Montelongo Asesores advises on the different types of licenses for commercial or business establishments that require a premises, whether open to the public or not. Such businesses need to process and obtain a
MUNICIPAL OPENING LICENSE. This license, as the name implies, grants the right to open the establishment to the public and begin the business development.
In the vast majority of cases, the Opening License will be granted by the corresponding City Council, although there may be cases where other types of authorizations issued by other supramunicipal administrations (large areas, large recreational parks , industries). Exemption from the requirement to obtain a license is a large part of the professional activities such as lawyers, architectural or engineering offices, etc., although they must make a communication to the City Council, which is comprehensive, the required square meters, facilities , etc.
Although it may be difficult to understand for those who are not accustomed to dealing with this matter, the processing of a Municipal Opening License will vary greatly depending on the City Council with which you are dealing.
The reason is that there is no procedure regulated in the Law for this type of process, bringing into play a multitude of regulations in different areas (sanitary, environmental – noise, noise, waste, etc.), technical codes, handicapped, tax) apart from the specific ones that may affect the business in question (sanitary authorizations, X-rays, waste disposal, etc.). But in all municipalities we will find two well-differentiated common procedures:
- License to open a new building.
- Change of ownership of the license.
The
license to operate from a new building begins with a step that is fundamental, although it may not be mandatory in some municipalities: what in some places is called “Urbanization Certificate” and in other “Urbanistic File”. This document issued by the municipalities paying the corresponding fee, will indicate if, according to the
Urban Planning of the Municipality (PGOU), it will be possible or not to carry out the activity we want in the premises we have chosen.
In addition, it can indicate which requirements will be required, from a technical point of view, to be able to open the premises to the public (heights, smoke, soundproofing, etc.), which may necessitate a technical project.
Once obtained this document would begin what is the procedure itself, which in most cases will consist of two parallel procedures: Work License and Opening License. Both must be simultaneous, not being able to obtain one without the other (although some municipalities are not clear, and it might be that the Work License is not needed, being necessary to obtain only the License of Opening).
Both licenses, opening and works, will require a Technical Project issued by a qualified Technician that in most cases may be an Industrial, Technical or Superior Engineer, Technical Architect or Senior Architect, which collects not only the distribution of the local, water, light, etc. (which would be the project of Work, sufficient for the Work License), but also the requirements that the local must have to carry out the activity to be carried out in it (installations, extraction of fumes, soundproofing, removal of architectural barriers for the handicapped ).
Once obtained, works of adaptation to the premises can be started, but it can not be opened to the public until the Technician who carried out the project certifies the completion of the works according to it and this document is presented to the City Council that soon will begin to send , if applicable, to its inspectors to verify that everything is compliant (technical inspection, tax inspection, sanitary inspection – the latter only if it has conferred the competences in the matter, if not, it will be the Health Center that must do it -).
After the inspections and their corresponding Inspection Acts in which we can request changes, modifications or rectifications of some elements, the City Council will issue the corresponding Municipal Opening License.
Other documents that may be needed include:
- Study to verify that the required soundproofing is complied with.
- Hygiene Plan in the Restoration business case.
- Supra-municipal authorizations.
The change of ownership of the license is much simpler than the previous one and has its base in the right that the City has to know who is the owner of the establishment and if a possible new owner continues carrying out the activity in the same conditions as the previous one to which the License was granted. That is, it should be communicated through this special procedure that there is a new owner of the establishment and request the City Council to initiate the procedures so that the Opening License ends up in his name.
If the City Council detects that the activity being carried out is not the same as the License, it may request to initiate a New Opening procedure.
During the procedure of change of Ownership of the License you will be able to receive the corresponding technical, tax or sanitary inspections to verify that the conditions are the appropriate ones.
We advise you to contact Montelongo Asesores if you want to open a business, buy or rent a local or office, as we will advise and inform you promptly of all the necessary requirements and all the steps that have to be carried out.
From Montelongo Asesores we process the following licenses among others:
- Commercial license: commerce, office, public administration, department stores, beauty center, hairdresser, gym.
- Industrial license: workshop, building, warehouse, premises, ship, public and private garage.
- License for specific projects and alternative energies: Electrical installations, fire-fighting, plumbing, heating installations, boiler rooms, solar thermal, photovoltaic, underfloor heating, fire protection, boiler rooms and air conditioning.
- Recreational license: hotel, inn, cottage, restaurant, cafeteria, disco, pubs, recreation or leisure room, cinema, theater, exhibition hall.
- Sanitary license: dental clinics, medical and hospital centers, laboratories, veterinary clinics.
In case of a TECHNICAL PROJECT and / or TECHNICAL CERTIFICATE, we can also facilitate its execution through an INGENIERO INDUSTRIAL SUPERIOR collaborator, who will be in charge of everything necessary to comply with the established requirements.
