1st Occupation Licence - resale property
Jun 18th 2010, 7:37 am
#31
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Re: 1st Occupation Licence - resale property
Yes absolutey,,, very much,,, I had bought a property in 2002, old farmhouse and done a complete reformation on it, lived in it, with water elect, etc etc, all connected and done as I went through the reform process, When I sold the place in Oct 2009, the new buyer;s lawyer (good for him !!) asked for the Cert of Occupation ( Cedula, Permisso de habitacion, Licencia de Habitaction, and referred to by many other names), I then applied to the Ayuntamiento for a copy of the Certificate of 1st occupation, only to find out that there had never been one,,, (and please note during the reform and planning process, this was never once mentioned by any of the officials at the ayuntamiento I came into contact with, or when the electric was connected, and we even had water connected as part of the EEU funded scheme for the village,).,
However when I went to the ayuntamiento to be told there wasnt a licence, I was informed to get an architech to draw up the house to the new standard, get certs(boletins) for Elect, Water, and drainage, and they would issue a cert, took about three weeks of constant harrassment of the office in the Ayuntamiento, but one the plans wer submitted I was issues the Certificate of 2nd occupation for a total price of 900€ ( 600E of which was the architech) the rest was council fees,
The problem jeopardised my sale, but due to the, on this occasion, swift response from the council, i didnt have a problem,, but the point is if I had had on in the first place i would have sailed through.. or more importantly may not have been able to get one!!!!!!!!
..
However when I went to the ayuntamiento to be told there wasnt a licence, I was informed to get an architech to draw up the house to the new standard, get certs(boletins) for Elect, Water, and drainage, and they would issue a cert, took about three weeks of constant harrassment of the office in the Ayuntamiento, but one the plans wer submitted I was issues the Certificate of 2nd occupation for a total price of 900€ ( 600E of which was the architech) the rest was council fees,
The problem jeopardised my sale, but due to the, on this occasion, swift response from the council, i didnt have a problem,, but the point is if I had had on in the first place i would have sailed through.. or more importantly may not have been able to get one!!!!!!!!
..
With old cortijo`s it should not be of concern to anyone so long as there is a registered dwelling (not almacen/tool shed) stating sq meters mentioned on the escritura.
Jun 18th 2010, 10:55 am
#32
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Re: 1st Occupation Licence - resale property
If it was an old farmhouse then surely it had been lived in before? I guess before the revenue generating Licencia de Habitaction had been invented
With old cortijo`s it should not be of concern to anyone so long as there is a registered dwelling (not almacen/tool shed) stating sq meters mentioned on the escritura.
With old cortijo`s it should not be of concern to anyone so long as there is a registered dwelling (not almacen/tool shed) stating sq meters mentioned on the escritura.
An given the chicanery, rogues, selling process, poor local government supervision by regional government, changing of laws without regard to the local situation, all of which I have seen in abundance (and More) since I have lived in Spain, If I was buying a house I wouldnt part with a penny of my lucre until i was 100% sure that I have all pieces of paer perceived or therwise in place before purchase,,, and even then you cant be sure your safe given the experience of the couple in Albox!!
Jun 19th 2010, 9:55 am
#33
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Joined: Mar 2010
Location: Spain 4th feb 08 - October 11, now flits batck and forth from sunny Worthing
Posts: 1,576
Re: 1st Occupation Licence - resale property
The house I live in is rented, its about 4 years old and was also for sale. The one thing it bragged about was it has 1st person occupancy!
Personally I would run away. If theres anything remotely wrong then you will have no come back! Too many people have been "burned" by the wrong paperwork and there is no excuse in the eyes of the law if you havent checked and double checked at the time. I'm not saying that you're gonna have problems, but we all know that Spain has weird and wonderful property laws and that corruption isnt rare! So take no notice of the fact that it has electricity, water etc...!!? Dont believe those who stand to gain from you buying the place and dont fall into the "I'm sure it'll be alright" category!
As for urbanistic charges, I believe they can run into a lot of money if the street/urbanisacion has had work done or is requiring owners to pay for facilities.
IMO, these are all the silly little issues that those who are under threat of demolision would be wondering why they didnt chase up at the time. If in any doubt at all, dont do it
Jo xxx
Personally I would run away. If theres anything remotely wrong then you will have no come back! Too many people have been "burned" by the wrong paperwork and there is no excuse in the eyes of the law if you havent checked and double checked at the time. I'm not saying that you're gonna have problems, but we all know that Spain has weird and wonderful property laws and that corruption isnt rare! So take no notice of the fact that it has electricity, water etc...!!? Dont believe those who stand to gain from you buying the place and dont fall into the "I'm sure it'll be alright" category!
As for urbanistic charges, I believe they can run into a lot of money if the street/urbanisacion has had work done or is requiring owners to pay for facilities.
IMO, these are all the silly little issues that those who are under threat of demolision would be wondering why they didnt chase up at the time. If in any doubt at all, dont do it
Jo xxx
Last edited by jojojojojo; Jun 19th 2010 at 10:01 am.
Jun 23rd 2010, 8:41 pm
#34
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Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 10
Re: 1st Occupation Licence - resale property
Next update
My lawyer, who has no connection with either the vendor or the estate agents, has confirmed today with the builders that the 1st occupation License for the property (second phase of the urbanisation) I am purchasing was never applied for.
The builders only applied for the licence for the houses of the 1st phase and they stopped applying for the second phase once they realized that they had to wait anyway and that the Town Hall was granting the water and electric connection authorizations.
In any case they have confirmed that as soon as they can do it (when the Town Hall accept and receive the urbanization) they will apply for it.
The property I am buying (on the second phase) has been occupied for over five years by the vendor.
My lawyer assures me that there is no problem with not having the license.
The urbanisation is fairly large and this situation must be occuring on a regular basis.
At the moment, I am going along with the advice from my lawyer. However, as a results of opinions/postings from fellow expat members I still feel a little twitchy about the deal.
My lawyer, who has no connection with either the vendor or the estate agents, has confirmed today with the builders that the 1st occupation License for the property (second phase of the urbanisation) I am purchasing was never applied for.
The builders only applied for the licence for the houses of the 1st phase and they stopped applying for the second phase once they realized that they had to wait anyway and that the Town Hall was granting the water and electric connection authorizations.
In any case they have confirmed that as soon as they can do it (when the Town Hall accept and receive the urbanization) they will apply for it.
The property I am buying (on the second phase) has been occupied for over five years by the vendor.
My lawyer assures me that there is no problem with not having the license.
The urbanisation is fairly large and this situation must be occuring on a regular basis.
At the moment, I am going along with the advice from my lawyer. However, as a results of opinions/postings from fellow expat members I still feel a little twitchy about the deal.
Jun 23rd 2010, 9:26 pm
#35
squeaky clean
Joined: Mar 2010
Location: Spain 4th feb 08 - October 11, now flits batck and forth from sunny Worthing
Posts: 1,576
Re: 1st Occupation Licence - resale property
Next update
My lawyer, who has no connection with either the vendor or the estate agents, has confirmed today with the builders that the 1st occupation License for the property (second phase of the urbanisation) I am purchasing was never applied for.
The builders only applied for the licence for the houses of the 1st phase and they stopped applying for the second phase once they realized that they had to wait anyway and that the Town Hall was granting the water and electric connection authorizations.
In any case they have confirmed that as soon as they can do it (when the Town Hall accept and receive the urbanization) they will apply for it.
The property I am buying (on the second phase) has been occupied for over five years by the vendor.
My lawyer assures me that there is no problem with not having the license.
The urbanisation is fairly large and this situation must be occuring on a regular basis.
At the moment, I am going along with the advice from my lawyer. However, as a results of opinions/postings from fellow expat members I still feel a little twitchy about the deal.
My lawyer, who has no connection with either the vendor or the estate agents, has confirmed today with the builders that the 1st occupation License for the property (second phase of the urbanisation) I am purchasing was never applied for.
The builders only applied for the licence for the houses of the 1st phase and they stopped applying for the second phase once they realized that they had to wait anyway and that the Town Hall was granting the water and electric connection authorizations.
In any case they have confirmed that as soon as they can do it (when the Town Hall accept and receive the urbanization) they will apply for it.
The property I am buying (on the second phase) has been occupied for over five years by the vendor.
My lawyer assures me that there is no problem with not having the license.
The urbanisation is fairly large and this situation must be occuring on a regular basis.
At the moment, I am going along with the advice from my lawyer. However, as a results of opinions/postings from fellow expat members I still feel a little twitchy about the deal.
Why dont you have a search thru google and find out more about illegal builds. Theyre not all one house in the middle of rustic land, some are long standing urbanizacions with many houses on them. I'm not trying to scare you, its just we hear so much about the injustice of these situations and there is always a tiny problem that gets overlooked that could have been the key to the problem!! Theres a chap who posts on here called "lenox", he is or was heavily involved in the Albox demolitions and maybe if you PM him, he may be able to advice you and give you his opinion http://britishexpats.com/forum/member.php?u=65803
Jo xxxx
Last edited by jojojojojo; Jun 23rd 2010 at 9:29 pm.
Jun 23rd 2010, 9:49 pm
#36
Senior Moment
Joined: Jan 2006
Location: On the edge
Posts: 20,460
Re: 1st Occupation Licence - resale property
Next update
My lawyer, who has no connection with either the vendor or the estate agents, has confirmed today with the builders that the 1st occupation License for the property (second phase of the urbanisation) I am purchasing was never applied for.
The builders only applied for the licence for the houses of the 1st phase and they stopped applying for the second phase once they realized that they had to wait anyway and that the Town Hall was granting the water and electric connection authorizations.
In any case they have confirmed that as soon as they can do it (when the Town Hall accept and receive the urbanization) they will apply for it.
The property I am buying (on the second phase) has been occupied for over five years by the vendor.
My lawyer assures me that there is no problem with not having the license.
The urbanisation is fairly large and this situation must be occuring on a regular basis.
At the moment, I am going along with the advice from my lawyer. However, as a results of opinions/postings from fellow expat members I still feel a little twitchy about the deal.
My lawyer, who has no connection with either the vendor or the estate agents, has confirmed today with the builders that the 1st occupation License for the property (second phase of the urbanisation) I am purchasing was never applied for.
The builders only applied for the licence for the houses of the 1st phase and they stopped applying for the second phase once they realized that they had to wait anyway and that the Town Hall was granting the water and electric connection authorizations.
In any case they have confirmed that as soon as they can do it (when the Town Hall accept and receive the urbanization) they will apply for it.
The property I am buying (on the second phase) has been occupied for over five years by the vendor.
My lawyer assures me that there is no problem with not having the license.
The urbanisation is fairly large and this situation must be occuring on a regular basis.
At the moment, I am going along with the advice from my lawyer. However, as a results of opinions/postings from fellow expat members I still feel a little twitchy about the deal.
I have heard of others getting promises ... they didnt materialise and then the trouble started.
The choice is yours, but frankly there is so much property around if I were you I would be looking for something that is totally OK regarding paperwork and licences.
On an urb near us there are a number ofr houses that never received licences, from 8 or 9 years ago. Whether they get them or not, who knows. When they come to sell ... will they be able to find a buyer with all the other property around that is totally legal and OK with paperwork?
Good luck
Jun 24th 2010, 5:38 am
#37
Forum Regular
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 145
Re: 1st Occupation Licence - resale property
Why create potential problems for yourself.
There´s some much property around at good prices with all the paperwork in place. If your electricity is cut off for any reason, how would you get it reconnected without a Licence of First Occupation ? This happened to whole street local where I live. They were on a generator for nearly a year, now there´s nothing cos the Licences were never issued and Iberdrola won´t connect up without one. 
There´s some much property around at good prices with all the paperwork in place. If your electricity is cut off for any reason, how would you get it reconnected without a Licence of First Occupation ? This happened to whole street local where I live. They were on a generator for nearly a year, now there´s nothing cos the Licences were never issued and Iberdrola won´t connect up without one.
Jun 24th 2010, 7:19 am
#38
Banned
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 5,008
Re: 1st Occupation Licence - resale property
So you still may go ahead then?????????CRAZY as it has been said in a few other posts.
There have been loads of people ripped off buying houses that are not 100% "legal" as is missing some importand certificates at the very least.
Often, or in most cases, the owners did not even have an inkling that something was not quite right (and there are thousands that still dont know or suspect that anything is wrong with their property)
You know yourself that there is somthing in the air, or you would not have asked on this fourm.
You have heard the advice of members on the subject.
Now if you decide to go ahead with the purchase, you really do deserve all you get.
You could be in line for years of misery and doubt and a very stressful time for you and your family.
One of the reasons why this whole" illegal" property has affected more that just new builds and builders greed, is that there is always someone to sweet talk a potential buyer into buying a property that is on thier books, even if they know there are a few little abnormalities with the relevant documents.
There are sellers, agents, lawyers etc, just waiting for people like you.
Everyone blames the Spanish for being corrupt when things go wrong with property, and there are demolitions. And it is a scandal.
As I said before, if you go ahead and all goes pear shaped, you will only have yourself to blame, and deservedly so.
Yhe rest of the parties involved will be laughing all the way to the bank, the vendor has got rid of a liability, the agent has made a nice wedge of commision, lawyer will have his fee, the government will have the percentage of tax on top, and you with egg on yor face.
There have been loads of people ripped off buying houses that are not 100% "legal" as is missing some importand certificates at the very least.
Often, or in most cases, the owners did not even have an inkling that something was not quite right (and there are thousands that still dont know or suspect that anything is wrong with their property)
You know yourself that there is somthing in the air, or you would not have asked on this fourm.
You have heard the advice of members on the subject.
Now if you decide to go ahead with the purchase, you really do deserve all you get.
You could be in line for years of misery and doubt and a very stressful time for you and your family.
One of the reasons why this whole" illegal" property has affected more that just new builds and builders greed, is that there is always someone to sweet talk a potential buyer into buying a property that is on thier books, even if they know there are a few little abnormalities with the relevant documents.
There are sellers, agents, lawyers etc, just waiting for people like you.
Everyone blames the Spanish for being corrupt when things go wrong with property, and there are demolitions. And it is a scandal.
As I said before, if you go ahead and all goes pear shaped, you will only have yourself to blame, and deservedly so.
Yhe rest of the parties involved will be laughing all the way to the bank, the vendor has got rid of a liability, the agent has made a nice wedge of commision, lawyer will have his fee, the government will have the percentage of tax on top, and you with egg on yor face.
Jun 24th 2010, 7:34 am
#39
Retired and loving it!
Joined: Sep 2007
Location: Ontinyent - Valencia region (campo)
Posts: 5,158
Re: 1st Occupation Licence - resale property
PLEASE don't do it!
There are quite a few urbanizations on 'death row' that yours may just be another statistic.
Why come to Spain if give yourself (potential) grief?
There are quite a few urbanizations on 'death row' that yours may just be another statistic.
Why come to Spain if give yourself (potential) grief?
Jun 24th 2010, 9:03 am
#40
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Joined: Jul 2006
Location: up the mountain near Guadalest
Posts: 1,389
Re: 1st Occupation Licence - resale property
Well all I can say is if you came into my office we certainly would encourage you not to purchase or if you insisted you would be asked to sign a disclaimer saying that you were purchasing against our advice!
Jun 24th 2010, 9:35 am
#41
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Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 3,171
Re: 1st Occupation Licence - resale property
Talk about leaving your brain in the plane!!!
Jun 24th 2010, 9:40 am
#42
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Joined: Dec 2006
Location: Living in a good place
Posts: 8,824
Re: 1st Occupation Licence - resale property
The Lawyers and Notaries are corrupt too to let these sort of sales go ahead
Jun 24th 2010, 1:14 pm
#44
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Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 445
Re: 1st Occupation Licence - resale property
Next update
My lawyer, who has no connection with either the vendor or the estate agents, has confirmed today with the builders that the 1st occupation License for the property (second phase of the urbanisation) I am purchasing was never applied for.
The builders only applied for the licence for the houses of the 1st phase and they stopped applying for the second phase once they realized that they had to wait anyway and that the Town Hall was granting the water and electric connection authorizations.
In any case they have confirmed that as soon as they can do it (when the Town Hall accept and receive the urbanization) they will apply for it.
The property I am buying (on the second phase) has been occupied for over five years by the vendor.
My lawyer assures me that there is no problem with not having the license.
The urbanisation is fairly large and this situation must be occuring on a regular basis.
At the moment, I am going along with the advice from my lawyer. However, as a results of opinions/postings from fellow expat members I still feel a little twitchy about the deal.
My lawyer, who has no connection with either the vendor or the estate agents, has confirmed today with the builders that the 1st occupation License for the property (second phase of the urbanisation) I am purchasing was never applied for.
The builders only applied for the licence for the houses of the 1st phase and they stopped applying for the second phase once they realized that they had to wait anyway and that the Town Hall was granting the water and electric connection authorizations.
In any case they have confirmed that as soon as they can do it (when the Town Hall accept and receive the urbanization) they will apply for it.
The property I am buying (on the second phase) has been occupied for over five years by the vendor.
My lawyer assures me that there is no problem with not having the license.
The urbanisation is fairly large and this situation must be occuring on a regular basis.
At the moment, I am going along with the advice from my lawyer. However, as a results of opinions/postings from fellow expat members I still feel a little twitchy about the deal.
Jun 24th 2010, 2:00 pm
#45
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Joined: Jul 2003
Location: Benalmadena Pueblo,Spain
Posts: 20,156
Re: 1st Occupation Licence - resale property
Go ahead, but if you want to sell later you will have to find another idiot like yourself to buy it. 
