Whether you’ve purchased a property that wasn’t legally registered or you’re looking to regularize an existing structure, the process of legalizing a property is essential for ensuring compliance with local laws, protecting your investment, and avoiding legal complications.
This article will walk you through the essential steps to legalize a property in Portugal, from obtaining necessary documentation to dealing with local authorities.
What Does It Mean to Legalize a Property?
Legalizing a property in Portugal typically refers to ensuring that a property is in compliance with the relevant planning laws and conditions. This might include regularizing unauthorized construction (including extensions or renovations), legalisation of swimming pools, updating outdated property documents, and ensuring that the property is properly registered with the authorities.
For example, if you have a property that was built or altered without proper permits, you need to go through the process of legalising to avoid fines, legal issues, and difficulties when selling or renting.
Step 1: Assess the Property’s Situation
Before starting the legalization process, it’s essential to assess the property, its records and its zoning to understand its current legal standing. Determine if:
- Unauthorized Construction Exists: If the property has been renovated or expanded without proper permits, you will need to regularize the construction, if possible.
- Building Projects Do Not Match the Property’s registered plans: The local council may have different records from what is actually on the ground. This is a very common occurrence.
- Land Use or Zoning Issues: Ensure that the property complies with local zoning regulations. Some areas may have restrictions on what can be built and therefore legalised. Some zones may allow you to legalise but there are other requirements that form part of the agreement (such as being unable to sell the property for ten years after legalisation has been completed)
If the property has unauthorized work or non-compliant elements, it is highly recommended to start the process of legalizing it to avoid future complications. However if these works can not be legalised then a different approach needs to be considered as you will probably be obliged to demolish these works.
Step 2: Get some professional help
Legalizing a property in Portugal requires specific expertise, and in many cases only qualified professionals can submit the necessary projects and documents. You will probably need help and guidance from the following:
- Architect: An architect is needed to assess the property, prepare any required plans, and ensure that the property complies with building regulations. They will have to provide a full legalisation project, for submission to the council.
- Lawyer: If there are grey areas in relation to the legalisation, a lawyer specializing in property law will help to present your case to the council and aim to obtain a decision in your favour.
- Land Surveyor: A surveyor can verify the property’s dimensions and layout and verify that the registered plans align with the actual property. In most cases a topographical survey will be essential
Rules and requirements differ between each council, so it is important that your professional advisers can do their homework at this stage, to make sure that your legalization project is viable.
Step 3: Check with Local Authorities (Câmara Municipal)
In Portugal, each municipality (Câmara Municipal) is responsible for overseeing zoning, construction, and land-use policies within its area. This means that the first point of contact in the legalization process will be the local municipal architects department.
The key steps in this process include:
- Verify Property Status: Submit a request for information about the current status of the property. The original construction project should be verified, as well as checking the zoning/classification of the land and whether it is compliant with local construction regulations.
- Determine Necessary Documentation: Depending on the issue, the Câmara Municipal will tell you the documents you need to proceed with the legalization, such as building plans, certificates, or an updated land registry. In most cases a full legalisation project will be needed.
- Application for Regularization: If the property has unauthorized construction, you will need to submit an architectural project of the existing property and the modified building plans.
In some cases there is more than one way to legalize a property. Sometimes properties that have been built before the introduction of the local planning rules (PDM) can be legalised on that basis. In other cases properties may have to comply with all current planning rules to allow legalization.
At this stage you need to decide how you want to request legalisation.
Step 4: Prepare the Required Documentation
To legalize a property in Portugal, you must gather several key documents. These may vary depending on the specific nature of the property, but the following are commonly required:
- Land registry (registo predial)
- Tax office certificate (Caderneta predial)
- Building and Legalization Plans: Plans that show the original licensed areas, the areas to be legalised and (if relevant) areas to be demolished. These plans are drawn in different colours (red and yellow) to indicate the different areas in question.
- Habitation License: If the property in question has previously been licensed then a copy of the licence should be submitted.
- Cadastral registration: A document confirming the property’s dimensions, boundaries and location. N.B. in some cases the cadastro is not currently in force so this is not always necessary
- Permissions from entities. Where a separate entity needs to give permission for the legalisation project, a formal permission (paracer) is needed.
Step 5: Submit the Application to Local Authorities
Once your architect has gathered the necessary documents, they will then submit your legalization request to the relevant municipal office. This takes the form of a formal architectural project. The local authorities will review the application and inspect the property to ensure that the construction complies with all zoning and safety regulations, and that the plans submitted are correct.
The authorities will also assess whether the property is within an area where unauthorized construction is permissible.
There is currently no fixed period for the council to process a legalisation project, so this type of process often takes in excess of a year to complete, and in complicated circumstances it can take many years.
If there are discrepancies or non-compliance with the regulations, you may be asked to make adjustments, such as demolishing part of the construction or completing necessary alterations. It is important to note that once you get to this stage you are most likely going to be forced to make these alterations, or the legalization process will stop.
If everything is in order, the council will issue an updated Licença de Utilização/Habitação upon completion of the process.
Step 6: Pay Any Applicable Fees or Fines
During the legalization process, you may need to pay various fees or fines, depending on the nature of the property’s non-compliance. If unauthorized construction has taken place, fines may apply for building without permits. Additionally, fees are usually required for the legalization process itself.
Step 7: Update the Property’s Registration
Once your property has been legalized, you will need to update its registration with the Land Registry (Conservatória do Registo Predial) and the Tax Office (Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira). If the land boundaries have altered you will also need to update the cadastral records. This ensures that the property is legally recorded in your name and that it reflects any changes made during the legalization process.
Many people forget this stage, but it is essential that the records are updated at this point, to prevent any difficulties updating the records in the future.
Step 8: Leave it alone!
Once the property is legalized, it’s essential to ensure ongoing compliance with the relevant regulations. Now that you have gone to all the effort to correctly legalize your property, it is not that time to add that extension or garage!
Conclusion
Legalizing a property in Portugal is a crucial process for ensuring that your property complies with local regulations, protecting its value, and avoiding legal issues down the road. While the process can be complex, with the right legal and technical support, you can successfully navigate it and ensure that your property is fully regularized.
It is important to remember that not every property can be legalized, so you must do your homework before embarking on a legalization project.
You can read more about the issues related to illegal construction in the Algarve here: Ilegal construction Algarve