Certificate of habitation - Page 2

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and advice.  Everything about Camposol looks perfect for us, the properties, amenities, surrounding countryside, vicinity to the beach, the community spirit, and not doubt much more, so we are completely sold on retiring here.  I think if we can find a villa with a habitation certificate already in place then that probably will be our best bet, just so we have that peace of mind.  I appreciate that it may be possible to pay for one at a later date, so I'll keep an eye out for how that develops, as would have no problem doing that if the process was up and running. Look forward to being a member of the community in the near future.

The difference is in England actually documents do not matter if the land is registered, every thing is there on-line.

If you get legal title for a registered property and there is a problem, the land registry picks up the bill, you do not need to keep copies even of the registry entry.

Most searches only check the legality of alterations, and other things that in 99.999% of times the seller or buyer cannot influence.

But Spain is very different.

Very few houses on Camposol  have a certificate of habitation for the simple reason that they are not issued until the developer certifies the estate is complete and the local authority says ok, comes along and adopts it.  What you do need is a fin de obra (finish of works)which certifies that the house is finished, and an energy certificate. 

 If the house has not got one get onto the agent and point out you are not buying without these pieces of paper.  An architect usually inspects the property, identifies any faults so they can be rectified and issues the required certificate in due course.   Eventually the council  will sort something out but it is all a bit of a political football at present.  They will still charge you rates in the meantime.

Obviously this puts some buyers off, and that is the main reason why the prices are relatively cheap.

Apologies for going off topic, but your comment on builders is interesting. Can you tell me which builder built villas at Camposol and at the Port?

Massa / Justo Milneo are the same company they built the majority or the propertys on Camposol.

Unfortunately I had a lot of dealings with Masa in another part of Spain, but I was unaware of the other company. Masa buildings were all concrete prefabrication's and I'm not aware of any villas at the Port built that way. I would be interested in the location of these if you can help.

The correct name of Masa's nom de plume company was Justo y Manoli s.l. - I should know, -  I paid them a lot of money for a badly finished house way back in 2005. If I'd had any money to spare at the time I would also have sued them, but decided I would be better off fixing everything that was needed to make the place habitable instead.  They also had another separate company at the time called Abril28 to siphon off money into. -  I paid them too.

Yes I was aware of Abril28 but not the other one. I had enough problems, as did many other's, with Masa under their own name. Unfortunately for many, their legacy will be with them for a long time!

I remember,  when I was on the committee of the CRA, that one of our tech savvy people did some research on MASA. After he found over 56 subsidiary companies, he gave up. It was a complete maze. It appears that each building site is 'owned'  by a sub. So, although I said I sued MASA, I actually  sued Justo Manoli. Who of course went bust. Meaning  I won my case, but received no money. Although in court, the lawyers were from MASA, I still could not persue them. However having  said that. I love being in Camposol. My house is getting more and more as I like it. Still a little way to go. Love the life here. I was out last night at the Vista bar. Really good food, good entertainment,  ( though you cannot dance yet). Lovely staff and lovely company. So  yes, I have had problems, but very glad to be here. Do not be put off. This is a great place to be. Just get an abogado to go over your paperwork.

It's doesn't really matter who built your property ...Masa for instance was the biggest building companys in Spain ...the main company Masa had atleast 60 other building companies that they had shares in ... personally I think the build quality on Camposol is what you would expect all over Spain .. before I bought on Camposol 13 year's back I looked at many properties all over the Costa's ...if you take the fancy tiles away from any of them what you are left with is ruff building works with absolutely no consideration given for insulation ...I have another property on a gated community in Los Balconies that is know better built than the Neptuno I have on Camposol ..the only difference being the price / area...(for instance ) the villa I own on Camposol you can buy for around €135,000 with swimming pool ...the same Villa's built by Masa in Los Balconies are €350,000++ and don't take to long to sell .... Masa also built the property I own on in Los Balcony's personally I think people are overly concerned and reading bad press on the net from many years back ... now I know you should not compare prices between Spain and the UK ..but currently you can buy a two bedroom villa on Camposol for around €45,000 ..you can't buy a new caravan for this price anywhere in the UK ..and if you could it would cost you around £5,000 per year ground rent for 10 months use ...and when it gets to 15 year's old you have no option other. than to move it off the site ...if you buy on Camposol and sell in 15 year's time you might not make any money but you will get your money back that you paid for it... provided you have maintained the property to a high standard ... maintenance is a big problem on Camposol as many people ...are not looking after the property that they own .