Spain is notorious for illegal building, but how bad is the problem really? Expatica investigates.

If it's not the state grabbing half your land, it's muggers grabbing your handbag; if it's not these, then it’s the media telling everyone you live in a hell-hole dominated by beer-swilling expats, corrupt officials and murderous thieves.

Add to which, these days, an increasing number of tales of bad builders; at best incompetent, at worst criminal.

The bad shepherds are finding new ways to fleece their ever-increasing flock of lambs to the slaughter.

But how bad is it, really? The answer is – bad, but mainly only for those who fail to do their homework.

Sally and Joe Alden, originally from Bradford, in Britain, bought their home near Calpe, on the Costa Blanca, from a British estate agent, acting on behalf of a British vendor.

No, you don't need a solicitor, he told them, I'll do all the searches for you.

It wasn't until they moved in that they learned that proposed development adjoining their land would cost them at least EUR 25,000 in infrastructure charges.

Furious at this apparent deception, they took both agent and vendor to court.

They lost, and had the defendant's costs awarded against them.

The reason for the court's decision? Simple, the oldest rule in the book: Caveat Emptor; Let the Buyer beware.

The onus, they were told, was on them to have researched the property; the agent and vendor, who both knew of the proposed charges, and did not tell them, walked away, and the Aldens were left some EUR 50,000  out of pocket.

Outside Spain, rules and regulations are to be obeyed.

In Britain, for instance, they employ a solicitor to carry out searches when buying a house, even though it is usually safe to assume that full planning permission was originally granted.

However, when Britons buy in Spain, alas, all too often they make the same fatal assumptions, only to find that their new home is completely illegal, and should never even have been built.

Frank and Billie Somers, from Sussex, in Britain, bought a tumbledown finca near La Herradura, Granada.

They were assured by the agent that they could demolish it and rebuild, anywhere on their 18,000 square metre plot.

Too late, they learned that they could only rebuild on the original site of the ruin, (which backs on to a dog pound!) right against a main road, and only to the original size.

Again, blind trust in what an agent told them had cost them dear.

Most agents are genuine and reliable; most builders trustworthy and dependable.

But enough are not, to have started a whole new genre of horror stories.

When Bettie Anggold, a widow from Somerset, in the UK, decided to move to Spain, she deliberately chose a small, new urbanisation.

"I didn’t want to be a Costa Brit, so I chose a complex in Castellon, near Valencia," she told us.

"I was assured that it would be ready by October 2005 and made my plans accordingly."

Bettie was ready, but her house wasn't; not in October, or November, or even by Christmas.

It is still not ready at the time of writing, nowhere near.

And Betty is having to eat into her savings to rent a place, with no idea when her own house will be ready.

Caveat Emptor - the rule when buying in Spain

A cynic might say that Betty should have checked before coming out; a cynic, in today's market, would be right.

Worse still, is the nightmare in which Pat and Dennis Archer find themselves.

Their new home, near Catral, was ready on time, and very nicely built.

Only one problem: neither their home or any of the others on the complex had planning permission, a little oversight their solicitors failed to notice.

Now, the local town hall threaten to demolish the lot, leaving Pat and Dennis to try to recoup their losses from either the solicitor, or a builder who has now 'gone out of business'.

The reality is that planning permission in Spain is quite different to the UK and many other countries.

Many, many builders just buy the land, build the house and know that, in due course, after three or four years, retrospective planning permission will be granted.

And it frequently is – but not always.

So how many houses are affected? By definition, nobody can be sure; thousands, certainly; tens, even many tens of thousands, probably, along the entire coastal region.

At any one time, probably a couple of thousand cases are outstanding in the Spanish courts of buyers versus builders/lawyers/town halls because their home has been 'condemned' as illegal.

But if the house does not have a new works building licence, will it eventually get one? 

Hardly surprisingly, no town hall would confirm this, although custom and practise is that after three years a home will frequently, though not necessarily, be made legal.

But to admit this hardly encourages builders to get the necessary paperwork first.

Also, the process is undoubtedly far easier for a Spanish national with the language and local knowledge, than for a harassed expat who hasn't a clue how to even start going about it.

So, ultimately, how be sure your new home is legal? The biggest thing: ask to see the new works building licence (licencio de obras
nueva) which should have been issued by the relevant local authority.

Pay a notario, not an abogado, to do your searches. Many sales companies virtually insist on this.

Simon Lambert, managing director of property company Parador Properties, which sells some 3,000 homes a year, told us:  "Reputable companies always recommend that purchasers appoint their own solicitor, and make their own searches.

"We advise them to get a bank guarantee.”

Graham Knight, director of the Foreigner’s Office in Torrevieja, Costa Blanca, said: "Buy your house with a mortgage from a Spanish bank.

"Their searches are far better than any solicitor – after all, they're safeguarding their money, not yours!"

[Copyright Expatica]

February 2006

Subject: Spain; illegal building