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You won in court. The Spanish judge ruled in your favour. The debtor owes you €180,000 plus interest and costs. Now comes the part that actually matters: turning that judgment into money in your account.
Enforcement in Spain begins with an ejecución application filed at the court that issued the judgment. The application identifies the debtor, the judgment to be enforced, and the specific enforcement measures requested. Once accepted, the court issues an enforcement order (auto de despacho de ejecución) that activates the full range of Spanish enforcement tools.
The debtor is notified and given a brief period to comply voluntarily. If they don't — and they rarely do at this stage — compulsory enforcement measures begin.
Spanish law provides creditors with powerful enforcement tools. Embargo de cuentas bancarias (bank account seizure) is the most direct — the court orders banks to freeze and transfer funds from the debtor's accounts. Embargo de bienes inmuebles places liens on real property that can lead to judicial auction. Embargo de créditos intercepts payments owed to the debtor by third parties.
For business debtors, salary garnishment of company directors, seizure of business equipment, and attachment of receivables owed to the debtor company are all available. The court can also order the debtor to disclose their full asset position under penalty of perjury — a powerful tool when the debtor's finances are opaque.
If your judgment comes from a foreign court rather than a Spanish one, an additional step is required. EU judgments benefit from automatic recognition under Regulation 1215/2012 (Brussels I Recast) — file the judgment with the enforcement court and proceed directly. Non-EU judgments require exequatur, a judicial recognition procedure that typically takes 3 to 6 months.
The exequatur court examines whether the foreign judgment meets basic requirements: proper service on the debtor, no conflict with Spanish public policy, and reciprocity between Spain and the originating country. US, UK, and Canadian judgments routinely pass this test.
Enforcement of a Spanish domestic judgment typically takes 3 to 6 months from filing to actual recovery, depending on the debtor's asset complexity. Bank account seizures can execute within weeks. Property auctions take longer. The critical variable is whether the debtor has identifiable, unencumbered assets — which is why pre-judgment asset investigation and embargo preventivo are so valuable.
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