To clarify Maria's comment, (and Fibby's) in order for the Licence of First Occupation to be issued, the entire development ought to be completed as per the project which was submitted and approved by the relevant authority (town hall/planning dept.) If the project included 57 different varieties of shrubs to be planted, then these ought to be planted in order for the project to be signed off as completed and the licence issued. As has been stated over and over in other threads, you should not, and are under no obligation to, complete on your property until the licence is issued.
Having said that, and this being Spain, in practice it's not always as clear cut. For example, in our community, several members maintained that the developer had not fulfilled his obligation to deliver a completed garden, but since nobody has ever been able to produce any detailed plans of what was supposed to have been provided, it was pretty much left up to us to beat a path through the jungle to reach the pool (which by the way, was finished perfectly!) See part 3 of A Year In The Life of The President for the story.
If you have concerns about any communal areas/fixtures/facilities etc. that appear to be unfinished, I suggest you raise the issue with the president (if the community has already been formed) but be nice to him! It's no fun taking on developers over this kind of thing.
Fibby wrote:
Out of interest, did you know that if you have a terrace in an apartment block, that area is communial? you shoud read up on The Horizontal Property Laws in you have an apartment. Those laws are specific to apartments.
It becomes private once it is galssed in and the is technically part of your living space.
This means, that by rights, you should not hang anything on the terrace walls
With respect, I don't know where she got this idea from. If you have a terrace, it is yours alone and will be detailed on your escritura (deed). The size of your property may sometimes be referred to by constructed M2 and sometimes utilized M2, the latter referring to the communal element of the building allocated to your property for the purpose of working out your %contribution to the community. This could be construed as part of your property being communal I suppose, but rest assured, you do not have to share your terrace with the neighbours! As for glassing it in, to do so you technically (to coin Fibby's phrase) need planning permission, and almost certainly permission from the community also. This will be stated in the estatutos (statutes) of the community, which you should have a copy of. These will also tell you things such as what colour toldos are permitted, and whether or not you can hang your china plates on the walls. In our municipality it is now illegal to hang clothes on terraces where they would be visible from the street, and I recently had to deal with a neighbour who had boxes of merchandise piled high on their terrace (see part 6, coming soon!) but it would be a pretty stuffy community which bans china plates on walls.
By the way, the Horizontal Laws are applicable to any property where there are shared communal assets, not only apartments. It's basically the same in the UK, or Dubai I imagine, wherever there is "co-ownership". If you would like a copy (PDF) of the Horizontal Laws (in English) PM me an e-mail address, since I still can't find where Justin has put it on the website. How about a donation to baby Emma for every request I get, Justin? You better get your cheque book ready, I'm getting loads of requests!