The devil is in the detail
THERE is still a lot of dangerous property related nonsense on the internet. That was my great epiphany last week. I honestly thought we were beyond the point where I now know we are in terms of awareness of the building and planning regulations.
It made me sad to see it, quite angry as well and more determined than ever to change the situation. When I find dangerous content on expat forums I will do my best to combat it here, so here we go.
First myth being propagated on these forums – occupation licences legalise your property, not true. An illegal property should not have an occupation licence, that much we can agree on but, the fact that a property has somehow managed to get one is not a recognition of its legal status.
I made a video explaining the A-Z of occupation licenses, the link is given below.
For a property to be legal it must first be compliant with town planning, which is determined at a local level, by your town hall. It must also be compliant with the technical code corresponding to the date of its construction, currently that’s a national code the CTE.
Lastly, it must possess a municipal licence for its construction, local approval. It isn’t enough for it to be compliant, the town hall must have said that this is the case and you have proved it to be the case.
You can legalise a property retroactively, after its construction, through a ‘proyecto de legalización’ for urban properties or a MIT licence for rural properties but, only if they are compliant with the regulations I have just described.
I know it’s a tautology to say so but, a property can be legalised if and only if it’s legalisable. Ie, ceteris paribus it would have been given planning permission at the time it was built if it had been applied for. The Ceteris paribus bit is important in urban cases as if the planning legislation has moved on, thus making it currently impossible to get a licence, it won’t be legalised.
Attaining an occupation licence means that the property meets the corresponding spacial and hygiene requirements, these are regional requirements.
In the Valencia region it’s either the HD 91 or DC9 depending on the date of its construction. It’s things like not having the kitchen and the toilet linked spacially, the minimum space for a bedroom to be called a bedroom, the maximum incline for a ramp, that sort of thing.
Planning compliance is forever, technical compliance is forever, planning permission is most cases is forever, occupation licences are not. They expire, after 10 years.
You are not required to get a new one unless you do major works, you sell or transfer the property in any way, or you wish to connect a new utility service but, they do expire after 10 years. So the fact that a property you are interested in buying has an occupation licence neither makes it legal in any way, shape or form nor, really importantly, does it mean that you won’t be required to get a new one.
You buying the property means that, if the previous occupation licence is more than 10 years old, one of the threshold conditions for being obliged to get one has been breached.
Getting a new occupation licence on an illegal property is next to impossible, so as the law requires the utilities companies to be in possession of the occupation licence before they connect you, you can’t get new access to electricity, water...
You are therefore dependent on the previous owner doing you a favour by not cancelling their contract and merely changing the billing information, so you get billed instead of them. You are clearly at their mercy when that happens with, the circuit breaker of Damocles permanently above your head.
So please, if anyone tells you that’s it’s OK to buy a property as it has an occupation licence, run, don’t walk, run in the opposite direction.
In my next report I will explain why you should also run away from someone that tells you their lawyer just paid to have the demolition order removed from their house.
I have a feeling we’re going to be in excellent shape by summer, as we’ll constantly be running in multiple and different directions, sometimes at the same time, away from people spouting dangerous nonsense at least until then.
If you have a question relating to town planning, design criteria or building regulations send it in to the newspaper, do not look for the answer on a forum. Forums are brilliant places for all sorts of info – making cakes and even making friends, not so reliable for the CTE, HD 91 or DC 9.