Building your own property with delay

[mickey4nay]

Hi all
wondering if you can help. My friend began to build their own house in central portugal after purchasing the land and obtaining all the required paper work from the local authorities. He mentioned that he had 10 years to build the property from the 90's before he then had to register. He has taken his time to build the property and it is now almost complete for next year. My question is what will the situation be if he was to register the house as being complete next year, will the property tax begin from next year or will he be liable to for back payment of property tax?

Regards
M

 

[omostra06]

he may be asked to submit plans for this house as planning has moved on a lot in the last few years, now even after you have permission to build, you get one or two years to build it, if you dont complete in this time frame and let the build license laps then you have to start again from the begining submit new plans etc, if there has been any changes to the building regs, and there have been many, the new applictaion will have to come up to the new spec, disabled toilets, solar panals etc etc.

if your freind has been building the house for years then there is a good chance there is no license, no currant permission so they may view it as an illegal build, which can lead to big problems, the back tax being a small point in comparison.

 

[James Glassbrook]

The situation is a bit complicated because each council has its own interpretation of the rules.The first step after completion is to ask the council for a "vistoria".If they consider that it has been built according to the planning permission you should be OK. The IMI (rates) becomes due after that but in some cases a resident can claim some years exemption.
Jim