The second occupancy declaration: when you will be asked for it

What it is, and why people still call it a licence

In the Valencia region, what you file today is a responsible declaration (declaración responsable): the owner declares, backed by a technician, that the home is still fit to live in. It is governed by the Valencian government's Decree 12/2021, which covers the first occupation of a home and the occupations that follow.

Many people, and many websites, still call it the second occupancy licence (licencia de segunda ocupación). It is the same procedure. What matters is that you do not wait for the town hall to grant anything: you declare, and the town hall may check afterwards.

The two moments when you are asked for it

According to València City Council, which sets it out on its e-office, the second occupancy declaration is needed once ten years have passed since the home was first occupied, and one of two things happens.

The first is a transfer of ownership: you sell the house, or someone else acquires it. The second is that a new supply contract is needed for water, gas or electricity.

Switching supplier is not a new contract in that sense, and the council says so. The typical case for an owner who lives abroad is different: the house was shut for months, a supply was cancelled, and to get it back in your name the company asks for a new contract.

Who signs it and what is handed in

The owner files it, whether an individual or a company. But the owner cannot sign it alone: it comes with a responsible declaration from a qualified technician and a technical certificate, which the technician issues after visiting the house. València adds that the professional body's stamp (visado) is not required.

Once filed, the second occupancy declaration is valid for ten years. If you sell or sign a new supply contract within that period, the same one serves.

Where it is filed on the southern Costa Blanca

Each town hall has its own form and its own fee. Torrevieja, for example, has a municipal page for the procedure: it is filed in person at the Urbanismo building, on the ground floor, or through the town hall's e-office, under urban planning and housing.

Rojales, Orihuela, Guardamar and the other towns of the Vega Baja apply the same decree, because it is Valencian, but each with its own desk and form. The technician who signs the certificate usually knows where it goes.

What this guide cannot tell you

What your town hall charges, since each sets its own fee, or what the technician charges. Exactly when your house was first occupied, which is the date the ten years run from and is not always the year it was built. And nothing about the Region of Murcia: Mazarrón, San Javier or San Pedro del Pinatar do not apply the Valencian decree, and this guide has not checked their rules.

Signing the certificate is work for a qualified technician, and we do not do it. What we do is make sure the letters that reach your Spanish house, the water company's and the town hall's included, are opened and reported to you in time.

Frequently asked questions

Services

The other guides

Official sources

• València City Council · Second occupancy responsible declaration
• Torrevieja Town Hall · Second occupancy responsible declaration