InspectOS · What surrounds the house
The main building usually has a municipal file. What sits around it often does not, because owners treat a pool, an annex or a wall as landscaping rather than as construction.
| Structure | Why it slips past | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Swimming poolpiscina | Read as a garden feature rather than as excavation, structure, plant room and an electrical supply. | Footprint, drainage, and a circuit that needs its own safety assessment. |
| Annex or outbuildinganexo | Converted agricultural buildings, garden rooms and prefabricated modular units. A modular unit on a slab is construction, whatever the brochure said. | Added habitable area that may appear on no registered plan at all. |
| Garage or basement conversionalteração de uso | Changes the authorised use of a space rather than the footprint, so a buyer measuring the exterior finds nothing. | Use classification, which is what the licence actually records. |
| Boundary and retaining wallsmuros | Rebuilt higher than the original during landscaping, with no perceived need to ask anyone. | Height limits and setbacks are municipal, and a wall follows the same authorisation logic as a room. |
| Attic and roof terracesótão, terraço | Loft conversions happen inside the existing envelope and are invisible from aerial imagery. | Added area plus the fire and access position of the dwelling. |
The structure is absent from the descrição predial at the Conservatória do Registo Predial or from the Caderneta Predial Urbana. Sometimes the works were authorised and nobody updated the records afterwards.
The works never carried the municipal authorisation the RJUE required. Outcomes run from legalisation through correction to demolition, and the land classification often decides which.
A single addition frequently fails both tests at once, and the two are identical from the pavement. Only the municipal file separates them. The obligation attaches to the property, so it transfers at the deed.