A partial amendment of the new Spanish Shipping Act (Ley 14/2014, de 24 de Julio, de Navegación Marítima) enters into force Today, 27th May 2015.

Such amendment only concerns articles 69.3, 109, 118 and 128. We shall summarize the relevant changes as follows:

(a) Included within Chapter II (On registration and documentation of ships) of the Title II (On vehicles for navigation), Article 69.3 rules the registration of ships under construction, according to which the Ships Section of the Register of Moveable Assets keeps a special book to register acts and contracts regarding ships under construction. By virtue of the last amendment, two further paragraphs are now inserted so as to clarify that the said registration can be made whether by submitting a certified copy of the ship’s enrolment under the Register of Ships (ex article 65.2), or by submitting any of the documents listed in article 73, that is to say: a public deed, a policy under notarial intervention, a definitive judicial resolution or an administrative document issued by a duly empowered officer (such as a Consul).

For such purposes the ship’s Owner shall also submit to the Register of Moveable Assets an application attaching a builder’s certification attesting the ship’s building status and main dimensions or particulars, such as length, tonnage, estimated displacement, quality, building place, materials used, hull’s cost and ship’s layout.

(b) Included within Chapter V (On Shipbuilding Contracts) of the said Title II, Article 109 states that the shipbuilding contract shall be formalised in writing and shall be notarised in a public deed so as to be registered at the Register of Moveable Assets. According to the fresh amendment the shipbuilding contract shall also be registered whether the same is embodied in a public deed or within a policy under notarial intervention, or an administrative document issued by a duly empowered officer (such as a Consul, as per Article 73).

In other words, it is no longer compulsory to notarize the shipbuilding contract in a public deed so as to register the same at the Register of Moveable Assets.

(c) Included within Chapter VI (On Sale) of the said Title II, Article 118 rules the form of the ship purchase contract, the transference or conveyance of ownership and the effectiveness of such contract before third parties.
The minor amendment of this article is merely meant to clarify that the ship purchase contract can be formalised in a public deed or embodied in any of the documents provided for in Article 73 (as above mentioned). Therefore, the ship purchase agreement needs not to be compulsorily formalised in a public deed so as to be registered or to take effect before third parties, since there are other available alternative documents that shall have the same effectiveness in that regard.

(d) Finally, included within Chapter VII (On encumbrances on the ship) of the said Title II, Article 128 rules the constitution of mortgages on vessels. Essentially, the amendment provides that such constitution may take place not only by means of a public deed or a private document but also by means of a policy under notarial intervention (which tends to be cheaper than the public deed). To sum up, as you will have noted, the latest minor amendment of the recently enacted Spanish Shipping Act is just meant to adjust certain specific articles to the usual and customary practice followed by operators and notaries.