certificado habitacion

 this is my first comment so forgive me if this has all been discussed before but did not find anything which answered all my questions.

can anyone advise me of the exact spanish legal requirements regarding this certificate when selling a house.  we bought our house new in 2001 on an urb of 165 houses and  our lawyer apparently has checked with Orihuela town hall and they say one was never issued.  

we are desperate to sell but estate agents are demanding this certificate now in order to do this.  our administrators for the urb say that even if we had had one issued on buying they need renewing after 5 years so we would have to have obtained a new one!

our lawyer says an architect would cost about 800euros.  i have supplied a schematic diagram which is authenticated by the builders when we bought the house - why won't the town hall accept this?  we cannot go  back to the builders as they went out of business a few years ago.  

really not sure what to do now but it looks as if we will have to pay the money if we want to sell.  grateful for any information.  i was interested to read a previous thread by the resident lawyer that it should be free!  thanks Gina

Speak to a lawyer regarding this, they may be able to help.

Joan

"we bought our house new in 2001 on an urb of 165 houses and  our lawyer apparently has checked with Orihuela town hall and they say one was never issued"

You should go straight back to your Lawyer - the one who did the conveyancing for you when you purchased the house is 2001 - and ask them:

'WHY DID THEY ALLOW YOU TO COMPLETE THE PURCHASE OF THE PROPERTY WHEN THEY HAD NOT RECEIVED THE LICENCE OF FIRST OCCUPATION / HABITATION CERTIFICATE'

If your original Lawyer was working in your best interest they would have verified the existence of the LFO prior to allowing you to sign the Escritura.

I wonder if that Lawyer was recommended to you by the Agent or Developer (Builder)?

Kind regards

Keith

 keith110

thanks for this -it's my sentiments exactly and i feel that the practice has been somewhat negligent but it does say in the contract with the builder that this licence of first occupation would be supplied one month after completion so we should have followed it up and made sure we had a copy at the time.   however, still don't understand the administrators for the urb. saying they only last 5 years anyway.  

our original lawyer was assigned to us through the builders but has since retired and a new partner taken over. it is he that has checked with the town hall who says there is no CH.

it's all very frustrating but i don't think we will have any option but to pay. 

gina

"it does say in the contract with the builder that this licence of first occupation would be supplied one month after completion"

This is a typically abusive clause that has been included by the builder.  You should never complete a purchase without the LFO/COH.  I bet the builder would not have allowed you to include a clause in the contract to say that 'payment for the house would take place one month after completion"!!

"our original lawyer was assigned to us through the builders"

A clear conflict of interest.  It seems the Lawyer had the builders interests much higher up his list than yours.  That is because he was probably getting most of his business 'assigned through the builders' - so he did not want to "bite the hand that feeds"........

A clear case of negligence on behalf of the Lawyer and his firm.

"it's all very frustrating but i don't think we will have any option but to pay"

You should go back to your original firm of Lawyers and tell them that you hold them fully responsible for the lack of LFO.  They were negligent, had a conflict of interest which resulted in them allowing you to sign the Escritura without an LFO and they failed to show the required professional due diligence.

"our lawyer says an architect would cost about 800euros"

So your original Lawyers will have to pay the 800 euros and any other costs involved in the issuing of the LFO, otherwise you will sue them for negligence.

This is just typical of the negligence and lack of professional due diligence exhibited by many Lawyers over the past 10 years and they should not be allowed to get away with it.

The only good thing here is that you say the original Lawyer has retired - so at least he cannot provide a negligent service to any other unsuspecting buyer.  But his firm is ultimately responsible for your current predicament.

Be strong and do not let them get away with it.

Kind regards

Keith

There seems to be hundreds of properties effected by this issue in Orihuela Costa, some of the older communities do not even realize that they have a problem.  Escudero clients should check to see if they were issued with the certificate as we know of communities that are still trying eleven years on, and now they have to conform to the latest regulations rather than those of 1999.

Gindge,

Not sure if this helps our local town hall (playa flamenca) has no record of our urbinisation first COH's as they only have records going back 8 years, but were able to offer me a second certificate of habitation, which required a raft of documents and the only cost was a surveyors report to verify Squrae meterage of apartment matched escudero.

If you want more details please feel free to pm me and I will look out paperwork for you.

 Hi, 

Valencia has two different types of "certificado of habitacion" - one for new builds and one for property over, I believe, 10 years old (Cedula de Habilidad de Segunda Occupacion). The latter are valid for 5 years and,given the age of  your house, it could be this is what the administrator for you urb is referring to. I´m just trying to get Cedula de Habilidad de Segunda Occuàcion for my own house and, as mentioned above, the process is fairly straight forward. The town hall asked for the following docs;

1. Copy of the escritura or sales contract.

2. Copy of passport

3. Copy of an electricity or water bill

4. Copy of IBI bill

5. A report from a technical architect confirming that the house not a new build, the built area and that it conforms to some basic regulations. The report cost about 250 euros.

6. Payment of tax of about 70 euros

Since it looks like you might have struggle with getting a licence of 1st occupacion maybe try for a licence of 2nd occupacion ?

Hope this helps.

Does a licence of 2nd occupation have all the same legal safeguards as licence of 1st occupation?

 dear all

thank you so very much for all of your very helpful comments.   it has given us quite a lot to think about.   it would appear that we have one or two more options available to us now that we did not know of before and in addition, it is probably time to change our lawyer!  i may contact you again!  Gina

Hi,

Can anyone shed any light on the benifits or drawbacks of  (Cedula de Habilidad de Segunda Occupacion)

2nd certificate of occupation where the 1st (Cedula de Habillidad) is either missing through subsequent sales or was never issued at all.

My lawyer seems a bit vague when this question was asked (surprise surprise).