Outrage over a “feudal” tax levied by nobles on Spanish property owners has been rekindled after sales of homes were halted by the deaths of a marquess and his sister.
Homeowners trying to sell properties in the northeast Catalonia region have been surprised to find they owe thousands of euros to aristocratic landowners. They are liable to pay the tax, rooted in medieval tributes, because of a legal anachronism.
The tax varies from 2 per cent on the price of sale, which is applied in most municipalities, to 10 per cent, which is applied in Barcelona.
Despite the antiquity of the levy, no estimate has been made to establish the percentage of the population affected. Most of the taxed properties belonged to the former domains of Catalan noble families such as the Sagnier (Marquess of Sentmenat), the Vilallonga (Marquess of Castellbell) and the Fontcuberta.
The tax has become the focus of renewed anger after the recent deaths of Joaquín Sagnier de Sentmenat, the Marquess of Sentmenat, and his sister, Pilar Sagnier de Sentmenat, aged 90 and 95 respectively. Their deaths have stopped the sale of properties in their ancestral village of Sentmenat and the nearby city because the taxes cannot be paid until their estates have been settled and heirs appointed.
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Josep Vives is trying to sell his flat in Sabadell which he bought in 1981 when no mention was made of the tribute. “I had a sale all ready with a buyer whose bank was willing to approve a mortgage and a payment as a deposit, which I must return if the sale is not finally carried out,” he said.
When they were about to seal the transaction the property registry said that a tribute of €3,500 was owed to Pilar Sagnier de Sentmenat. However, he is unable to pay it until her heir has been officially designated and a bank will not sign off a mortgage for a property with outstanding debt.
The Marquess of Sentmenat and his family have approximately 800 taxable properties in Sentmenat, Sabadell, Terrassa, and Barcelona. The two estates involve at least 17 heirs, which lawyers will take some time to settle. “The tax is a historic relic, a medieval feature that arose when landowners who could not farm all their lands gave them to peasants,” Albert Domingo Castellà, from Catalonia’s College of Notaries, said. “In exchange for the use of the land they paid a fee, which was a hen, a sack of wheat or a dozen eggs.”
The tribute evolved legally and has survived several reforms over the centuries. It is now not considered a feudal right, but a contract between private individuals in which the owner cedes a property to another person but retains a right of tribute on it. A representative of the family of the marquess said: “There is a will to cancel the tax but things are as they are.”
Gemma Fruitós, from Sentmenat village, has led protests against the tax. When she tried to sell a property in 2007, she discovered that she had to pay the marquess 4 per cent of the sale, about €7,000. “They come here to charge their vassals because they are still anchored in feudal times,” she said. “What bothered me was that it turned out that the marquess owned my apartment and had never helped pay for the repairs to the building.”
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She organised a medieval-dress protest party in the village and took a petition to the regional parliament.
“Let’s hope someone is interested in resolving this issue. We are giving money to someone who does not appear in the deeds and to whom payments are kept in total darkness,” she said.
