confused

Hi,first post,I am so confused over an FLO ,AFO, Cedula de Habitabilidad,our property was built in 1970, we bought it in 1997, live in it full time, all the stamps are in the right place,the estate agent is asking for an FLO or an AFO ,the council say we have to get an independent surveyor before one or the other is issued , another thing is the property was never registered, the notary took the money but "forgot"!, reading on this forum it appears that only new property needs an FLO, 

The licence of first occupation is valid for 5 years. If you sell after that period, a second LFO is required. If no changes have been made to the property as shown on the deeds it should be fairly routine to get one.

Torsaa, the comment from Mariedav is quite right and it makes sense to obtain one now if this is easily done. 

But the importance of the document, or otherwise, depends on where abouts you are in Spain.  I'm in Murcia where there are literally 1,000s of properties without Habitation Certificates and it doesn't seem to matter at all - they are bought and sold without comment.

Your solicitor will be able to advise you of the necessity in your area.

Torsas:  another thing,  the property was never registered,

If by that you mean you were never registered as the owner,  in the Property Registry of the local authority, I assume you cannot sell it until you are.

It was you as the new owner who should have register the property, paying the necessary fees,  not the notary.

 In fact you may have been lucky that the person who is registered did not sell the property from under you,  as on paper they are still the owners.

I would recommend you take some legal advice ASAP

It's good few years since I sold a property (last one was 2008!) so maybe I missed something - but I've sold a few over the years and have never needed, nor ever heard of anyone needing, a licence of first occupation in order to sell. I've been reading and contributing to this forum virtually since it's inception, and I don't recall ever having heard this before. I can understand someone not wanting to buy a (new build) property without one, but I don't think it's a legal requirement to sell. I wonder why the estate agent is asking for it? I'm sure it's something to do with the fact that you never registered the property in your name and perhaps questions over the legality of the property.

Also, agree with John, it's not a notary's job to register a property in your name at the land registry - nor, do I think, the notary "took the money". Unless of course he also happened to be the seller!

Thanks for the replies,we live in Almeria province, it was like the wild west when we bought,we never used a solicitor 'cos most of them were related to a so called estate agent,we were told by the notary that if we were going to sell in the next 2 yrs we had no need to register the property,but we paid the notary to register it, also a property does not have to be registered to sell (solicitor told us the buyer can sought that out )

Unsure about the advice you've received.  If I was your buyer I might get cold feet, but possibly a local or someone who did not know or care might be less cautious.  Good luck.

John said "I would recommend you take some legal advice ASAP"

Ditto that, and good luck 

A little light reading on the subject of registering your property for anyone interested: http://www.registradores.org/wp-content/revista/otros/guideAIpp/ Turn to page 26

The property was inherited,and it has never been registered,we have had so much conflicting advice from 3 different legals,we pay IBI,electric,water etc,tomorrow the estate agent is going to market it, so will keep in touch with you all.

"we bought it in 1997....the notary took the money"

"The property was inherited"

Confused? Not surprised, me too!

Hello, Me again! We only found out a month ago that the property was inherited from someone ? It actually had power installed (meter taken out ?) we pay ALL the bills, we also confronted the notary concerning the so called registration,he said it was to long ago !! Anyway we will see what progresses this week! (With luck we may be living in Sweden before Xmas!)