Can building work carried out without a permit be regularised? What fine can I be given?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

Yes, if the work complies with the planning rules in force when it is regularised. When it opens the file, the town council gives two months to apply for the permit or to submit the notification that was missing. If no application is made or the work cannot be regularised, it orders demolition. Regularising in time does not avoid the fine, but it reduces it to the fine for a minor infringement, which under the consolidated text of the Catalan planning act (the “texto refundido de la ley de urbanismo”) can be up to 3.000 euros. Serious and very serious infringements can lead to fines of up to 150.000 and 1.500.000 euros. How regularisation works If the work is in progress, the town council first orders it to be suspended. It then requires the owner, within two months of notification, to apply for the permit, submit the prior notification that was required or bring the work into line with the permit that had been granted. It does not give that period if the work clearly cannot be regularised. If no permit is applied for within those two months, if the work is clearly contrary to the plan or if the permit is refused, the town council orders demolition. If the owner does not demolish within the time given, the council can do it at the owner's expense and impose coercive fines (“multas coercitivas”), which are repeated fines to force the owner to comply, of 300 to 3.000 euros each. The file must be decided within eighteen months. If it is not, it lapses, although the council can open another one as long as the six years it has to act have not passed. To regularise, the appropriate technical design (“proyecto”) or technical documents must be submitted and the fee and the construction tax (“impuesto sobre construcciones”) paid as if the work were new. The work must comply with the plan in force when it is regularised, not the one in force when it was done. If it affects common parts of the building, a resolution of the owners' association (the “comunidad de propietarios”) is also needed. The permit does not replace it. The fines The Catalan planning act sets these maximums: Minor infringements, up to 3.000 euros. Work carried out without a permit or notification that complies with the plan falls into this category. A serious or very serious infringement also becomes minor if regularisation is applied for and obtained before the penalty is decided. Serious infringements, up to 150.000 euros. Very serious infringements, up to 1.500.000 euros, for example works in green spaces, streets or protected non-developable land. If the profit made from the work is higher, the fine rises to the amount of that profit. Within each maximum, the fine depends on the seriousness of the harm, the risk, the degree of fault, the economic value of the work and whether it can be regularised. There is no fixed percentage. The owner, the developer, the builder and the professionals who directed the work are all liable. If the person responsible voluntarily undoes the work before the decision on the file becomes final, the fine is reduced by 80 %. A fine of 10.000 euros would come down to 2.000. If the work is only partly undone, the reduction is proportionate. Outside Catalonia the mechanism is similar, but the time limits and the fines vary from one autonomous community to another.