Certificate of habitation for a finca needing total restoration - query

Hello Maria or anybody who can advise!

We are considering of buying a finca with some land in a rural area in Aragon.  It has a building that an English family began to restore a few years ago; the property was probably advertised as "needing total restoration".  That is, the building was still standing, not just ruins.  There are architect's drawings and permits in place and the exterior has been restored and about half of the inside is habitable. The family was living in the building when they had to return to the UK last year for family reasons and are now selling the finca. 

We have just discovered that the building does not have a habitation certificate and presume this would only be granted once the rest of the rooms inside are habitable.  Do you anticipate any problems with obtaining the certificate?  Who provides the licence and what paperwork is required?  How much does it cost?  Or does the property need LFO (Licence of First Occupation)?  If yes, is this more complicated and more difficult to obtain?  Do we need to worry?  Is our dream about to end in fiasco before it even started?

Many thanks.  

Hi,

Be careful and make sure that it is possible to finish the restoration works and that there is no objection concerning the works carried out in the property, as if they were done without planning permission the town hall might have something to say about it.

The Master Plan is the document that lays down the applicable rules for building and rebuilding, therefore you should check first at the town hall IN WRITING whether it is possible to carry out the restoration you seek and also if there is any illegallity in the works already carried out.

Yours,

A.M,

Yes, Finca-in-Spain, as Fairway has said, ,ake sure on the legal ststus of the works in the Planning department of the Local Council.

Many thanks for your replies.  We have now seen the finca and the building is nowhere near ready and although there was a building licence, it has now exprired.  I don't think the family followed the plans when they began restoring it.  The property agent arranged for a local architect to check the building against the plans.  It should be possible to extend the building licence, but it will cost quite a lot of money to put it right and complete it .  After that a habitation certificate will be issued.  We have not yet decided if we want to go ahead with the purchase.  If we do, we will instruct the architect to sort things out and negotiate an extension to the building licence, before we complete on the purchase.  We have been advised that it is possible to put an extension of the building licence as a condition of purchase in the deposit contract, so we wil not lose our deposit if it is not possible to extend the licence. 

If anyone needs a bi-lingual, competent architect working in southern Catalunia and Teruel province of Aragon, I can give her contact details.

good solution!

M

From my experience be careful. I bought a 3 ha finca with a ruin. I had no problem getting ayuntamiento permission to do up the ruin. Got an architect to draw up plans. Got a builder, (mayors drinking buddy), to build me a beautiful little cottage. But this is a different matter from getting permission to live in it. A lot of fincas in my area - Extremadura - had buildings which were used for storage and maybe for the peasant landowner to sleep in during harvest time. This is a different thing from residence. The ayuntamiento know I live in my cottage and don't seem to mind. (I went into this eyes wide open and have no complaints). Meanwhile I have a set of plans in train for a house elsewhere on the property. But while  this has been rubber stamped by ayuntamiento, it has to go to the junta in Merida for approval as we are what they call an area of outstanding beauty. (La Vera, Caceres). The junta are a different kettle of fish and my architect and they have batted letters back and forth for over a year. To go back to my ruin, I got electricity connected (15k euros) but only because it was agricultural land - to make it look kosher i went for 3 phase, as I got funny looks from Iberdrola, so I told them I needed electricity for a  fish farm. They told me that if I wanted luz just to live in the cottage  they couldn't do it because I didn't have a habitation certificate.  As a matter of interest, have you got plenty of water? This is pivotal. If there is a well, toss a submersible pump (50 euros any ferreteria) down it and drain it. See how much water and how long to refil. Anything less than 1000 litres a day you will struggle to run a small house, let alone a garden. Don't believe anything the seller tells you about water. Ask neighbours about boreholes. I drilled a 100m one and have enough water for the fictional fish farm. Water is everything.

Hi Guy,

Thanks you very much for your very helpful advice.  I believe there was a farmhouse on the land, rather than a barn (almacén) which is meant for storage and occassional sleep-overs by the farmers at harvest-time, etc.  However, I will have this checked.  In Aragon, in most areas it is even possible to build new houses in rural areas and obtain a habitation licence, unlike in Cataluna where we first looked to buy.

Your advice about the well is very good.  We have been concerned about the water and getting a well, as there is only a cisterna at the moment. A water-diviner has checked the finca for water and has reported that a 40-metre well is needed, but I take your point about a deeper well. There is irrigation water about 500 metres from the finca and we are waiting for a reply about the possibility of connecting to it.  It probably is quite expensive, though.

Many thanks, much appreciated!