# Building permit



## dreamcatchers (Mar 13, 2014)

Hello everybody! Need some help. My husband and I moving to Guanajuato. We bought very old house( not in historic district). Need information how to get permit for remodeling. Any information will be greatly appreciated.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

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dreamcatchers said:



Hello everybody! Need some help. My husband and I moving to Guanajuato. We bought very old house( not in historic district). Need information how to get permit for remodeling. Any information will be greatly appreciated.

Click to expand...

_Look, dreamcatchers, anyone posting on this or any other English oriented fórum who ventures to tell you what to expect in a town subject to historic preservation such as Guanajuato, whether you are remodeling a residence in the "historic district" or elsewhere in that community, is blowing smoke up your b*tt. Now, if someone living in Guanajuato and knowledgeable about good advisors you should contact within the social and regulatory infrastructure of the Guanajuato community, passes on recommendations to you, that information may be invaluable but take everything anyone tells you with a grain of salt. The alternative is expensive retrofitting of seemingly innocuous decisions at great expense to adhere to the whelms of capricious functionaries. 

I do not write this comment frivolously. Been there, done that. In our case in San Cristóbal de Las Casas where we bought a ruin on the fringes of the historic center and reconstructed it from the "non-existing" foundation up under the unsolicited direction of INA, an agency dedicated to historic preservation which we support but whose regulatory personnel can be heavy-handed and even capricious to say the least. Do not seek advice on web fórums but among architectural and legal "experts" within the Guanajuato community. 

This is a serious undertaking and I wish you the best of luck. If you succeed in reconstructing your dream home in a great town such as Guanajuato, more power to you but seek professional advice within the community BEFORE you start reconstruction and not on the internet. Every town is different and any functionary in any town subject to historic preservation may prove unsympathetic to your goals so proceed with caution. Plan ahead with expert advice among local professionals who know and have influence among the players there.

Act in haste and repent in agony with a considerably diminished cash reserve. 

Good luck to you. If you succeed in Guanajuato in building your dream home as we did in San Cristóbal some eight years ago,you will not regret having undertaken this Project.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

It is INAH Instituto Nacional de Antrologia y Hisoria.
Hopefully ou are not in their grip. or redoing anything on the outside will have a bunch of rules and if the house is very old and considered historical you wil have rules too.

Go with a local ingenner or architect or contractor depending on what you want to do. They should know the rules and how to go around them if necessary.


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## sparks (Jun 17, 2007)

They said NOT HISTORICAL .... and maybe they have the facts correct so relax

For me I had a napkin drawing for new construction and went to the local Obras Publicas in the Municipio building and an engineer drew up the plans I needed. All was based on sq meters.

If all you are doing is fixing then I'm sure it's different but it's still Obras Publicas for the permit you need. Talk to them


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

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sparks said:



They said NOT HISTORICAL .... and maybe they have the facts correct so relax

For me I had a napkin drawing for new construction and went to the local Obras Publicas in the Municipio building and an engineer drew up the plans I needed. All was based on sq meters.

If all you are doing is fixing then I'm sure it's different but it's still Obras Publicas for the permit you need. Talk to them

Click to expand...

_Actually. she said an old house not in the historic district. Sparks does not live in either Guanajuato or San Cristóbal de Las Casas, both communities considered by INAH to be nationally important historic treasures with strong, highly enforced rules regarding refurbishment of older homes in the communities. If you perform some function in a city such as San Cristóbal on the back of a napkin, down to the color of the paints you use without INAH´s prior approval , you may greatly regret that shortcut very quickly. I have been to Guanajuato and think it a fine historic city but I have never lived there so can´t advise you on what to expect there - anywhere in the city - and that is why my advice to you was to proceed with caution and good professional advice from local experts. 

We have extensively refurbished homes in the Ajijic Vilage on Lake Chapala as well as San Cristóbal da Las Casas and the Ajijic construction was a piece of cake with no problems of any kind with the city planners but then, Ajijic is not subject to the same retrictions as San Cristóbal - not even close. The San Cristóbal improvements of a basic ruin and blight on the neighborhood in which it was located, on the other hand, entailed complicated negotiations with INAH and directives from certain functionaries some of which made no sense to us but what did made sense was that they had the power to shut down the job with a mere notice or make us redo expensive projects as we proceeded. I would bet that Guanajuato has more in common with San Cristóbal than with Ajijic. Once again, proceed with caution and you will be pleased to live in such a fine historic city as Guanajuato.

Good luck to you.


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## lagoloo (Apr 12, 2011)

Aside from historic districts, Ajijic has a prohibition against building structures more that a certain height. Basically, two stories. Just on the street where I live, there are at least three totally over height, recently constructed structures. Complaints to the authorities did zip good. One of those who built three stories simply said "I know the right people, so I can do what I want." 
Makes one a bit cynical, to say the least.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

lagoloo said:


> Aside from historic districts, Ajijic has a prohibition against building structures more that a certain height. Basically, two stories. Just on the street where I live, there are at least three totally over height, recently constructed structures. Complaints to the authorities did zip good. One of those who built three stories simply said "I know the right people, so I can do what I want."
> Makes one a bit cynical, to say the least.


Good point. lagoloo. While I don´t contribute to the Lake Chapala fórums, I do read them on occasion and, according to many posters, 
the building codes, at least regarding height restrictions are enforced or not enforced on a selectice basis. I wouldn´t know, myself.


We never had that problem when we refurbished our home in Ajijic as we were not doing anything untoward so I have no first hand knowledge that this is really going on. I do know, since we live just off the lakeshore, that many homeowners violate the lakeshore federal zone with ilegal fencing, landfill and other clear violations of federal law and nothing seems to be done about it as far as I can tell. I find this an irritant since I am in the habit of walking my dogs along the deserted beach there and my route is often compromised by new illegal fencing constructed on federal beach lands at will by lakefront beach dwellers as the lake recedes annually during the dry season.

I don´t knwowif the stories making the rounds at Lakeside about possible corruption are true and won´t speak to that but I know that when it comes to historic preservation in places such as San Cristóbal de Las Casas, I would advise against bending or breaking the building codes meant to preserve the old city and would not dream of even trying .


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## GARYJ65 (Feb 9, 2013)

Write a few more posts and send me a PM


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## GARYJ65 (Feb 9, 2013)

dreamcatchers said:


> Hello everybody! Need some help. My husband and I moving to Guanajuato. We bought very old house( not in historic district). Need information how to get permit for remodeling. Any information will be greatly appreciated.


It will be very easy, because it is not in the historic area, send me a PM whenever you can


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