We know it’s hard to believe (hell, we were getting a bit skeptical), but we just found out our drawings officially have both stamps of approval - one from the city and the other from INAH.
After we crack open some bubbly and drink ourselves silly, it’ll be time to sign off on the budget, draft a construction schedule and finally break ground.
We’ll keep you posted.
As some of you may know, Mérida recently held local elections. After over 21 years, the ruling party PAN was thrown out of office.
With this change in government came a massive shuffling of administrators and some changes in permitting procedures. As a result, our application for a building permit, previously little more than a rubber stamp, has been rejected based on building code violations in our proposal.
The major sticking point is the placement of our pool at one meter from the boundary wall. City code mandates that all pools must be situated at least two meters from a property’s boundary line.
Prior to the recent elections, the city allowed exceptions to this rule if a structural engineer was able to sign off on your drawings and guarantee no damage to your neighbor’s property during construction. Not any more! Thank goodness our property is wide enough to retain the pool (albiet moved) with the now strictly enforced rule.
With some adjustments, we’ve come up with a reasonable solution. With this revision made (as well as a few others), we are ready to resubmit. Fingers crossed we get the green light this time.
Well, one huge hurdle is over. We heard yesterday INAH, the government agency responsible for overseeing the preservation of historic buildings, has given us its stamp of approval. Now it’s up to the city to review our documents and give us the green light.
Until recently, this was a mere formality that happened within a few days. We heard, however, that change is afoot and the process is becoming more heavily scrutinized. We’ll see how things go.
Once this two-step permitting process is over, we can legally break ground. Wish us luck!
After what seems like ages of planning and designing, we are now at the mercy of INAH, the government agency responsible for doling out building permits. Our contractor estimates it will take about two weeks to get the green light (or find out there’s a problem). Until then, thank goodness we have our next brunch to take our mind off things.
It’s official, the house is finally ours! As of Friday, 8 March at 7pm, we pocketed the keys to our new house.
It was all quite ceremonial. We met in our lawyer’s office with our realtors and the sellers of the house. A ginormous leather-bound book that looked like it contained wizard spells sat on the table. Our lawyer opened it and began reading aloud the transfer of property details that had been neatly recorded within.
Once done, we handed over four checks: one for the seller, one for the lawyer, and one each for the two real estate agents involved in the purchase. Although the seller pays the realtor’s commission, the amounts were all divvied out by us in a set of last-minute calculations.
After 30 minutes, we finally received copies of the latest electrical bill as well as this year’s property taxes (76 USD). These were given as proof that there are no outstanding bills relating to the house.
On Monday, we pick up a certified copy of the title as the official one takes three months to print. This copy will enable us to transfer the water and power bills to our name.
We found out today that our house signing has been postponed until sometime next week. This is due to some delays in the processing of our fideicomiso - a bank trust that allows foreigners to purchase land within 50km of the Mexican coastline.
Although not surprising (these processes tend to take longer than expected), it’s still a major bummer. We were hoping to get in to our house today and begin tackling the overgrown garden. We now have lettuce greens, peas, tomatoes, pumpkins, and perilla leaves sprouting in our make-shift planter boxes. They are, like us, dying to be grounded.
