Buying off plan

Hi,

I'm new to eye on spain and hope I'm not asking a silly question-we are currently waiting patiently for our apartment in Cuevas De Almanzora to have the FOL/Habitation Cert passed by the towm hall.Completion was due in June last year and is now very overdue and at one point were considering pulling out as our contract was not adhered to (or so we thought).Our solicitor says because the builder put the application in on time he has kept within  the contract.However we have photos of the apartment taken after this date and it was not ready to live in-i.e the tiling was not finished-kitchen units not in place-does this not have to be done before applying for this certificate??It is all very confusing and I must say it is very hard to get regular communication from our solicitor.Any advice on completion and FOL would be appreciated

Welcome to EOS Titian,

Take a look down the General forum and you will find lots of  information at 'Buying a property'  on the thread 'Licence of First Occupation'.

Briefly, if the Habitation Licence/ Licence of First occupation licence has not been granted AND the developer is in breach of contract,i.e., late completion, then you are entitled to cancel your contract.  The date on which the Licence was applied for is completely irrelevant, it is the date on which it is granted that matters.

It does seem that your lawyer is either unfamiliar with conveyancing law or working towards a satisfactory transaction for the developer.

If you go to 'Blogs', Maria de Castro the 'in house' lawyer ( I hope you don't mind that description Maria!!) has posted many invaluable articles  regarding  the law and your rights when purchasing property    in Spain.  I strongly advise you to read them.

Many thanks Sandra-I will look into it further

Do you have a bank guarantee covering your deposit? If not insist you get one.

be very careful as a lot on here had bank g/tee but turned out to be not worth the paper they are written on !