[Anonymous]

Can anybody help.My situation is i am in the process of buying an apartment 50%cash 50% mortgage,the apartment is complete and we are waiting to take occupation of our property.The problem i have my agent said that we are waiting for the Certificate of new works which is supplied by the local Town Hall .The bank will not release the funds to complete until they have this document ,we should have completed in April.Has anybody else experienced this situation?

[Anonymous]

Dear Andy

Your experience is far from unique. However there is a slight confusion of terms. The certificate of new works (Certificado de final de obras) is provided by the head architect of the project, not the town hall. The architect provides this certificate to demonstrate that the build has been finished in accordance with the approved plans. Once this has been issued the town hall then has to grant the first occupancy licence (Licencia de primera ocupación). So the process is new works certificate followed by first occupancy licence. Banks won’t lend against a property without the latter.

Regards

Mark

[Anonymous]

Hi Mark,

Please can you tell me where the Habitation Certificate comes in? Is it the same as the first occupation licence or something else altogether? Will a Spanish bank release mortgage funds without a Habitation Certificate?

Thanks,
Tilly

[Anonymous]

It’s basically the same thing. It’s called the first occupancy licence in the case of a new build, but after that it becomes the cédula de habitabilidad. I don’t know of any banks that will lend without this.

Mark

[Anonymous]

Thanks Mark,

If a Certificate of New Works has been issued is the Town Hall obliged to issue the First Occupancy Licence?
If they will not – because the urbanisation infrastructure is not complete – does this indicate that the architect should not have issued the certificate?

Thanks,
Tilly

[Anonymous]

Tilly,

‘Obliged’ isn’t the right word. It’s more a question of ‘very likely’. If the certificate of finished works has been issued a project is very likely to get the licencia de primera occupación. But as I understand it the certificate of new works isn’t by itself enough to guarantee that the licencia will be granted.

Mark

[Anonymous]

Thanks again Mark,

What a shame, when I read your post I was hoping that it might be possible to put some responsibility on the architect for signing off work not completed. Should have known that wouldn’t work.

I’v just been informed that in Murcia (or certainly in Mazarron) the banks hand over mortgage funds when the escritura is signed, apparently they don’t concern themselves with first occupancy licences. So it is possible to have a mortgage on a house that is not legally habitable.

This I think is half of my problem – I keep finding out information about ‘Spain’ which just doesn’t work in ‘Murcia’ – I think they make it up as they go along there!

Tilly

[Anonymous]

Thanks Mark for your information,could i ask you in your experience how long would it generally take for these licences and certificates to be issued by the town halls and is there anything i could do to hurry the process along.
Thanks Andy

[Anonymous]

It all depends upon the town hall, how busy they are, and how important the person requesting the licences is. However it only requires one site visit from the town hall inspector, so it shouldn’t take too long. Anything from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, assuming everything is in order. There’s nothing legal you can do to hurry the process along.

Mark

[Anonymous]

Thanks Mark ,the town hall that we are waiting for must be exceptionally busy we have been waiting for four months lets keep our fingers crossed that it arrives soon.
Many Regards
Andy

[Anonymous]

Mark i have heard of people moving in to houses /appartments with out this paper work and living off builders power supply. we are hopfully two months off from compleation. But it does seem like a game of cat and mouse. we know its a 24 month build but can not get our lawyer to tell us when it started we have an independent lawyer or so we think, If we were offered this move is it some thing we should consider as putting pressure on these people seems impossible. if you ask our lawyer anything it seems like we are asking if there is water on mars.

Regards Smurf

[Author]

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