Hi everyone.......................again.

After a recent move from the Alicante area to Valencia I have been thinking about what people really define as being campo.

Is it in the absolute sticks or somewhere not too far really but with a lack of facilities.

My definition would be "the countryside" in the UK. Maybe near a village, but driving distance to the nearest town???

Jo xxx

More than 15 minutes walk to the closest Madrid metro.

lol, that reminds me of a guy I worked with years ago when I was in North Hamptonshire who said we were in the north of England, he was a cockney.

Everything that falls outside of the city limits, or the line which divides land which is "urbano" from all the rest (where most of the dodgy properties can be found).

What is your definition of campo?

"Campo" is probably one of the few Spanish words that most Brits living outside of towns know. Where do you live? In the campo! They like to drop it in to conversations as often as they can, makes them sound like locals.

I think that's quite close to my definition. I would say (as would my Spanish friends/neighbours) that we are in the campo. We live only 5 - 10 mins from the town of Ontinyent. Ontinyent has a population of about 35 thousand but the locals call it 'the village'!

My definition is a property with land, where you have to drive to town (too far to walk) and having NO ammenities (street lights, mail delivery, etc. etc.)

Your other point about dodgy properties is interesting. We were speaking to a surveyor recently who said that about 90% of properties in the Valencian campo are illegal. This got us thinking and yep, you guessed it, we're illegal!

We bought the property 3 yeras ago using a good solicitor. All the property is on the escritura and cadestral, all taxes paid etc. However, we have a villa on only 7000 m2 of land. Our surveyor friend said that once upon a time, this was OK but because the law changed to only allow properties on plots of 10000m2 or more, we are now illegal!

We don't have a cedula (habitation licence) - and are unlikely to be able to get one because of the 'new' law... Mmmmmm, will I worry, no not yet anyway.

If your property was legal it still is legal so unless your friend can provide a link showing that a law has been passed in Valencia revoking previous planning approvals dont worry about it.

As for the cedula of first occupation this again is rubbish, you or the previous occupant would have had one or you would not have been connected to the services.

Good idea for a thread. I put on my grumpy hat when people living in little developments in England consider themselves living in the country, and similarly here. However I don't think you need to have land yourself to be in the campo, cos you might be in an old house like ours which has had most of its land hived off over the years & only has 5,000 left with it. .....but we're 1.8km from tarmac, 15min from the village, have no mail, rubbish collections, lights (not that I want them), drainage, etc etc & are quite happy with all of that!

In theory you are correct.

However it is not impossible to get connected to the Electricity supply.

We have a neighbour who has a house which is classed as an agricultural shed. Clearly he does not have a first occupation licence but the builders/agents managed to use someone else's licence to convince Endesa to connect him.

As for the definition of "Campo" a good one is "anywhere you cannot get better than a 3mb ADSL connection!"

Thats what I call the quinto cono/conyo.
.

Have 3mb now - 0.7mb before.

Sorry.

Using OH account by mistake-hes cooking tea.

Nice to see you both back again - hope the move has worked out for ya both and you are much happier
Take care
Love Sam xxxxx

Obviously no footie fans here.
Campo is commonly used for the local Football Stadium and its associated facilities,...as in football ground in the UK,...though not in such common use as it used to be.
I find the Spanish normally refer to campo as open countryside or farmland which is generally easily accessible to the public.