Approval in principle is not binding in Spain. The FEIN is.
The FEIN is the European standardised information sheet for your loan. In Spain it is more than information: Article 14.1 a) of Ley 5/2019 makes it the lender's binding offer. Anything the bank tells you before that does not bind it.
What does “Oferta vinculante (FEIN)” mean?
The FEIN is the European standardised information sheet for your loan. In Spain it is more than information: Article 14.1 a) of Ley 5/2019 makes it the lender's binding offer. Anything the bank tells you before that does not bind it. FEIN stands for Ficha Europea de Información Normalizada; the template sits in Anexo I of Ley 5/2019. The decisive provision is Article 14.1 a): the FEIN counts as the lender's binding offer, for at least ten days. It binds the bank — you remain free until you sign. Article 14.1 sets ten calendar days, not working days. Within that period you must hold the FEIN, the FiAE with its warnings, a rate-scenario sheet if the rate is variable, the draft contract with costs broken out, the allocation of costs, and notice of the free notarial advice.
What matters about these two points
The answer box above states the case. The two points it is built from carry their own heading here — together with what each of them means in practice.
What the FEIN is, and from when it binds
In practice that means only the FEIN gives you a figure you can rely on. Note the date it was handed over, because the clock starts from it.
What you must receive ten calendar days in advance
If one of those documents is missing, the period has not started. So if the notary appointment is already booked, check the file on the day it arrives rather than the night before.
The notary appointment beforehand is compulsory and free
Article 15 requires you to attend in person before the notary you have chosen — at the latest on the day before the deed. The notary checks the documents, explains each clause of the FEIN and FiAE individually and takes you through a short test. All of it is recorded in the acta notarial previa. The appointment carries no fee. Without the acta, or outside the deadline, the loan deed may not be authorised.
Why an approval in principle is worth nothing
What you hear before the FEIN — preaprobación, hipoteca preconcedida, estudio de viabilidad — are market terms with no legal definition. The only thing regulated at that stage is the FIPRE under Article 21 of Orden EHA/2899/2011, and it is expressly indicative: the official template itself states that it creates no obligation to grant a loan and that the later personal offer may differ. The practical consequence: you do not sign a binding private contract, and you do not pay a deposit, on the strength of an approval in principle.
If something changes after the tasación, the ten days start again
Article 13 requires a valuation by an independent sociedad de tasación before the contract is concluded; in practice it comes before the FEIN, because the amount and the loan-to-value appear there. If the deed later departs materially from the FEIN, the DGRN instruction of 20 December 2019 applies: the notary must refuse, the bank must correct, and the ten-day period starts over. Departures that are objectively more favourable to you, or that do not touch the financial terms, do not block the deed.
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