The following clarification is a note on the requirement subject to the procedure to prior inspection of prefabricated buildings, wooden houses, mobile homes, model houses, containers, caravans and other similar solutions.
Over time, Portugal has been the subject of a significant and growing number of land occupation operations by the buildings or facilities identified above. In this context, I consider that the clarification of public opinion in general regarding the legislative framework to which all these solutions are subject is due and opportune.
The permanent occupation of the land and the use of spaces for urban purposes consist of urban operations subject to prior control under the terms of the RJUE - Legal Regime for Urbanization and Building, approved by Decree-Law no. 555/99, of 16 December, in the current wording. The information disseminated by commercial operators that sell, build or install this type of solutions is false, according to which their installation is exempt from licensing due to its dismountable or removable character.
It is equally false, and in breach of the obligations imposed on real estate agents, their advertising of the sale of rustic buildings with the mention of the possibility of installing these solutions without the need for licensing, or even the advertisement of a rustic building with a of these installations already performed without licensing, with the mention that this is possible or legal.
These conducts have led to the practice of urban operations by private individuals to the contraction of legality, which, consequently, are subject to the application of administrative offenses to punish the illegality of their conduct, as well as to the fulfillment of demolition and removal orders, for replacement offended urban legality.
IT IS CLARIFIED THAT:
- Even if any of the solutions indicated above is only placed above the ground, it results from the implantation of a metallic structure, foundations, shoes, pillars or piles, is placed on a concrete slab or base or supported only on wheels, ensuring, thus, the resistance that only the connection to the ground can provide, it does not fall within the next point, regardless of the construction or installation in question can be removed and moved to another location.
- All construction intended for human use that is incorporated or connected to the ground or connected to networks and infrastructures (electricity, sanitation / septic tank, water supply, etc.) on a permanent basis, is considered an urban operation subject to prior control by the procedures provided for in the RJUE, regardless of the construction system employed or the dismountable or removable character.
- Any of these land occupations is subject to compliance with the legal provisions and the easements and restrictions of public utility applicable, namely in soils covered by the National Agricultural Reserve, National Ecological Reserve, as well as the Territorial Management Instruments that affect the areas of any Region or County of Portugal.
- Any of these constructions or facilities is also subject to compliance with the municipal norms in force at the level of the Municipal Master Plan, as well as any other applicable rules and regulations such as the General Regulation of Building and Urbanization, the Regulation of Urbanization and Municipal Building or the Regime Accessibility Law, in addition to the criteria of acoustic conditioning and thermal behavior, among others.
- It is also warned that, even in the specific case of mobile homes, caravans or motorhomes that do not remain in the same place over time, this feature does not exempt them from prior control, in accordance with the provisions of article 18, no. 1 of Decree-Law no. 310/2002, of 18 December, in the current wording, and in compliance with the conditions set out in the Municipal Regulation for Licensing of Casual Camping and Caravanning Activities.
This note for public clarification does not dispense with reading the legislation and regulations in force, in particular the Recommendation of the National Territory Commission No. 1/2019, available at:
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