A single person can comfortably live in a small studio, while a family will need a home with several rooms to accommodate their children. Personal circumstances aside, the regulations establish minimum conditions of habitability for any property used as a dwelling.
In UCI explains what the legal requirements are regarding homes and why it is important for you to know them.
Preliminary considerations
The first thing you should keep in mind is that the regulation of living conditions varies greatly , depending on the area in which you live and the age of the building or single-family home.
Although at a national level, the applicable legislation is contained in the Order of February 29, 1944, which establishes the minimum hygienic conditions that homes must meet , and Royal Decree 314/2006, of March 17, which approves the Technical Building Code , it is the autonomous communities and, in some cases, the municipalities, who are responsible for developing these general standards and specifying the requirements for homes in their respective territories.
Therefore, although the regulations are similar, when it comes to determining the habitability conditions that your property must meet, what should you take into account?
- The location of the property , in order to be able to consult the corresponding regulations in your area of residence.
- The date of construction of the flat or house, as decrees usually stipulate different parameters depending on the age of the property. Thus, a flat built 50 years ago does not have to meet the same requirements as a new one. You can check this information in the public deed, the simple registry note or in the Cadastre.
Why are you interested in knowing these technical conditions?
There are various mandatory administrative certifications whose granting will depend on whether the property meets these minimum conditions of habitability. These are, in general terms, the certificate of habitability , the first occupancy license (in the case of newly built homes) or the Technical Inspection of Buildings (ITE).
As a result, if you are going to buy a new-build flat, you will need to have a first occupancy licence, issued by the competent authority, in order to move in; if it is second-hand, you will normally have to ask for a certificate of habitability; and, in the case of properties of a certain age, you will have to periodically undergo the ITE. Therefore, it is necessary to check that the property complies with these minimum habitability requirements.
General requirements for habitability
What should you look for to ensure that your home meets the minimum requirements? Based on the article published by Acuatro Arquitectos.com and taking into account the particularities of each autonomous community, as a reference, we detail the main habitability conditions required by the Urban Planning Regulations of the General Urban Development Plan of Madrid .
Facade
All homes must have at least one exterior side , that is, facing the street or a patio, as long as it has the minimum conditions and dimensions.
In addition, the façade of the building must have a minimum length ; in the case of the Community of Madrid, this distance must be 3 metres or more.
Dimensions
How small can a property be in order to be able to live in it? According to regional regulations, the usable surface area of a home can reach 25 square metres if it is a studio apartment with a common area - at least 12 square metres - for the living room, dining room and kitchen, plus another space for the toilet.
Outside of this format, the dimensions cannot be less than 38 square meters , consisting in all cases of a living-dining room, kitchen, bedroom and toilet.
Distribution
In any case, the bathroom must be independent, consisting of a toilet, sink and shower/bathtub, and not constitute a passage area.
The home must also have a kitchen - either in an isolated room or integrated into the living room.
Regarding height, the minimum required for any property is 2.50 meters .
Stays
Each room in the house or apartment must also meet certain minimum requirements. What are they?
- The entrance door must be at least 2.03 metres high by 0.825 metres wide. For the rest of the doors, the height must be maintained, although the minimum width is reduced to 0.725 metres, or 0.625 metres for the toilet.
- The kitchen cannot be less than 5 square metres and must have an independent duct for smoke to escape to the roof (never to the façade or the neighbours' patio).
- Hallways cannot be narrower than 85 centimetres, a measurement that should be wider in the entrance area: it should be slightly wider than the hallway.
- Bedrooms must have a minimum area of 6 square meters, if they are single, or 10 square meters, if they are double.
- The living room or lounge will also have to be 10 square metres, although if it has an open-plan kitchen (with both rooms integrated), the requirement increases to 14 square metres.
- The toilet must have a dimension of 1.5 square meters.
- The clothesline area cannot be exposed to the view of pedestrians, so it must have some element of visual protection.
Lighting and ventilation
As for lighting , the property must provide natural light during daylight hours in all rooms, except for hallways, the entrance hall and bathrooms or toilets. To this end, the surface area occupied by lighting openings must represent at least 12% of the usable surface area of the habitable room.
Natural ventilation openings must have a surface area greater than 8% of the usable surface area of the plot. However, ventilation of non-habitable rooms (toilets, corridors and halls) can be done through direct ventilation (windows), ducted ventilation (grids) or forced ventilation (extractor fans).
Endowment
Likewise, any home must have a minimum level of equipment, consisting of:
- Hot and cold water installation.
- Water evacuation system.
- Power supply.
- A kitchen unit consisting of a sink, stove and smoke extraction system (the typical hood).
- Installation for washing machine .
- Electric intercom or any other mechanism that allows interaction with the outside.
- Minimum installation at telecommunications level (telephone, antenna, internet).
Although all these guidelines may seem too technical, they are more useful than you think. Imagine, for example, that you want to convert a premises into an apartment: have you checked that the ceiling has the required height of 2.50 metres, that the usable surface area reaches 25 square metres or what layout you can create based on the dimensions of the property? Knowing these requirements will be essential for your renovation project to go ahead in accordance with the law.