Before you instruct anyone
What to check before you pay anyone, what a legitimate firm will and won't tell you, what it costs, and the questions that separate a licensed detective from someone with a website.
Short answer The licence, and nothing else comes close. In Spain only a detective holding a TIP may lawfully investigate, and only their signed report is admissible. Ask for the number and the name it is held in before you discuss your case, let alone pay for it.
This single check eliminates most of the risk. The TIP — Tarjeta de Identidad Profesional — is a state authorisation issued under Ley 5/2014 and supervised by the Ministry of the Interior. It is held by a named individual, recorded on a public register and revocable. It cannot be bought, and a company cannot hold one on behalf of unlicensed staff.
An investigator operating without it commits intrusismo profesional. Whatever they gather has no evidential value, which means that even competent work produces something your lawyer cannot use. You will have paid for a document that cannot leave the drawer.
Anyone unwilling to give you a licence number to check has answered the question.
Short answer Expect a case to start in the four figures. Pricing models differ — some firms quote by the hour, others per case — but the useful question is not the rate, it is what the total will be and what would change it. Get that in writing before anything begins.
Hourly quotes look cheaper and frequently are not, because they defer the conversation about how many hours the work actually takes. A surveillance case that needs a second operative, or a subject who leaves the province, turns an attractive hourly figure into an invoice nobody agreed to.
What drives cost is straightforward: how long the work runs, how many investigators it needs, how far from base it is, and whether the report has to be prepared to withstand challenge in court. Urgency costs more, and sometimes it is worth it because evidence degrades.
Our own cases start from €1,200 plus VAT, quoted per case. How our pricing works
A normal instruction runs in four stages. First a conversation in which you describe what has happened and the investigator establishes whether it is something that can lawfully be helped with. Then a legitimacy check and a written quote, before anything starts. Then the fieldwork itself, with updates on whatever schedule you choose. Finally a signed report you can act on or file away.
You should be able to stop at any point and be billed only for work carried out and authorised. And you should never be pressured into deciding on the first call — a firm that creates urgency about the decision rather than about the evidence is selling, not advising.
People also ask
Can I hire a British investigator to work in Spain?
Not lawfully, unless they hold a Spanish licence. Nationality is irrelevant; the authorisation is Spanish and territorial. A UK investigator operating here without a TIP is committing an offence and producing an inadmissible report.
Will the investigator tell anyone I hired them?
No. Confidentiality is a professional obligation, and in practice the client's identity never appears in the report or in any contact with third parties.
Do I need a lawyer as well?
For anything heading towards proceedings, yes, and often it is better to speak to the lawyer first — they will tell you what needs proving, which is what determines the scope of the investigation.
Can I hire from abroad without coming to Spain?
Yes, and most foreign clients do. The instruction, the updates and the report all run in English; the fieldwork and the signature are Spanish.
What if they turn my case down?
Take it seriously rather than looking for someone who will accept it. A refusal usually means there is no lawful basis, or that the evidence you want cannot be gathered — and shopping around until someone says yes tends to end badly.
Start here
Every case we take begins with that question, and the conversation costs nothing. Licence: TIP nº 6496, verifiable against the register held by the Ministry of the Interior.
General information for an English-speaking reader, not legal advice.