# How easy is getting a housing permit for shed/ruin on land (in Viseu e.g.) (off-grid)



## OffgridPortugal (Oct 2, 2021)

Hi guys!

Just wanted to know if any of you had experience with getting a housing permit on a shed/ruin on land in Portugal. We would like to buy land in northem Portugal (e.g. Viseu) but we would like to know beforehand how easy/difficult it would be to get a housing permit for a shed or ruin which we could renovate.

Thanks for the help!


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## Strontium (Sep 16, 2015)

My advice would be check the "land registry" for the article you want to find if it is habitation or is old enough to have an exemption, if it has neither then don't waste your time and money as there are a vast number of cheap ruins then do have.


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## Tellus (Nov 24, 2013)

Hi,
it 's quite a complex topic.
A German couple did it some times ago and wrote about in its blog.
written in German Ein Grundstück in Portugal kaufen
Best you get in contact with a lawyer for all paper works. Biggest problem are heirs, often they have emigrated or are old and hard to find. Next problem are neighbors with option to buy and /or unclear property boundaries..etc..


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## nb888 (Jan 15, 2021)

There are plenty of guides out there but my basic understanding is the following based on research as we are looking to buy in the next few years:

Usually when you buy a property there will be one (or more) urban articles and one (or more) rustic articles which is based on the land type urban or rustic. The urban article(s) normally describe the footprint of the house and the rustic article describes the land. The urban article should in theory, exactly describe the footprint of the house. There are quite a few potential issues to consider with the urban articles, eg if the urban article describes a footprint that is smaller than the physical house then property may have been illegally extended or a part of the property may belong to another article (ie owner!), or if there is no urban article this can suggest the property cannot legally be a residence, these issues may not be a deal breaker but should be reflected in the price and you need to be clear what you are getting into. Illegal constructions or mismatches between what the paperwork says and the reality are surprisingly common and the appetite of the vendor(s) to rectify this can vary... (there are also 3 more land types Reserve, Forest / Agro, Commercial but this is probably not so relevant for this.)

In addition to this a property needs a habitation licence unless it has been built prior to 1951 (and if so there needs to be a certificate of this fact or an exemption certificate) again there are plenty of cases of misrepresentation and barns and miscellaneous outbuildings that are being passed off as "houses" especially in rustic areas where dwellings are traditionally constructed in a basic way. 

This information should be available from local town hall or municipality, eg the licence of use can be obtained from the local town hall and should anyway be provided before the promissory buying and selling contract is signed. The camara municipal can provide the habitation licence.


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