hi all, this is my first reply on your forum,we have just bought a finca in ginestar, i did a lot of googleing prior to jumping in but did not find anything like the information in this thread, i am now concerned i might have bought a field we did use an estate agent in ginestar who to be fair answered every question i threw at her and did far more than we would have expected, we used an noitre in moira who seemed professional and we are very happy with our purchase which was built in 2005 and that was the reason it has not got a cedula we where told, even so it is worrying when you read the stories of people conned, how do i know if our property is legal i have met the original architect it is registered with ginestar council we do have deeds but as yet we have not received them (only finalised 2 weeks ago )it appears to be legal and above board but how do i find out for sure

How do you define a 'finca'.  A finca is a farm not necessarily a building.  All of the licences from the Ajuntament are for Almacens.  An Almacen is a building for you to store your farm equipment.  Many Almacens have been built as bungalow and people are living in them but they are all illegal.  That said it does not mean that you will have any trouble.  The regional government have visited several properties which now have demolition orders issued by the Ajuntament (the same office which originally gave permission to build and were aware that bungalows were being built).  If your property was not one of the ones selected then I doubt you will have any trouble as the goverment do not have the money to investigate Ginestar any more.  It is just sad for the people that have been visited as they only did what everybody else did. Where in Ginestar have you bought as I do know which properties have problems.

we bought at poligono 4 its up the road past the olive press over the main road then straight up the track its not the one past the cemetery, we did use a solicitor

Without you having to give too much away about the actual location of your property on this forum you can look to see if the previous owners registered it at Basa. To do this go to www.goolzoom.com
On the drop down menu
Direccion - Poligono y Parcela
Provincia - Tarragona
Municipio - Ginestar
In the next 2 small boxes first put in your poligon then in the next your parcela number if you know it.  Then click the icon at the end
This should now show your land and if there is a small box on it that will be your property.
It should also come up with your Catastro number and if you click on it you can see what the Hacienda have your property down as.  I know they changed all the property registered with Basa to RESIDENTIAL - but they also did that to the ones with demolition orders on it so it still does not make it legal it only means they can now charge you residential tax.  Please do not think I am running the area down just stating the facts.
It you dont know your parcela number you can still locate it on the goolzoom map just look over Parcela 4 and you should be able to tell which is your plot.

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Why don't just ask your solicitor?

It would be interesting to see what reply you get from your Agent - perhaps you should post her reply on this forum - I expect you will get some feedback to her response, then you can decide for yourself if she has given you a truthfull reply.  You said you used a solicitor - was it an independent solicitor or just the notery that the Agent recommended.  They try to steer you clear of independent solicitors telling you it is a waste of money and you do not need to use one!!!!!!!.

it is worrying although by u.k. standards we paid buttons for it but it was all we had we did use a noitre although i have asked the question is it legal over 7 times and had the same answer from 3 different people, i did ask for a cedula but was told as it was built in 2005 it did not need one, i did as much research as possible before buying and did not find any problems but i did hear of other problems in ginestar, i am told the local council own the maintain the road we use for access and the property has an address but this does not show up on goolzoom, i am still waiting for a reply from the estate agent, cheers for all the replies

i have just had a reply from the agent the house is legal and has a license she also says the Spanish take years to update the maps so its no surprise that our property and other are not shown,but she has assured me we are all above board and legal, she said the solicitor made an point of explaining we where buying the land and house but her English was not great and my Spanish is not at all (as yet ) thanks for all the replies