Legalisation illegal buildings

The last year(s) I am confronted, in my capacity as estate agent, more and more with properties asked to promote to sell, which after having studied the paperwork turn out not to be 100% legal or having all the necessary licenses in place.

In general the amount of outbuildings on a property are not in line what the paperwork shows or after checking what has been approved by the local Town councils certain parts a license was never applied for.

In fact the following situations may occur:

• Either, although full planning consent was obtained from the local Authorities, the building license was never taken out and consequently the alterations were not registered with the local Tax department and not in the Conservatory. This means that the local Authorities have not received the correct amount of rates.
• Or, although full planning consent was obtained from the local Authorities and a proper building license was taken out, one has failed to register these changes with the local Tax department and consequently also not in the Conservatory. This means that the local Authorities have not received the correct amount of rates.
• It is also possible that the paperwork shows more outbuildings than officially was approved. In this case rates are paid correctly but part of the house is build illegal or without building consent.
• But more often there was not applied for a license to do an extension or building of a pool and consequently it was never declared in tax department and registration office.

It is for most people hard to understand how the Portuguese system works now and how it worked or did not work properly in the past.

In the past, there was no exchange whatsoever between the various entities (listed below), which are involved in a property purchase:

• The Notary – Notário
• The local town council – Camâra
• The taxdepartment – Finanças
• The land registration – Conservatório

With the introduction of computers and databases, all systems are now linked to each other and there is automatic exchange of facts and figures between the various databases and entities.

The last couple of years the authorities, especially tax department and town councils, have started actively to find illegal constructed buildings.

Both have the same aim….. that is to increase income for the local town council as they heavily rely and are depending on income through these sources to get their budget right.

Building police (fiscais de obras) are driving around to see what is going on. Besides that, the mentality of the people has changed and one no longer hesitates to inform the authorities if they feel any construction in an area is jeopardizing them or people do not comply with informing the public by means of a signs (Aviso) what is happening and finally yet importantly, the Authorities have taken a more active approach using all means of modern technology.

With aerial photography, it was easy to find out if for example properties have a pool or not. The latest is that they can stay in their office and through a program like Google Earth; they can zoom in on properties and take photographs as proof. Hard to believe maybe but it is true and factual.

If an infraction has been discovered the owners will receive a letter from the local town council that a procedure against them has been initiated. This is what is called a “processo de contra-ordenação”.  

Most likely you will receive a notification from the police, where you will be invited for a hearing. You may need an official translator.

Denying the fact does normally not help, despite the fact that it could have been previous owners who committed the contravention.

Most likely, you will be invited to pay voluntarily the minimum fine (Coima) for il