Buying Recently Build Fincas / Cortijos / Rural Houses
A number of new houses (including reconstruction of ruins) have been built in the area over the last few years. Some of this are now up for sale and their owners have asked us to publish them on this site.
Not all of the newer constructions conform to the latest standards,
- They were built before the standards came into force
- They were built illegally
- The quality of reconstruction of a ruin sometimes leaves much to be desired
In general, the documentation should show the same situation as an existing older house. However, we have found that a number of new houses are not shown on the escritura; in some cases, the current owners were told that 'not registering the house would save them tax' - this is, of course, illegal.
In other cases, we have found that some of these new houses have no papers whatsoever. Current owners of these properties find that it is virtually impossible to obtain electricity and water connections, or have illegal ('hot-wired') connections.
Additional questions must therefore be asked when contemplating the purchase of newer houses:
- Does the current owner have a copy (validated by the College of Architects) of the building project ?
- Does the current owner have a copy of the building licence issued by the local authorities ?
- Does the current owner have a copy of the final sign-off issued by the local authorities ?
- Is the building covered by a 10-year guarantee ? (*)
- If a reconstruction of a ruin, does the current owner possess photographs taken during construction ?
(*) Not applicable in the case of reconstruction of ruins.