For nearly 30 years, hundreds of homeowners in parts of Murcia have lived in completed properties that legally don’t exist. Now, Spain’s Ombudsman is urging the City Council of Murcia to finally act.

Why are their homes illegal despite being sold and occupied long ago? Because they were never issued the necessary Licence of First Occupancy (LFO)—commonly known in Spain as the ‘cédula de habitabilidad’.

No certificate, no clarity

The licence of first occupancy serves as official confirmation that a home is fit to live in. This certificate ensures that a property meets safety, hygiene, and structural standards and is a prerequisite for registering utilities such as water and electricity. Despite this, around 700 homes in the Murcia districts of La Ladera and La Glorieta in Churra have gone without such documentation for decades.

Inhabitants have paid for homes that were marketed as fully urbanised. But as it turns out, that urbanisation was never completed—not by developers, and not by the Council.

Defensor del Pueblo speaks out

The issue came to a head with the publication of the most recent annual report from the Defensor del Pueblo (Ombudsman), Ángel Gabilondo. In it, Gabilondo delivered a pointed critique of the Murcia City Council for failing in its legal duty to oversee and enforce the completion of urban projects within the municipality.

“The local authorities must supervise, inspect, and control the urban development process,” the report states. “It is the City Council’s role to ensure that developers fulfil their obligations and to act if they don’t.”

In this context, the Ombudsman was clear: the obligation to complete the surrounding infrastructure does not fall upon the homeowners, who bought their properties under the assumption that all necessary work had already been completed or was guaranteed by the developer’s financial guarantees.

Who’s responsible?

The buck should stop with the developer. According to the report, developers failed to finish essential urbanisation works, such as roads, pavements, street lighting, or green zones—yet proceeded to sell the homes, pocket the money, and leave behind an urban planning headache.

When developers default on their commitments, Spanish urban regulations allow local authorities to use the financial guarantees deposited by promoters (commonly in the form of bank guarantees) to finish the job. But in this case, the Murcia City Council appears to have done little or nothing to trigger that mechanism over the past 25 years.

Homeowners paying for failures they didn’t cause

The Ombudsman’s report is unequivocal: forcing homeowners—many of whom bought in good faith decades ago—to pay again for urbanisation works they already financed in the purchase price is “inconsistent with the legal system.”

In a particularly damning conclusion, the report adds: “To do so would reward developer non-compliance while punishing citizens who serve a basic right and constitutional good—access to adequate housing.”

A recent step, but not a solution

In a half-hearted move, the Murcia City Council appears to have finally “received” the completed urbanisation works, though this refers only to partial compliance. The Council has opted not to form or support a Conservation Entity (Entidad de Conservación), the typical mechanism for managing communal areas and public infrastructure in these kinds of developments. Moreover, it has refused to return the developer’s financial guarantees, potentially indicating that things remain unfinished.

Meanwhile, the affected homeowners continue to live in a bureaucratic limbo—able to reside in their homes, but lacking the legal recognition that their properties even exist in the eyes of the local government.

Still waiting

The Ombudsman has issued a formal suggestion—a mechanism falling short of a legal order but carrying moral and political weight—urging the Council to undertake and complete the pending works using the developer’s guarantee or, if that proves insufficient, public funds. Only then should occupancy licences be granted.

For the residents of La Ladera and La Glorieta, it’s been a very long wait. And unless something changes soon, they may find themselves marking not 25 but 30 years in homes that, on paper, still don’t meet the legal standard for habitation.

Ultimately, it’s time for Murcia to clean up its urban planning backlog—and stop making homeowners pay for sins that aren’t theirs.