Planning Permission in Portugal

Planning Permission in Portugal
Is a fairly straight forward process that can go horribly wrong if you don’t do your homework, if you want to apply for planning permission on a plot of land you must first check that it is in a zone that allows for construction, the rules on this vary widely from council to council. If it looks like it is possible the next step would be to get viability to construct from the relevant council, this will tell you exactly what you can do so that your plans can be correct first time. This can massively reduce your waiting time, once this has been granted you have 1 year to enter your project, you can have anything from 60 days to 6 months to wait if everything is done correctly.
The project is done in stages the first of these stages is submitting the plans to the chief engineer in the Town Hall they would normally be accompanied with a topographical report. When the engineer decides that this is all as it should be the second phase begins outlining where waste and fowl water will be disposed of and electricity and gas supplies.
When this is finished there is the building licence to purchase, the time allowed for construction will be on the license you may reapply if you exceed this time limit however it is unwise to allow it to expire. If a certain amount of time expires they may not grant an extension especially if building regulation have changed in the mean time.
Much is written about very long periods of time to wait this does happen but if you stick to the guide lines and provide what the council is looking for it is not normally a problem.
When applying for planning permission in Portugal use your agent to liaise with the correctly licensed engineers and architects and don’t upset your neighbours they can cause you more delays than you can imagine.