Costa Rica Tourism and Retirement Guide
Building a house
preliminaries to building
Unless you want to live off the grid you must consider whether you have access to water, electricity and telephone. Also, if there is no sewer system to connect to, do you have a large enough drainage field to build your own septic tank?
Talk to the neighbors about your plans and see if they can see any possible problems. Check with the municipality if they see can foresee any problems. Problems can range from environmental concerns to a road being planned on your land.
requirements for building a house
In Costa Rica there are a lot of regulations when building a house. In most municipalities this does not present a problem. They want the fees that you have to pay so they will not be difficult.
The application for a construction permit has to be be presented by a licensed architect or engineer. They are licensed by the CFIA. This organization makes the fee schedule. The process goes in two parts:
1. plans and permits fees
Preliminary studies, estudios preliminaries: 0.5%.
Preproject design, anteproyecto: 1.0 to 1.5%.
Construction plans and technical specifications, planos de construcción y
especificaciones técnicas: 4%.
2. supervision and execution fees
Budgeting, presupuesto: 0.5-1.0%.
Inspection, inspección: 3% for a weekly
inspection.
Supervision, dirección técnica: 5% for daily inspection.
Administration, administración: 12% for complete overseeing.
fees
The fees will be between 4% and 18% of the construction costs depending on the services you require.
construction plan includes:
1. a site plan
2. distribution
plan
3. elevation
4. transversal and longitude perspectives
5. roof design and
drainage
6. design of footings and support beams
7. structural plan
8. electrical system
9. sanitary system
10. finishing work
dealing with the contractor
Always be polite. Never yell. Preferably do not correct a contractor in front of his employees. Check on the work as often as possible.