# Home renovations



## redwolf

Hi there guys, me again.

More daft questions to all.

What are the rules on doing all your own renovations?

I include in this question the likes of own wiring, own plumbing, own gas installations and obviously building work.

I have searched the net for any reg's on these for Portugal, but what is available is very sketchy, and wiring/plumbing reg's don't seem to exist!!

Any help on this?


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## canoeman

Wiring, plumbing regs do exist.
Gas, bottled or mains has to be connected by registered fitters.

Too big a question, answer depends on the state of the house and renovation reguired, lets say it has a habitation or pre 1951 habitation licence, then you could do all internal and most external yourself, but a roof would reguire a simple licence if you wanted to do more than replace some broken tiles.


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## redwolf

Thanks once again, canoeman. Where can I find out more about these habitation licenses? never heard of them


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## canoeman

These are the main dates and requirements for property certificates..

Property built before 17th August 1951 requires a Certificate ( Certidão) from Câmra stating they were built before 17th August 1951. 

Property built before 17th August 1951 but renovated after that date requires (if planning, building permission has had to be applied for)
•	Licença de Habitação or a
•	Licença de Utilizaçao

Post 1951: Property built after 17th August 1951 require a Licença de Utilização
If a post 1951 property does not have a Licença de Utilização(also referred to as Licença de Habitação) then the current building regulations would apply to obtain one.

Property constructed after 30th March 2004 must also have a Ficha Technica de Habitação

2007 Agro-Forestral land new laws introduced on property and distances of forestry

January 2007/8?: Acoustic Certificates new build and renovations requiring Building Approval

January 2009: All properties For sale or rental a Certidão de Energetica required

January 2009: new builds mandatory Solar Water heating for domestic hot water

2009 Bore Holes & water sources: Should be registered with Regional Water Board, wells if 5hp+ pump used for extraction.
Fosse (Septic Tanks) 2009: Occupancy 10+ people should be registered with Regional Water Board.


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## redwolf

Errmmm, right. And do these certs come with a property if you buy it or are these something I would have to obtain from.......................???

I would _assume_ that an agent would know all about this stuff. Is there a web site where I could look these different certs up and the various requirements?

really appreciate your help, seems that yourself and travelling-man seem to be the "gurus" over there.


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## oronero

canoeman said:


> These are the main dates and requirements for property certificates..
> 
> Property built before 17th August 1951 requires a Certificate ( Certidão) from Câmra stating they were built before 17th August 1951.
> 
> Property built before 17th August 1951 but renovated after that date requires (if planning, building permission has had to be applied for)
> •	Licença de Habitação or a
> •	Licença de Utilizaçao
> 
> Post 1951: Property built after 17th August 1951 require a Licença de Utilização
> If a post 1951 property does not have a Licença de Utilização(also referred to as Licença de Habitação) then the current building regulations would apply to obtain one.
> 
> Property constructed after 30th March 2004 must also have a Ficha Technica de Habitação
> 
> 2007 Agro-Forestral land new laws introduced on property and distances of forestry
> 
> January 2007/8?: Acoustic Certificates new build and renovations requiring Building Approval
> 
> January 2009: All properties For sale or rental a Certidão de Energetica required
> 
> January 2009: new builds mandatory Solar Water heating for domestic hot water
> 
> 2009 Bore Holes & water sources: Should be registered with Regional Water Board, wells if 5hp+ pump used for extraction.
> Fosse (Septic Tanks) 2009: Occupancy 10+ people should be registered with Regional Water Board.


*Canoeman*...you appear to be a fountain of knowledge, I guess you like reading! :thumb:


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## canoeman

oronero said:


> *Canoeman*...you appear to be a fountain of knowledge, I guess you like reading! :thumb:


Not as such but things I've come up against when buying or trying to extract friends from the mire, once you've found them it's easier to keep up to date

The seller is responsible for providing documents and part of an agents job is to make sure these and others are in place and legal, some do, some don't.

Pre 1951 certificate is important as it does separate houses legally habitual from those that might be, not all of those renovations advertised would necessarily get permissions. 

It's why when you buy a "renovation" project it has a certificate or Licence, it will generally mean you can do majority of work yourself, but if it had neither, you would have to submit plans, get permission to renovate, comply with *current* building regs, employ a licenced builder etc


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## redwolf

OK, thanks, good info to have when I finally start talking to agents/owners/lawyers or whom ever. I remember reading somewhere that there are different types of property in so far as some DO require planning permission and some do NOT, so i assume this is all based on the type of cert you have for the property (and possibly location?), and what requires to be done. Did a bit of checking up also, after you mentioned the various laws, so understand a lot better now the requirements for installations, especially for insurance, cover and acceptance.


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## travelling-man

I'm nowhere near an expert but have been through some of the various processes and FWIW, there's different categories such as rural & urban & (human) habitation & otherwise etc & different rules apply to the various categories.

To confuse matters even more, I believe those categories can sometimes but not always or (sometimes) easily, be changed. LOL.

In my own case, our place consists of a house with largeish barn that has been used as animal shelters attached. Luckily for us, everything is classified as habitation so we can convert the barn into accommodation & workshops but if it had been classified as part habitation & part animal shelter, we'd either have to have part reclassified or not be able to do the conversion...... or at least, not legally. 

The good news is that assuming you use a decent lawyer to handle the purchase, they'll be able to sort all that stuff out for you & you'll find plenty of recommendations for good lawyers right here on the forum. 

It's also not unheard of for a property to have more than one set of registration documents/deeds and/or for them to show different boundaries from each other but again, a good lawyer will be able to sort all that stuff out for you. 

Clear as mud huh!


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## canoeman

Land the 5 basic classifications
Each Camara publishes online a Plano Director Municipal PDM which clearly outlines the Commercial, Urban, Rustica, Reserve etc areas
So if land falls within an Urban area, planning or registration generally straightforward, but if land falls within Rustica then it might not be possible to legalize a building that didn't already have registration.

Commercial: land that is or designated for industrial use, generally, very unlikely to get permission for any private dwelling.

Reserve/Ecological: Very unlikely to get permission to build or major alterations to existing property

Agro Florastal: Changes to Fire Prevention Laws in 2007 make it more difficult to get permission to build or alter property in this area, which can also form part of an overall property area.
Rustic (Rustica): Land designated as “farming “ of any description, unlikely to get permission for a house build

Urban (Urbana): Land designated for building
You then have mixed parcels so land might contain Urban + Rustic or even 4, you would get permission to build on the Urban Article, anything you wanted to build house, swimming pool, garage, septic tank must be within the permissible build % area, you would not get permission to build on the Rustic land.

Two of the major things to look for when buying is clear definitions on the Articles and if a property is on a rustic plot it does have a Certificate for habitation and is registered as such with Financas and Conservatoria.

I’m not as confident as travelling man that something not correctly registered can be altered, and with the chose available why buy possible trouble.


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## travelling-man

I'd obviously bow to Canoeman's greater knowledge but from my limited experience the possibilities of changing classification seem to vary from area to area.

Figueiro Dos Vinhos for example seem to be very helpful in this regard because they prefer to see a building occupied than not whereas Pedrogao Grande seem to take the opposite attitude.

I have no experience of the Algarve but am told things are considerably more strict there.


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## ThomasWinfrey

Very helpful post. Thanks


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