Spanish Property Law: Easements, Contracts, and Construction Regulations

Posted on May 5, 2024 in Law & Jurisprudence

Easements

Light Easements

The easement of light regulates the right to open holes in a wall to receive light from the neighboring property. The owner of a dividing wall adjacent to an external property can open windows or openings to receive light under the following conditions:

  • They must be situated at the height of the straps or close to the ceilings.
  • Their size should be 30 x 30 cm.
  • They must be protected with iron bars and wire mesh.

The owner of the adjoining property can close the gap if they acquire the partition wall and have not agreed otherwise or build on their land to cover it.

View Easements

This easement aims to set minimum distances to ensure the privacy of individuals. To open windows or balconies with straight views, there should be two meters of distance. For oblique views, there must be 60 cm. The straight distances are measured from the exterior face of the wall, and for windows, from the outside line of any overhang. Oblique distances are measured from the line separating the properties. If the right to view lines is acquired, the servient estate cannot build within three meters.

Coastal Easements

Throughout the Spanish coast, there are two areas:

  • Maritime-Terrestrial Public Domain: This area belongs to the state and includes the banks of the sea, the territorial sea, and interior estuaries.
  • Proprietary Water Zone: This area has sequential zones called:
  • Transit Zone: This zone is six meters wide and can be extended to twenty meters in busy, difficult, or dangerous places.
  • Protection Easement: This zone occupies a strip of one hundred meters. Crops and plantations can be made. In the first 20 meters, walls and buildings such as residential buildings, roads with intense traffic, activities that involve the destruction of deposits, aggregates, spills, and advertising are not allowed.
  • Easement of Access to the Sea: The objective is to safeguard access to the sea, both by road and pedestrian. Road access is provided every 500 meters, and pedestrian access every 200 meters. It goes inland to a width of 500 meters. Buildings will be adapted to the provisions of planning legislation, avoiding architectural screens and the accumulation of volumes.

Power Easements

The law distinguishes two easements: air-power and underground electrical easements. The air-power easement includes the right of flight over the servient farm and the setting of poles, towers, or fixed supports to support the cables. The underground easement includes the occupation of the ground by cables to the required depth. In both easements, the right of way is governed to meet the facilities, monitoring, maintenance, and repair of the line, including temporary occupation of land and goods. The easement does not prevent the owner of the servient farm from fencing, planting, or building on it, provided they respect the easement. The owner of the servient farm can change the path under their charge, wherever technically viable. Causes of extinction include the withdrawal of the installation and disuse for nine years without justified interruptions.

Construction Contracts

Works Contract or Flat-Rate Adjustment

This contract is determined by prior overall pricing for the entire work. Adjustments can be made when it is intended to change plans or prices. The main advantage is that the price is known in advance, with the entire financial risk being for the constructor. The constructor sets a high price to compensate for the risk.

Contract for Unit of Measure

Unit prices are set by individual item or quantity. This contract is usually the most fit to reality. There are two types:

  • With Determination of Quantity: The unit price and the number of units that the builder is going to execute are fixed, allowing the contractor to increase or decrease this amount of work.
  • No Determination of Quantity: Only the work unit price is fixed. No one knows the amount of work and its final price. After the work is executed, payment is made according to the amounts.

Administration Contract

The contractor is required to purchase materials and perform the work. It’s safer for the constructor and is used in rehabilitation due to the peculiarity of the work. The owner is obliged to pay the cost of labor, materials, and other expenses. The estimate of the work is done at the end of the work based on the value of materials and labor. Advances in the price of the work can be made. The remuneration of the constructor is normally set at a percentage of the total price of the work. The advantage of this type of contract is that the builder is not at risk of the cost of the work, but they do not know the final price.

Procedures for the Award of Contract for Public Works

There are three types of award procedures: open, restricted, and negotiated.

  • Open: Any employer can apply for the award of the contract.
  • Restricted: Only selected entrepreneurs who have been filed after the announcement of the contract, or those who are invited by a letter of administration, can show interest.
  • Negotiated: The contract is awarded to an employer directly elected by the Board after consultation with other entrepreneurs and awarded after consultation with the terms of the contract.

In both open and restricted procedures, the award is made by auction or tender.

  • Auction: The award is made to the most economically advantageous proposal.
  • Tender: The award is made to the proposal that as a whole is more advantageous, not only fixed in the price.

The Reception of Works

The reception of works takes place at the end of the project and is attended by the administration, the contractor, and optionally, another management representative. If the works are in proper condition, the administration shall terminate the reception, a minutes of receipt will be drawn up, and the warranty period will begin, which is a period of not less than one year. If the works are not able to be received, the defects observed will be entered in the minutes, and the director will provide precise instructions detailing a deadline for remedying the deficiencies. If the deficiencies are not remedied within the term, a new non-extendable deadline is given, and if it is not met, the contract will be resolved. Partial reception of the works can occur if only part of the works is affected. From the signing of the certificate of acceptance, the administration has six months to agree and notify the contractor of the settlement of the work. If the work is ruined after the expiry of the warranty due to latent defects in construction, due to breach of contract by the contractor, the contractor will be liable for damages during a term of fifteen years.

Certificate of Habitability

The certificate of habitability is an administrative document that certifies compliance with technical standards of habitability and that the building meets the mandatory minimum requirements to be considered eligible for residential use or human habitation. Before occupying a home, you need the certificate of occupancy, except for the first occupation of protected or rehabilitated housing, where a final home grade is needed. The duration of the certificate of occupancy is five years. Water, electricity, gas, and telephone companies will not formalize contracts without the certificate of habitability. When selling a house, you must necessarily include the certificate of habitability. To obtain the certificate of occupancy, the following requirements must be met: accredited personality of the promoter, final certification of work visas, property tax, documentary proof of ownership of the home, installation certificate of master antenna TV, and occupancy rate.

Subsidized Housing

Subsidized housing is newly constructed accommodation under public protection, meaning:

  • Intended for regular and permanent residence (no second homes).
  • Net area less than or equal to 90 m2.
  • Meeting the conditions for price and quality set to take effect.
  • Classified as such by the competent authorities.

Health and Safety in Construction

The developer is required to conduct a study of health and safety when the following assumptions are given:

  • Budget execution of contracts greater than €450,000.
  • A duration longer than 30 days and more than 20 workers simultaneously.
  • The amount of days worked by all workers exceeding 500.
  • Construction of tunnels, galleries, underground pipelines, and dams.

In other cases, contractors may be required to develop a basic security study. Contractors develop a safety and occupational health plan. This plan must be approved before the start of the work. In every workplace, there will be a logbook. If there is any entry in the book, a copy must be sent within 24 hours to the inspection of labor and social security.

Civil Liability in the LOE

Building agents are liable for:

  • 10 years when damages affect the structure.
  • 3 years on construction elements and facilities that affect habitability.
  • 1 year for constructor execution flaws affecting completion or finish.

The designers are responsible for the contracted calculations. The builder is responsible for subcontractors and purchased products. Directors of works and implementation respond to the veracity of the certificate of completion. The project manager assumes responsibility for omissions, shortcomings, and imperfections of the project.