Is my house "illegal" ?

[axarquian]

Hello,

I have a house in the Axarquia, in the campo, in the area controlled by the Canillas de Aceituno town hall. I purchased the house in early 2007, it is a 'reform' i.e. there was previously a house on the site however my house completely replaces the original house. I read of 10,000+ houses built in the Axarquia campo being considered as 'illegal". My has has an Escritura, it is not built on virgin land, is my house and all others built in the campo 'illegal". What is the definition, what is the difference between a "legal'"and "illegal" campo house ?

[GRANVILLE]

I have a house in Axarquia bought at the same time as you and my town hall is Canillas. From the little that i know I doubt if any body can tell you if your house is legal or not. We had a solicitor,it was all done legally and we have an escitura. Somebody may put me right but your house is built on the foot print of an old house so as long as yours is not twice as big as it should be it has a good chance of being legal. Houses built on virgin land have to be the ones most at risk. Good luck

[Beachcomber]

As Granville says, it is impossible to know whether any country dwelling is legal with any certainty. Was the reform already carried out when you purchased or have you done it since?

[axarquian]

Thank you for your comments Granville and Beachcomber. The reform was carried out after I agreed to purchase, the builder was most particular in ensuring that the Town Hall inspected the site to confirm that it was a 'reform' before begining to build. A licence was issued by the Town Hall, presumably some Town Halls (Vinuela, Alcaucin) were issuing licences illegally ! As the mayor of Canillas is still in office then maybe Canillas were adhering to the rules laid down by the Junta !!

[Beachcomber]

If the reform is contained within the footprint of the original dwelling you should be OK but the whole question of legality of property generally represents a lamentable state of affairs and is a sad reflection on this European Union member state.

A friend was recently considering the purchase of a rural property which, apparently, is in possession of all of its paperwork. However, when we contacted the Junta de Andalucía to confirm the validity of the building licence we spent the whole morning being shunted from pillar to post, ringing alternative telephone numbers which we were given and ended up none the wiser than when we started out.

If the Junta wants to contest the validity of building licences issued by local town halls, fine but they are going to have to come up with a point of contact where someone in authority can state unequivocally that a property is or is not legal.

You can check the property registry, Catastro, confirm the existence of a certificate of first occupation etc and still run foul of the Junta's arbitrary declarations. How the hell can you administer a property purchasing system in this way? I suppose that's just it. It isn't administered, it just limps along the best it can under the circumstances and then the Spanish government has the temerity to criticise the recent EU vote to suspend their funding unless they get their act together.

The old saying 'caveat emptor' is more pertinent now than ever before but beware of what? No-one knows. The overriding caveat will have to be:

'Under no circumstances purchase a property in Spain unless you can afford to lose all of the money.'

[frog]

lol,let the buyer beware unless an estate agent,spanish lawyer or tv show tells you otherwise

you lose your head you may lose your house

[Jool]

The old saying 'caveat emptor' is more pertinent now than ever before but beware of what? No-one knows

Sad but true and it seems to apply to the JDA as well - they surely HAVE to create a department that can issue documentation that confirms a property is 100% legal in line with regional (and even national?) legislation....similar to the certificate of no infraccion urbanistica available from town halls but with a lot more strength and total legal responsibility falling on the JDA, that will make them sort themselves out......

[MrsP]

Try this site

www.goolzoom.com

[Jool]

Doesn´t this only show the catastro?

[Lavanda]

Hang on, Beachcomber, using the word 'SPAIN' is a bit strong. There are plenty of areas in Spain where a system of legal registration of campo land and property is in place and works perfectly well with all relevant 'authorities'; Junta, Mancomunidad, Comarca, Ayuntamientio, Medio Ambiento, Hidrografico, etc. all agree and it's possible to find this out and there's no disagreement or doubt or vague ways to interpret the registration. It's clear.

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