NEW PROPERTIES AND TOWN URBAN PLAN

If you intend to buy a new property it is very important to check its legal status in the Town Hall.

Nowadays it is very common to buy a property off plan or before it's finished. In these cases you run the risk of not having the license to live in it once it's finished and also to have to pay a fine because the building does not fit all legal requirements or to have to compensate to the town for the illegalities committed.

In all the Town Halls in Spain, there is a Planning or Urbanismo Department where you can check the legal situation of the property that you want to buy.

Something that happens very often is that a person buys a plot in order to build a house but after having paid for it and when he or she applies to the Town Hall to ask for the necessary licenses to start building, they are informed that it is impossible to build in that place or that the volume of the building has to be much smaller than the original project.

Of course, building your own house may be very rewarding if done in the right way and with a good legal advice because instead of paying six per cent of transfer tax you will pay only the cost of licenses and between 0.5 and 1 per cent of the cost of the building.

You must also know that there are general requirements such as keeping certain distance from the neighbouring house, borders, buildings and streams. So, even if the seller tells you that you can build the house of your dreams, check it with a civil servant in the Town Hall and, if possible, get a written certification of that information.

The Plan General de Ordenación Urbana (PGOU), or Town Urban Plan is a document that includes what and where anything can be built in a urban area as well as the project of building public facilities such as gardens, hospitals, roads, parks, public health facilities , etc. Studying it you'll save yourself from buying a plot twenty meters from the future new highway.

No new building project should be planned before knowing the present PGOU which, once approved, is at the disposal of anyone and is usually circulated in the Internet although its interpretation might be difficult for a layperson.