lamela1234

The time has come to make my property legal escratora in place next step to take can any one help we are in almeria sorbas provance thanks

snikpoh

What makes you think that it is NOT currently legal?

Is it that you have a larger house than on the escritura or maybe you have things (pool, garage etc.) which are not mentioned?

I would approach a good architect first or even go to your local planning department at the town hall.

lamela1234

The house is now 7years old buil t on the original foot print we have made no changes to the property needed to wait 4 years before we could make legal the time has just ran away from us would like now to get it sorted

Dick Dasterdly

If your escritura is correct and in all order maybe all you need to do is get the property officially registered or have you already done that ?

snikpoh

I'm still not sure why you think it is illegal?

As Dick says, maybe it simply needs registering?


If you knocked down the old house and then rebuilt it exactly the same, what's the problem? Nothing needs to change?

mikelincs

assuming the old house was legal, not always true in Spain.

pete_l

You need to get a local solicitor to fix this for you.

Lynn R

"Needed to wait 4 years before we could make it legal" rings some alarm bells with me. I might be completely wrong, but were you by any chance told that there was a problem with the property (built on rural land, only had permission for a workshop or something other than a house, etc.) but that the authorities would not be able to do anything about it after 4 years had elapsed?

If so, I fear you could be in for a nasty shock.

scampicat

I'm afraid I was thinking that too.

mikelincs

I admit it made alarm bells ring for me as well.

fionamw

Just to add to the carillon of alarm bells, four years was the time quoted for 'making legal' a property built on agricultural land which we looked at when househunting some years back. We didn't buy it.

Hopefully not off-topic, but someone mentioned or queried an old house possibly still being illegal, or at least not legal. How so? Ours is minimum 100/150 years, our neighbour who's 50 odd was born here, we now know the land was subsequently designated protegido I think in the late 80s or something, so we have to regularise, which the ayuntamiento says should be straightforward; I want to be prepared for all possible nightmares - might it NOT be legal despite everything?

Domino

that is one of the urban myths that was touted around Almeria a few years ago.
If it is illegal only a solicitor and the town hall will tell you.

the first step is to go to http://www.goolzoom.com/
enter your address/post code into the Direccion box and zoom in on the plot concerned.
If the cadastral info says it is Agrario you immediately have a problem, same if you have pool, outhouses etc not shown there.

At best you will be fined by the Ayuntamiento for carrying out unsanctioned building work.

At worst, you may never get the house legalised, it may not be possible. There are over 12,500 properties in the Almanzora Valley that are known to be illegal, more than double that in Almeria.
for further information go to http://www.almanzora-au.org/
they may be able to help you

best of luck

Domino

Be very careful about using a local solicitor - they have overseen the sale of thousands and thousands of houses that are illegal in Almeria and other places.
Many should have been disbarred and imprisoned but IIRC disbarring is not normally an option even after a prison sentence.
Even policemen can return to their job after a spell in pokey

Fred James

After 4 years they cannot fine you but they can still issue a demolition order.

mikelincs

I wonder if that's what they mean by the '4 years', that they won't be fined, however a demolition order is considerably worse.