neilwturner

Buildings over 40 will have to undergo inspection

Old building in Algeciras
(Illustration only)
ALGECIRAS In a piece of legislation that might be expected in other towns and cities in response to regional or national law (Royal Law Decree 8/2011 of July 1), Algeciras is about to order that buildings of 40 years or more must undergo technical inspections to ensure that conditions of safety, sanitation, accessibility and ornamentation are adequate. This applies to all kinds of buildings, from blocks of flats to townhouses and single-family homes. Initial approval of the municipal regulation has been done, and it is now in the public allegation stage until May 22, after which it and the obligation of owners will be in effect.>>>
The above Law-Decree establishes that the technical inspections must ensure that the building is in 'good state' and 'properly maintained'. Inspections must therefore establish whether the 'buildings are in line with current legal condition'. It must also 'determine the conservation and maintenance work required to put the building into a legally required state and the time such work should take'.

The national law stipulates that it is buildings over 50 years that must be subjected to these inspections, unless the regional government establishes this differently, as Andalucía has done.

Diego González de la Torre, Algeciras Councillor for Town Planning, adds that further inspections will be held after 20 years from the last rehabilitation.

Proprietors' obligations
The owner of the building will be obliged to contract the inspection from a properly qualified professional such as a surveyor (arquitecto técnico). This person is then obliged to make a report to the technical office of the Town Hall (Gerencia Municipal de Urbanismo). When work to be done is determined, this same professional must make a new report when it is finished.

"If the owner knows that a building is 40 years old, or more, he must present the documentation that says so. In the same way as a car must go through an inspections to use the roads, buildings are the same," says González de la Torre. "The owner has a responsibility."

An important point made by the Councillor is that grant5s can be applied for, according to Royal Decree 233/2013. "It is very recent and covers the stae plan aimed at development of rental properties, in which is included urban rehabilitation and regeneration. It contains a programme of rehabilitation including types of grants, as well as the cost of the work involved and the fees charged by the technitians."

cardi

Times are hard. Unemployment is horrendous.
Bureaucrats are working hard to justify their jobs. Creating more petty regulations is one way to do it.

bobd22

True but there is negatives and positives i.e. MOT's for houses I think is another thing that will deter people from buying.

Domino

I suppose I could be unkind and say that some of the unfinished buildings around here are 40 years old - well not quite, but some have been building for 5 or more years. And still not finished.
The pair of houses opposite us were started 6 years ago he says, one is almost finished, keeps getting in a tradesman to do some tinkering here or there every few months, but no occupancy. The other is just a shell, although the roof is on and the basic electrics fitted.

So if it is based on the date of First Occupancy - there's quite a few that are coming up for review shortly

snikpoh

But how would they cope with all the empty, falling down, properties?

Some, if not all of these, will have had a habitation certificate at some time (unless they are too old).

Around here there are loads of empty properties that are just crumbling away. I know some will be that way because they were not inherited but the others must have owners surely?

Domino

ISTR being told (on here I think) that the problem with old buildings that are crumbling is that they are a legacy of Spain's inheritance laws. Take a small property on say 80sqm plot, person dies, this is then inherited by all those still living, which would be say 80 people, so they will inherit rights to 1sqm. Not worth the aggro. And what about that 1sqm being passed on to a further 15-20 people. It just gets worse. And of course no one wants to go in and repair the property, do something with it, without the approval of all who own a piece of it.

Friend of mine has recently found out that the town property he owns isnt on the catastral, although they have lived there for 12 years, and it is about 90 years old.
This country is in a mess and needs to sort out the catastral problems from the bottom up rather than hitting a part of the problem from the middle.