Anything from piles of rubble to standing structures with four walls and a roof but which need major building works on them, we have classified as ruins.  These properties exist in abundance in Almeria due to the general drift by the Spanish over the last 50 years towards more populated areas in search of work and modern amenities.

Ruins are becoming more and more popular due to the increasingly strict build regulations imposed by the Junta De Andalucia (the regional government), since the pre-existence of a structure (even if all that remains are the foundations) enables you to ‘renovate’ it with nothing more than a reformation licence from the local town hall and so bypassing the extremely strict building restrictions placed on rural new builds.

Taking on a ruin to do up yourself as a renovation project is not for the faint hearted. Most will require a considerable amount of backbreaking work as well as a good knowledge of building methods. However, we can help source local builders to do part or all of the job for you.

As with Country Houses, water and electric supply and access will need to be looked at.  You may find that the property has a legal right to mains water and electric dating back many years.  If not, then you will have to consider the costs of bringing it in.

When looking at ruins, there are several things that you need to take into consideration:

1. Has the property been inscribed in the land registry?  Many of these ruins last officially changed hands a couple of generations back before it was necessary to have them properly inscribed.
2. Does the Title Deed reflect the actual size of the existing structure and land?  It is not uncommon for the existing and/or previous owners to have indulged in a little tax avoidance by under declaring the size of their property.
3. Do the current owners have a Title Deed for the property in their names.  Again, if the property has just been passed from family member to family member, they may never have bothered with such trivial things as official paperwork.
4. Are all of the owners agreed to the sale?  Since many of these properties have been handed down as parents have passed away, they belong to all the various descendants as under Spanish law, when an owner dies 50% goes to the spouse and 50% is divided amongst the offspring.

None of the above are insurmountable, but can cause significant delays in the buying process. For the first two, it will be necessary to drag out the Town Hall architect to come and survey the property and then register it and make any necessary amendments to the paperwork to reflect the actual situation.  For the latter two, the vendors will have to provide a whole heap of proof that they are the sole owners or that all of the parties are agreed to the sale.  You may also have to wait whilst they advertise in various public offices their intention to sell the property for a period of between 2 and 6 months to enable any other claimants to crawl out of the woodwork or forever hold their peace

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