old house has never had a Habitation Certifictae

Very old stone house we have found has never had a Habitation Certifictate and owner has never had one, house is antigue , in a very old village ,our Lawyer says we shopuld not buy until it has one , up to Vendor to do , does this cost a lot of money for the Vendor and how long would it take for them to get it?

Vendor has a Lawyer who is Power of Attorney , owner is in UK unwell to deal with it , can this Lawyer get it or any other Lawyer that the Vendors family decide to engage and sack the present one who is just lazy and obstructive!

If one finds another house , say 25-30 years old  , does that need a Habitation Certificte or a Second Habitation Licence,its all so confusing , one Agent told us after we enquired about another property that if the Vendor is willing he can get this, we wonderd if he isn`t how can he sell , further more if we bought a place without one how would we get it and could we get electric and water etc until we got one? !!! Its really getting confusing , even Lawyers appear at odds with differing answers!

Do hope someone can shed some dinfinitive light on this wretched subject ! Thanks so much x

A spaniard buying it wouldn't expect it to have one. Mine hasn't & I bought it without one. It's more than 100 years old  & complete with escritura, catastral certificate , on the land registry, public registry, water, electric. I had no problems changing them into my name & when I want to sell it will be exactly as it is now.

There are probably still a huge number of properties out there without habitation licences, going back to the days when people didn't bother with that sort of thing!

It's a tricky one really.  If all the services are connected, as guslopez's is, then you would think it would be ok.

However, if you lawyer is advising you against it then that is probably for a reason. 

It's not particularly expensive to get anyway, should you, or the owner, decide to do it.  With a POA the vendor's lawyer could sort this out for you but it would take months not weeks to do.

Maybe Maria can pop into this thread and advise you on it.  Send her a PM to pop in here if she doesn't spot it herself.

Best of luck.

Justin

 The problem is the water companies.  For the last 18 months or so, they have insisted on a habitation certificate to transfer the contract across to a new customer.  Agreed, no-one seemed to bother about these a while back and we were in our old property for nearly 4 years before we got one which was issued to the community and not individually.  We didn't see the certificate on our new one (bought almost 3 years ago) and it was kept by the builders.  However, new couple just bought a house a few doors down (shock, horror, people are still buying!) and their solicitor wouldn't let them complete until they had the habitation certificate issued as the water company wouldn't activate the meter until they had it.

Thanks for the feedback so far, no one come up with the Second Certificate of Occupation which , we are now informed by an Agent only applies to properties older tahn 5 years , is this correct, does anyone know and if a Vendor can`t be a....ed to do it can a Purchaser get one , its all to much for a woman !! x

 Regulations on second habitation depends on regions. Where is your property located?

Hi Maria , the property is in Vall de Gallinera Alicante Province , under the durisdiction of the dreaded Valencia , as one person described it !

As we have friends in the area in and around Oliva thats where we are looking , seems that some houses need H B and if they are older houses , 20 to 100 years old need something else , if they have niether does that mean we should not even think of buying them unless the Vendor gets them first ?

 For Valencia region, there is a need of renovation of habitation license:

Once ten years have passed since the obtention of the First Occupation License, and there is a transmission or new sullplies ( water, was or electricity) contracts are needed. In these events, if there is not intial Occupation License, for all or part of the building/house, a new one will have to be obtained.

When new works are carried out in the house, that because of importance or dimensions requires a project, regardless the time since First Occupation license.

Hi Vee - we got a secon habitation certificate for a client last year - and we are in Alicante province too.  I just went to the town hall and did some paperwork and the form was ready for collection a month later - no charge.  The rules do seem to change all the time and I always check with a lawyer when it gets complicated, but I believe we got this second certificate because the first one had been issued and then lost.  If it has never been issued and the building is not in a state to have one issued, then I think you have a problem!

Regarding the water connection - if there is an existing supply then you can keep the old name on the bill but just change it to your bank details so you can pay it.  As far as I know, they don't ask for a certificate if they don't have a change of owner.