SJDJ7074

Dear all,

I’am looking for some advice from those who have had any experience with issues surrounding a habitation licence.

My partner and I viewed a property which was marketed through a reputable estate agent at the beginning of the year and subsequently made an offer a couple of days later which was accepted. We employed an independent lawyer to handle the legalities after rejecting the offer of the estate agents own in house lawyer. Whilst we were in the office signing the provisional paperwork to forward the sale, we were advised that an issue had come to light and that the “habitation licence” was not in place. The owners had built the house many years previously and had not realised that they required this so it had to be applied for retrospectively before the sale could proceed. The estate agent advised that this could take a while however certainly no longer than six months. In light of this, although not ideal, we agreed to the situation and a full contract was drawn up with the clause the habitation licence would be provided no later than six months from the date the contract was signed. A ten percent deposit was paid directly to the sellers. Since the contract has been signed, several outbuildings had to be removed as they were breaching the regulations surrounding boundaries. We were advised of this and albeit very disappointed we said we would continue with the sale. The vendors remedied the situation immediately and the architect submitted the plans to the Camera. We have been chasing the agents regarding the habitation licence and they just keep saying we need to wait a couple more weeks or a month etc. The contract states that we can now take our deposit back and even go as far as recovering the same amount again from the vendors, clearly this is not of interest to us, we would just like to buy the property. Originally we had no intention of renting as we just wanted to buy and move in directly from the UK. However, as we liked the property so much we chose to rent for the interim under the terms of the buying contract that it would only be for six months. We are having to rent for longer now with no end date in sight, the discounted mortgage offer is about to expire.The lawyer has tried chasing the estate agents also regarding the habitation licence, again they are just told a few weeks. I have since read that a habitation licence can take years to obtain.
I would just like to get a few points of views from those who have experience in this area. We are fully aware everything takes a very long time (e.g residency permits) but we are now losing money hand over fist. Shortly we will require all our overseas goods to go into storage which is also going to cost dearly so our losses are going to run into the thousands.

I hope this post also helps prospective purchasers by making them aware of these situations.

Thanking you all in advance.

dingg

I'd take what you are entitled to under the contract you have and move on, you may end up waiting for a very long time and still have no light at the end of the tunnel, buy something without issues....

Not what you want to hear but realistically its most likely the outcome.

fergus

Sorry to hear what you are going through. Getting a habitation licence can take time. We bought a property and then did some renovations work. Once the works were complete we were told that we would need a habitation licence, which seemed nonsense to us as all we had done was renovations. The property had not changed in size. All we did was internal changes. Anyway, we had various letters from the Camara which we passed onto the Architect that oversaw our project. Meantime we continued to use and enjoy the property. Eventually the camara agreed to come and inspect the house for the habitation licence. Then they came up with a reason why we could not have a habitation licence. We just persevered and argued and made it clear that we had infinite patience. Eventually we got the habitation licence after some really silly minor change was made to a chimney, which was as it had been when we bought the property (which did have a habitation licence already). How long did all this take? Probably 10 years! So it might be wise to look for another property that has all the paperwork in place.

wellinever

Get yourself an appointment with a planner at the Camara. I would suggest that you ask them to do a `vistoria`. If everything is in order then a Habitation License would be issued, in the knowledge that the Camara had seen for themselves, giving piece of mind for the future. Could take a while but nothing like visiting yourself.in my experience the majority of architects at the Camaras are able and willing to speak in English. My local Camara leaves space each week for chats with planners..

Tegs Mum

We were in a very similar situation however it was legalisation of an annex to the house. Signed the agreement and paid the 10%. Our lawyer put a clause in the contract that we could walk away if legalisation was not issued within 6 months. Near the deadline it was obvious it would not be issued so we agreed to extend the deadline another 3 months. The seller’s estate agent kept on top of it and the legalisation was issued a couple of weeks before the revised deadline. In our situation we were still living in the UK so not as urgent. Our lawyer advised that it normally takes 6 to twelve months.