the caderneta predial as the document that identifies the property, its location and respective characteristics, the owners, and the taxable value, among other elements. It states that the owner obtains the urban or rural caderneta through the portal under Imóveis and Consultar Património Predial, and that the document is valid for 12 months.

For a buyer the caderneta carries three things worth checking against the advert: the artigo matricial, the tax article that identifies the property; the areas as the tax office records them; and the valor patrimonial tributário, the base on which the municipal property tax is charged. What it does not carry is any charge on the property. A mortgage does not appear on a tax card.

What does the certidão permanente show?

The registry's view, updated as you read it. The land registry's online service describes the certidão permanente de registo predial as certified access, through the internet and in real time, to all the registrations in force on a described property and to any registration requests still pending: if a new request is filed during the period of validity, it appears as pending. It is not a paper document but an access code that, in the registry's words, replaces a paper certificate for all legal purposes.

This is where ownership, mortgages, penhoras and other encumbrances live. A buyer who reads only the caderneta reads a description; a buyer who reads the certidão reads the claims on the property, including the ones filed last week.

What do the two documents cost?

Fifteen euros for the registry, and the tax card from the portal. The registry's service states that the certidão permanente costs 15 euros when requested online and 20 euros at a conservatória counter, that the access code is valid for six months and can be renewed for further periods, and that the code stays the same on renewal. For a cheaper first look it offers the informação predial simplificada, uncertified data at 1 euro online or 5 euros at a counter, valid for one year.

Why do you need both?

The two offices describe the same home from different sides, and they can disagree. The tax office's areas and the registry's description of the property come from different filings at different times; the owner named on the caderneta and the owner registered at the conservatória are supposed to be the same person, and the certidão is the one that proves it. The registry's pending-requests line is the only place a transfer or a mortgage filed since the seller printed the caderneta will show.

Reading them side by side is therefore the check: the artigo matricial on the caderneta against the registry description, the areas against each other, the owner against the owner, and the encumbrances section of the certidão against the seller's assurance that there are none.

We do not give buying advice. What the two offices' own pages support is this: the caderneta identifies and values the property for tax and says nothing about debts, the certidão permanente shows every registration and every pending request for 15 euros over six months, and neither document is complete without the other. AiMYNDi reads both with the listing and flags the mismatches in your language. An example of what a report looks like shows the legal section, and Portugal's house prices, the fastest rise in the EU covers the market the papers describe.