Developer refuses to provide us with a Seguro Decenal

My husband and I entered into a contract for our off-plan property in May 2001. we moved in, in June 2003. It was 2 years before we got the escritura. In this we have been identified as 'self promotor' - assumably to get away without giving us a Seguro Decenal. We have never been ianything other than a purchaser, all the licences etc were dealt with by our Developer, we were just buying a house. I have looked at the website for this product and see it was law to provide it with new builds from May 2000. I have found information elsewhere, a BOE with a modification to the original LOE. It states that from January 2003 it is not compulsory to have the Seguro Decenal for individuals building a house, even if the project was requested prior to January 1st 2003. We have tried talking to our Developer to tell him that he was promotor, and as our contract was in May 2001 our house should have this guarantee. Has he managed to get away with this? Is there anything we can do? There are about 15 properties involved.

Dear Madam,


As you mention in your query, the Building Act, Law 38/99 forced self-developers to attain the compulsory ten year building guarantee themselves. This had a cost of approx 6,000€ for a 90m2 dwelling. Failure to comply resulted in the self-developoer being unable to sell on the property whilst alive to another party unless the latter expressly waive this requisite on signing the Title deed. After the 10 years had elapsed you were free to sell on the property to anyone you wished without legal constraints.

Due to all the practical problems this caused, an amendment was brought about on by Law 52/2002 of 30th December 2002, additional disposition number two, which would be enforceable as from the 1st January 2003. This resulted in the exemption of self-developers that built just one dwelling for their own use to apply for the 10 year building guarantee.

Having said this, only some people may qualify for this. As it would be a legal loophole that many could follow to build & sell X properties waiving the compulsory guarantees devised for the protection of puchasers.

It seems your developer has in fact gotten away with it. Your case is one of the above that I highlight that ought to have the 10 year building guarantee as you are not self-developers yourselves. your developer has probably saved himself a great deal of money and hassle on doing so.

This guarantee is only available on building the dwelling, not after, for technical reasons I will not get into.

Did you hire a lawyer to act on your behalf on the conveyance?

Yours faithfully,
Raymundo LarraÃ*n Nesbitt