RPEL vs RBEL: how municipal asset registers work in Catalonia

Two rules, one duty

Every Spanish town council must keep an up-to-date register of its assets and rights. At national level it is governed by the RBEL (Royal Decree 1372/1986). In Catalonia, the rule that prevails is the RPEL: Decree 336/1988 of 17 October, which approves the Regulation on the property of local entities. The RBEL applies only as a fallback.

What changes in practice

The most visible difference is how the register is presented. The RBEL arranges it by headings according to the type of asset. The RPEL organises it into books (A, B, C, D and E), and each book is split into the headings of article 106.

• One asset, one book. The book and heading are not picked by hand: they come from combining the asset's classification, its property status (ownership, transfer, allocation, lease…) and its legal nature.
• Consolidated register. The council's register includes those of its dependent bodies, in their own section.
• More data per asset. Owner, counterparty when the asset is not fully owned, use of the public domain and reversion conditions.

What stays the same

The duty to revise the register every year and submit it to the Full Council for approval is the same, as is the need to value the assets and register real estate in the Land Registry.

How Inventario Municipal handles it

Each council chooses in its settings whether to view the register by headings (RBEL) or by books (RPEL); in Catalonia the latter is the default. Records are not reclassified: they stay the same, and the book is calculated when they are displayed. A council can switch views without redoing anything, and reports come out in the format its regulations require.

Do you manage the register of a Catalan council and want to see it in action? Tell us about your case through the contact form on this site.