Guide · burofax meaning
What is a burofax?
What the word means, what a burofax proves, when people in Spain use one, and how to send one if you live abroad.
A burofax is Spain’s certified letter. Correos delivers it on paper and can certify two things: the exact text you sent (certificación de contenido) and when it was delivered, and to whom (acuse de recibo). It is the standard way to give formal notice in Spain.
What “burofax” means
The closest English is “registered letter with certified content and acknowledgement of receipt”. The name is historical: it started as a fax-based office service. Today it is simply a Correos letter that works as evidence.
In Spain you send one when you may later need to prove that you told someone something, on a certain date. Landlords, tenants, companies and courts all recognise it.
Burofax, registered post, email
| Method | Proves delivery | Proves content | Taken seriously in Spain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burofax with acuse + certificación | Yes | Yes | Yes, the standard |
| Carta certificada (Spanish registered letter) | Yes, with acuse | No | Partly |
| UK recorded or tracked post to Spain | Usually | No | Weak |
| Email or WhatsApp | Hard to prove | Hard to prove | Easy to deny |
Registered post proves that an envelope arrived, not what was inside. That is the gap a burofax closes.
What people use it for
- Asking a landlord to return a rental deposit (fianza).
- Telling a tenant you won’t renew, or demanding unpaid rent.
- Chasing an unpaid invoice from a Spanish client.
- Cancelling a phone, gym or insurance contract that keeps billing you.
- Writing to the comunidad de propietarios or a neighbour.
- Proposing a negotiation before court, which many civil claims have required since April 2025.
Write it in Spanish
The recipient is in Spain, and if it ever reaches a court, a Spanish judge will read it. So the letter itself should be in Spanish, or bilingual with the Spanish text first and the English after. A letter only in English invites “I couldn’t understand it”.
A short bilingual example, with invented details:
Asunto: devolución de la fianza
El 31 de agosto les entregué las llaves de la vivienda de la calle Mayor, 8. Les requiero para que me devuelvan la fianza de 900 € en un plazo de diez días.
Atentamente, James Carter
Subject: return of the deposit
On 31 August I handed back the keys to the flat at calle Mayor, 8. I ask you to return the €900 deposit within ten days.
Yours faithfully, James Carter
If nobody is home
The postman leaves a notice and the burofax waits at the local post office for a while. If it isn’t collected, or the recipient refuses it, the delivery receipt records that. It still shows that you tried to give notice at that address.
Sending one from abroad
You don’t need to be in Spain. With us you draft the letter in ChatGPT in English (it writes the Spanish version and a translation for you to check) or paste your own text, review the exact PDF, pay by card, and we send it through Correos within 24 working hours. Send a burofax online.