Category: Business Spanish Courses Online – Legal Spanish Tips

Masculine noun. Fom the verb sanear, itself derived from the Latin sanare — “to heal, make sound, or restore to health.”
In everyday Spanish, sanear still keeps that sense of “cleaning up,” “restoring,” or “making something right.”

In legal Spanish, this original meaning survives metaphorically: to “make good” a defect, flaw, or loss suffered by another person. Hence, saneamiento in law refers to the seller’s duty to “restore” the buyer’s position when the thing sold turns out not to be as promised. In Civil law, saneamiento refers to the seller’s legal obligation to compensate or indemnify the buyer if certain problems arise with the thing sold.
In other words, when someone sells something, they are not only transferring ownership — they are also taking on certain risks. Saneamiento is the legal guarantee that protects the buyer if a defect or loss occurs.

This obligation appears mainly in two situations:

1. Saneamiento por evicción (warranty against eviction): when the buyer is deprived, wholly or partly, of the purchased item because a third party has a prior right and successfully enforces it in court.
2. Saneamiento por vicios ocultos (warranty for hidden defects): when the item sold has hidden defects existing at the time of sale that make it unfit for its intended use or reduce its value so much that, had the buyer known, they would not have bought it or would have paid less.

English equivalents

There isn’t always a perfect English counterpart, but roughly:

• Saneamiento por evicción → warranty against eviction / indemnity for loss of title or possession
• Saneamiento por vicios ocultos → warranty for hidden (or latent) defects

In practice, bilingual contracts may refer to seller’s warranties or seller’s indemnity obligations, but translating saneamiento simply as “remedy” or “indemnity” loses nuance: the verb sanear literally means “to make something right or sound again.”

Example in context

Spanish:

«El contrato estipula que el vendedor queda obligado al saneamiento por vicios ocultos previsto en el artículo 1484 del Código Civil, de modo que si la vivienda presenta defectos graves no visibles al adquirente, este podrá optar por la acción redhibitoria o la acción quanti minoris.»

English (approximate translation):

“The contract stipulates that the seller is liable under the warranty for hidden defects provided in Article 1484 of the Civil Code, so that if the dwelling has serious latent defects not visible to the purchaser, the latter may opt either to rescind the contract (redhibitory action) or to seek a price reduction (quanti minoris action).”

Notes for professionals

• In sales contracts (for property, businesses, or movable goods), it’s crucial to identify these saneamiento obligations and specify any waivers or limitations. For instance, under Civil law a buyer can waive the right to saneamiento por evicción, but only expressly — and not if the seller acted in bad faith.
• For bilingual legal professionals, this makes saneamiento a good example of a “false friend”: it looks like “sanitation” or “clean-up,” yet in legal Spanish it means a statutory seller’s warranty.
• In sworn translations or international contracts, if the target jurisdiction has no direct equivalent, it’s best to add a clarifying clause such as: “For the purposes of this Agreement, saneamiento refers to the seller’s statutory liability for hidden defects or for eviction, as applicable.” dc

Suplir is a verb often used in legal Spanish. It comes from the Latin supplēre, “to fill up, to make complete.” In law, it refers to providing, covering, or replacing something that is missing.

Typical uses include:

• Suplir un defecto de forma – to remedy a formal defect in a contract or procedure.
• Suplir la omisión de un requisito – to supply a missing legal requirement.
• El juez puede suplir la falta de capacidad procesal – the judge may cover for the lack of procedural capacity.

The central idea is that suplir allows the law, a judge, or even a party to fill in what is missing, so that a case or document can move forward.

The noun form is suplencia, meaning the act of substitution or replacement.

• Durante la suplencia del juez titular, actuó el suplente.

Related words:

• suplente – substitute, deputy, stand-in.
• suplidor – supplier (more common in Latin America for “proveedor”).

Have you come across suplir or suplencia in contracts or legal texts in Spanish? dc

As part of our business Spanish courses online and legal Spanish vocabulary series, today’s word is recurrir — an essential term for legal appeals and challenges in court.

From the Latin recorrere (“to run again”), the Spanish verb recurrir in legal contexts functions as a synonym of presentar or interponer un recurso. And what is a recurso? It is a legal mechanism available to the parties in a proceeding to challenge a judgment or resolution issued by a judge or authority.

The most well-known recurso is the recurso de apelación—an appeal. So, if an apelación is a recurso, that implies there are others, such as recurso de nulidad, recurso de queja, recurso de inconstitucionalidad, etc.

When you encounter the phrase sentencia recurrible, it means that the decision can be challenged through any form of recurso. On the other hand, if we say that a sentence is apelable, we’re specifying that it can be appealed, but we’re not necessarily indicating that it’s open to other types of recursos.

Learn more terms like this in our full business Spanish courses online. dc

🧠 Meaning

The phrase “disponer de” is a versatile and high-frequency structure in legal, business, and administrative Spanish. It translates most often as:

to have at one’s disposal / to have access to / to possess

It expresses availability, control, or legal authority over something—be it resources, property, rights, or time.

🏛 In Legal and Administrative Spanish

In formal settings, “disponer de” is often used in contracts, official documents, and regulations to refer to:

• having ownership or control over goods or assets,
• using or allocating something (especially money, time, space, personnel),
• or holding a legal right to act.

Examples:

1. El arrendatario no podrá disponer del local para fines distintos a los pactados.
   The tenant may not use the premises for purposes other than those agreed upon.
2. La empresa dispone de tres semanas para presentar alegaciones.
   The company has three weeks to submit its objections.
3. El acusado no disponía de los medios económicos para afrontar la multa.
   The defendant did not have the financial means to pay the fine.

🧱 Grammar Note

“Disponer de” is always followed by a noun (not an infinitive verb):

✅ Correct: El hotel dispone de 50 habitaciones.
🚫 Incorrect: El hotel dispone hacer reservas.

💼 In Business & Corporate Use

In business contexts, disponer de is often used to describe:

• access to funding, facilities, infrastructure
• availability of personnel, technical capacity
• time or scheduling flexibility

Business Examples:

• ¿Dispone usted de tiempo para una reunión esta semana?
  Do you have time for a meeting this week?
• El cliente dispone de una línea de crédito preaprobada.
  The client has a pre-approved line of credit.

🇬🇧 English Equivalents

Note: Avoid translating it literally as “dispose of” — the English “to dispose of” means to throw away or get rid of, which is a false friend here. dc