Trying to find out if an extention is legal. - Page 4

From what I have found out, anything older than a certain cut-off point, 4 years in some places, 6 in others I believe Alicante is 15 years, if nothing has been complained about since, then a Certificate of Antiquity means it is irrelevant if the work was originally carried out with official permission or not. 

The problem is that most of the fincas are illegal in theory, do not have 10,000 sq. Metres of land, any building work or conversions were never registered so most of the lawyers make the best of a bad job promising you they will put the illegal conversion or extension in the deeds as legal!!! I presume that once you buy the property you will be in the same boat as the previous owners.

I have threatened to pull out of the contract I signed which listed the various certificates that I should be getting as part of the deal and said I would want my deposit back (which may be doubled as is standard and is written into my contract).

Suddenly the estate agent, who has ignored me since I signed the contract with the vendor, phoned me out of the blue, and so did the lawyer.

The result? All past conversions will now be regularised and paid for by the vendors.

The Cedula de habitabilidad will be requested by the vendors, the new approved septic tank will be installed and I will pay half of the cost of doing so, we have already agreed on the amount necessary. So it’s costing me a little more but at least I have peace of mind and have achieved what I set out to do. 

This is mainly due to everyone’s help on the forum who were so generous to share their experiences and knowledge.

Janice

Yes Pete,

I have covered this with the lawyer and it will be written into the final contract and the amount will probably be withheld by the lawyer from the vendor’s money until it has all been put in place.

There are still a trillion things that can go wrong but we’re getting there! 

Thanks for your advice,

Janice

Hi Janice,

Brilliant that you've now got the agent and your lawyer to respond appropriately - you must be relieved - but do insist that your lawyer holds a retention in respect of installing the septic tank.  It's all very well having it written into the contract, but once all the purchase monies have been paid to the vendor, if they default on the terms of the contract, it will cost you to pursue them through the courts - and it's much more costly and protracted than in the UK.  Much better to withhold the money until the work is complete and you have copies of the receipts, as Pete suggests, for all the work, and that you're satisfied that the guarantee is worth the paper it's written on.

Kind regards,

Kim

Thanks for the heads-up, Kim. I will write to my lawyer today and make sure this happens.

Thank you again,

Janice

Be careful. We were interested in a property with a beautiful underbuild. We asked the owners to show us confirmation that this underbuild was recorded at the town hall, as this would proove the right permissions were in place. They handed me a folder which showed permission from the community to fit a window only. The accompanying paperwork was from the President, voicing his concerns that they had gone ahead with the underbuild without planning - or permission from the community. They had foolishly believed that the permission for the window was sufficient. When we explained that the underbuild would need to be recorded with the town hall once they had obtained retrospective planning permission, they asked us if we could pay them cash for the value of the underbuild. Naturally we were not interested. The owner should definitely have paperwork regarding any permissions granted. So the easiest route is to ask them to fax or email them to you. Hiding behind the data protection act would ring alarm bells for me. Your money - so you are entitled to proof.

Be careful. We were interested in a property with a beautiful underbuild. We asked the owners to show us confirmation that this underbuild was recorded at the town hall, as this would proove the right permissions were in place. They handed me a folder which showed permission from the community to fit a window only. The accompanying paperwork was from the President, voicing his concerns that they had gone ahead with the underbuild without planning - or permission from the community. They had foolishly believed that the permission for the window was sufficient. When we explained that the underbuild would need to be recorded with the town hall once they had obtained retrospective planning permission, they asked us if we could pay them cash for the value of the underbuild. Naturally we were not interested. The owner should definitely have paperwork regarding any permissions granted. So the easiest route is to ask them to fax or email them to you. Hiding behind the data protection act would ring alarm bells for me. Your money - so you are entitled to proof.