Hi everyone, I am new to this forum and wondered if you wonderful peeps can put my mind at rest, or not, as I am totally confused as to what to do with a house purchase in Spain.
We live in France and have just sold our house here, we have found a property in Spain that we have been to see and fallen in love with it. It is a rustic property just outside Beniganim, Valencia, in an area called Pla Dels Cunills, we have been told it hasn't got a certificate of habitation, but has a no town planning infraction certificate, which we do not understand, we have also been told it is in a place that does not allow houses to be built but it has been there since 1980 and been lived in and sold on. All taxes are paid to the town council. We have a lawyer working for us and he has told us it is "Fuera De Ordenacion"???
He has advised us to proceed with caution but cannot get out of him why he has said this, we have asked him if we should or should not proceed but he will not give us an answer. There are a lot of houses around us, we assume they are in the same situation. Was wondering if anybody had bought a property in this situation and encountered any problems, or what the pit falls may be if we buy.
Thank you in advance.

Hi and a warm welcome to the Spanish forum on BE. Myself and Fred James are the moderators for the Spanish forums whilst BEVS moderates Europe. Moderators are there to ensure that the site runs smoothly within the rules of BE. This is so that members gain the information that they are looking for and find their experiences on the forums to be friendly and worthwhile.

Problems and complaints should always be addressed to a moderator who will look into the matter and deal with it efficiently and fairly. Our members who post in the Spain Forums are usually friendly and helpful with a wealth of knowledge about the issues of living in Spain. I hope that you enjoy your time participating in the forums.

Please let me know if you need any further help.

Rosemary

It means that you can't do anything with it, no modifications, extensions, additions, etc. That includes no building of pools , erecting sheds, etc.

In the future, the authorities could decide a different course of action, affecting you negatively.

Walk away; It's not worth the effort. What other people have done in the same area is irrelevant. People are like sheep - ignorance of the masses is fairly common in Spain.

There's a fairly extensive layman's discussion of the meaning and issues here.

The primary concerns are (i) prohibition of any future modifications, (ii) difficulty in selling the property when you eventually want/need to, and (iii) uncertainty about possible future changes in the regulations, with entirely unpredictably consequences.

Ultimately the decision is going to depend on your comfort level and risk appetite because it isn't possible to reduce the purchase of a property with these legal issues to a zero risk deal.

Walk away , otherwise you will spend your whole life trying to legalise the house and most likely fail , if you like being on the tv you may get a slot when its bulldozed flat and they show you in tears on the sidelines saying how unfair it all is, I say again, walk away, theres an abundance of legal property available in Spain.
You need to give your head a wobble , would you buy an illegal build house in the UK?

Thanks for your answers. The lawyer has told us it can't be bulldozed but will always be what it is now. And it will always be outside the rules?? It's certainly big enough as it is with various outbuildings that are on the cadastral , there is a water deposit which has been used as a plunge pool, other houses around us have larger pools so I guess they don't take any notice of "rules". He has assured us we will be able to change the water and electricity into our names with out a CH in place. He has also said they will never urbanise the area and the land to the north of the house is going to be made a protected area. Do you think that all rustic properties would be in the same position? We don't want to live on the coast and have limited funds, so need to buy in the hills.

You are crazy if you buy this place or any other that is not 100% legal , do you want to spend the rest of your life lining your lawyers pockets trying to sort this mess ? weekly visits to his office sound like fun? he should be telling you the same as I am......walk away.

Have a read through this
http://www.rics.org/Global/AIPP%20-%...ide%202015.pdf

We walked away from a very similar situation on the advice of our lawyer. We were also told any potential buyers (if at some stage we decided to sell) would not be able to get a mortgage.

Wise move , sounds like your lawyer was actually working for you.

It is very easy to fall in love with a cheap rustic rural property and thoughts of living the dream with maybe a few animals etc BUT if the property is not a 100% legal all you are buying is a huge ongoing stressful problem. Please folks (and any others in same situation)always walk away.

Good advice, let's face it selling a fully legal property in Spain since the crash can take a long long time and usually these days for less than purchased. So what hope do you have with one not legal. Personally I would avoid it.

None of us knows what the future holds and you could find yourself wanting/needing to sell , if your house is not legal it could take years , even decades to sell.

Exactly