Question: I am interested in buying a new property but my lawyers have found that the developer has started building without planning permission. I had assumed that as the development is large that they would have such things as planning permission already arranged. Is this common abroad?
Answer: In order to build a property of any size in any country you will need planning permission. In some countries it is (or has been) a common practice for properties to be built without planning permission. This is sometimes in the anticipation that planning permission will be granted in the future and sometimes the person building will never even apply for planning permission and hope that they get away with it. Luckily in many countries this practice is becoming less common.
If you are buying a new property (i.e. one that is going to be built, is being built, or has just been finished) then it is important that your lawyer checks that the property has the correct planning permissions and licenses. You cannot assume that just because the property is being built that this paperwork is in order. Similarly you cannot assume that just because the first phase of the construction has planning permission that the subsequent phases of the development have. In fact there was a case where one property in a development did not have planning permission yet all the others ones did - there had simply been an administrative error and the license for that one property had not been issued.
Most developers and builders do things properly - i.e. they obtain planning permission before they start building and before the properties are sold. However, no matter how large the builder is there is no guarantee that this is the case and it is vital that this is checked before parting with your money.
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