# Habitation Licence Please help!



## pmurrall

Hi There,

This is my first post on the forum and have found some real useful information.

Hope someone can help: my father is having real problems in obtaining an Habitat Licence in Vila Do Bispo, will try and keep it brief, and any help at all would be so greatly appreciated:

Over a year ago now my father finally obtained planning permission to build a Villa on a plot of land he brought over ten years ago. With the guidence of his solicitor he was introduced to a local builder in the village and architect who put together a project to build the house, which he entered into and was passed by the camara.
The house has now been completed and the builder has decided he wants more money and is witholding the paper work for my father to obtain the Habitat Licence. He has been out there now for 10 weeks and us all here are genuinely very cocerned for both his physical and mental well being as he seems to be getting no where and sounds very depressed on the phone.
He simply cannot meet the buiders demands by paying the extra moey as he doesn't have it.
He has been to the camara several times to no avail, tried to negotiate with the builder which has done no good and has also tried the architect to see if they can help. 
His solicitor has completely washed her hands of the situation and just walks past him in the village as if he is a stranger (she has done work for him for 10 years and always got on very well, until now). I have tried emailing her and no reply and also emailing the builder but again this has done no good.

His plan is to sell the house (due to a bad change to his financial circumstances in the UK) but he cant put it up forsale until he obains the habitat licence.

Can someone please tell me what documents\paper work\processes are required in order to obtain a habitat licence? 
The builder has said he has all the paper work for him to take to the camara and get the licence but he will not hand over until he has recieved the extra money he has decided to add on.
There was no mention of this money and the builder stopped work on the house until he recieved the last payment from my father but never mentioned extra money to my father until 10 weeks ago after all the work was completed. He kept his word and finished the house but is now witholdig the paperwork until he gets more money and dont even know if we can trust this now.

Any help, workarounds or guidence would be greatly appciated, really quite a desperate situation and affecting all of our family quite bad.

Kind Regards,

Paul


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## MarcoCarrico

you need the construction licence and book of work signed by the tecnitian responsible for direcção de obra which im sure its the builder who has it, you dont really need the builder to get habitation licence, your architect can explain you better this or he might be friends with your builder. anyway, you can change the builder anytime, get a new book of work and all the necessary papers to get the habitation licence


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## siobhanwf

pmurrall said:


> Hi There,
> 
> This is my first post on the forum and have found some real useful information.
> 
> Hope someone can help: my father is having real problems in obtaining an Habitat Licence in Vila Do Bispo, will try and keep it brief, and any help at all would be so greatly appreciated:
> 
> Over a year ago now my father finally obtained planning permission to build a Villa on a plot of land he brought over ten years ago. With the guidence of his solicitor he was introduced to a local builder in the village and architect who put together a project to build the house, which he entered into and was passed by the camara.
> The house has now been completed and the builder has decided he wants more money and is witholding the paper work for my father to obtain the Habitat Licence. He has been out there now for 10 weeks and us all here are genuinely very cocerned for both his physical and mental well being as he seems to be getting no where and sounds very depressed on the phone.
> He simply cannot meet the buiders demands by paying the extra moey as he doesn't have it.
> He has been to the camara several times to no avail, tried to negotiate with the builder which has done no good and has also tried the architect to see if they can help.
> His solicitor has completely washed her hands of the situation and just walks past him in the village as if he is a stranger (she has done work for him for 10 years and always got on very well, until now). I have tried emailing her and no reply and also emailing the builder but again this has done no good.
> 
> His plan is to sell the house (due to a bad change to his financial circumstances in the UK) but he cant put it up forsale until he obains the habitat licence.
> 
> Can someone please tell me what documents\paper work\processes are required in order to obtain a habitat licence?
> The builder has said he has all the paper work for him to take to the camara and get the licence but he will not hand over until he has recieved the extra money he has decided to add on.
> There was no mention of this money and the builder stopped work on the house until he recieved the last payment from my father but never mentioned extra money to my father until 10 weeks ago after all the work was completed. He kept his word and finished the house but is now witholdig the paperwork until he gets more money and dont even know if we can trust this now.
> 
> Any help, workarounds or guidence would be greatly appciated, really quite a desperate situation and affecting all of our family quite bad.
> 
> Kind Regards,
> 
> Paul



Hi Paul

Very distressing but you do not say where your father is in portugal. 

The location might help to point him in the right direction.


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## canoeman

Hate to ask but did he have a contract with architect and builder stipulating work, costs, fees etc?
You don't say what this extra money is for, sometimes this can be for the sign offs and various tests that are part of Building regs and granting of the Habitation Licence, like gas, electric, PT, Acoustic certificate

Think here you need to go back to basics
Check builder's IMOPI licence, and architect's, Solicitors qualifications and registrations (it does sound all a little bit to cosy)
Check contracts if there are any
Check with the Camra exactly what they require for Habitation Licence
When you understand that it will be easier to then talk with the architect & builder to reach a solution or to bypass them, but by the sounds of things that should be a very last resort.

There are avenues of complaint but should be treated again as last resort.


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## siobhanwf

You do not need the builder to get the habitation licence! But you will need to get hold of a copy of the licence and a copy of the _ficha tecnica_ (I think I manage to get a copy of the latter at the Camara) This will have been signed off by the technician responsible for the _direcção de obra_
Yes the builder will have a copy and may not part with it. 
Do you have a detailed list of what the extra money is for?
You CAN ditch this builder and get another one and he will get the habitation licence for you.
Who recommended the avogado?


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## omostra06

Sorry to hear about the problems you Father is having with his property, must be very stressful for him.

The contract with the builder, if there was one, is the single best thing you can have to help you get a quick and satisfactory outcome to this disspute. as long as it states all the details of costings and responsibilities on it. check this first to see if it is a good contract.

In my experiance most Architects will lose interest as soon as they have been paid to produce the drawings, so dont expect much help from the Architect, of course as soon as your father asks and does'nt recieve help or a reply from the Architect, he should complain to the governing body for Architects.

Even when all the paperwork and certificates for a house build are available, it can take a very long time to get a habitation certificate from the council.

Everyone involved in the build has the responsibility to issue a certificate for the installation they worked on, telephone, gas, water, electric, acoustic, etc etc, the engineer will have completed the book of works along with the builder, so there are quite a few documents that are required to be submitted to the council.

I would suggest, that your Father and a portuguese speaking friend go to the council and meet with the planning department, ask them to print off the list of required documents for completion and issue of hab cert.

then start contacting all the relavant trades that were involved and get the original or replacement certificates for the work they done on the property.

Employ a Lawyer to help contact and follow up on the issue of the certificates from these trade people (dont forget their loyalties will be with the builder) so you will need to apply a little pressure, a lawyer phoning them will normally be enough to show that you are serious.

It will take time and effort but it will need to be done to get everything in order to get the habitation certificate.

A little issue that may come up,
If the relationship between your father and his builder is now bad, he needs to make sure that he gets all the invioces and reciepts for the build, otherwise he will have major issues when it comes time to sell, due to capital gains and the ability to prove what has been spent on the build.

An idea.
if he doesnt know anyone that can help him speak with the various parties and chase things up, maybe approaching a good estate agent, tell them the situation, explain that they can have an exclusive contract to sell the property when it gets its cert and is legal, they might help him with the process in order to sell the property when the time comes, 

hope this helps, and hope he gets it resolved without much further stress.


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## canoeman

Fairly obvious* but don't use the original* Solicitor! preferably one from a different area.


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