fergusonsfolly

Hi,
any advice on the following situation would be appreciated.

We are in the process of buying a re-sale property on an urbanisation on the Costa del Sol. The urbanisation appears finished and well established.

The present owners have lived in the property for over twelve months.

Water/gas/sewerage is by the official utilities.

We are in the process of obtaining a mortgage on the property.

However, we have been told we will not get the mortgage as the 1st Occupation Licence is not in place.

Is it possible that the utility companies will provide an official supply without the licence?

As the licence is not in place, and as the urbanisation appears to be complete, does it suggest that there are major underlying problems that have not been disclosed and are preventing the licence being issued ?

I am now getting twitchy about committing any more money to the project.
I have already left a 3000 euro deposit with the estate agent, paid for a valuation on the property and engaged a reputable lawyer and paid a 10% deposit to him.

The alarm bells are now starting to ring.

Should I be concerned or is this the norm for property purchases in Spain?

FF

Chiclanagir

This was not a problem a few years ago but now the banks are getting tough. What does your lawyer say? Try to speak to the Ayuntiamenta.

Fred James

You cannot legally live in a property that does not have a licence. You cannot legally have a contract for water or electricity. It cannot be registered on the property register without a licence.

There is no guarantee that you will ever get one.

With all the property for sale just buy one that has the correct paperwork - there are hundreds of thousands of them out there!.

jdr

Get your deposits back quick.

missile

I have no idea what a 1st occupation license is?

How do I check if I have one?

Fred James

There is a copy of our licence included in the escritura.

snikpoh

The views expressed below are from my experience since coming to Spain and being actively involved in the property business - some people may disagree as there does not seem to be a single rule.

1. This is not true.

2. This is not true. You can't actually get an electricity meter with out it! You can get a water contract without it but it would be "builders water" (literally translated).

3. We have properties that are registered at the 'land registry' and at least one of them does not have the 'habitation licence' - we are in the process of obtaining this now. The said property has 'obras' water but a proper electricity supply and meter.

Be aware that these licences actually expire! We were caught out by this when we needed one recently and was told that it was out-of-date and needed to be renewed. To do this we had to get new boletins for water and electric costing us a small fortune.

Fred James

I thought that was what I said?

The number of our habitation licence is shown on the electricity contract,

LittleWeed

Hi, does anyone know who you contact to find out whether a license has issued for a specific property. I´m thinking of old town houses that been lived in for a long time, many of which don´t have a license In these cases it is necessary to have a license to sell the house ?

Thanks

Fred James

The licence is issued by the town hall. It should be possible to check it with them.

LittleWeed

Many thanks.

Mitzyboy

So are you saying its quite OK to buy a house without a habitation licence?

snikpoh

I personally would NOT recommend it unless you have researched the property and know what you're doing.

In my case, I have a good working relationship with the town hall and would consider it for the right property.

A case in point - I purchased a large building and then applied for a 'horizontal divide' (to convert it to flats). This meant that each of the apartments would then be registered (with their own finca reference) with the 'land registry' but none of them would have habitation licences! I then did the work, applied for the necessary services and applied for habitation licences. We are now left with just one more to go - all now have services connected and all have licences.

Again to re-iterate. If you are buying a property as a main residence and are not in the property/building profession, do NOT buy a house without the habitation certificate. It's real hard work to get one sometimes and there are plenty of good properties out there at them moment.

missile

I have an escritura, padron, cotracts for utilities et al but have never heard of a 1st Occupation License. Should I be concerned?

Veleta

It's perfectly normal for there to be a time delay between the property being finished and the licence being issued. Can be months, can be years.

Just because a property doesn't have its licence (yet) doesn't necessarily mean that there is a problem. On the other hand, I wouldn't just assume that everything is OK....the lack of a licence could be an indicator of a problem.

I think you just need to dig a little deeper and find out if there really is an underlying problem, or if the house is just in the phase between being finished and the paperwork being rubber stamped. Running away from your deposit money without even knowing if there is a problem is a bit of a knee jerk reaction.

In answer to your final question, yes this is quite normal in Spain, but I can't say if you should be concerned or not because we don't know if there is a problem with the house.