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Need satellite images for 'Demande de Regularisation'
My husband and I bought a house in Brussels in 2002. We now wish to sell this property. However, we have just learned that the previous owners (from whom we bought the house in good faith) built an extension to the back of the house on the ground floor as well as the attic floor without planning permission.
In order to sell the property, together with an architect we need to to introduce a 'demande de regularisation' to the local commune and prove that the extensions existed before we bought the property. From a stamp on the windows which were installed in these extensions we understand that they may have been built in July 1990.
We need to substantiate our case. We are looking for satellite images of our property in 1989 - 1991. We'd appreciate help on where to locate satellite images of Brussels streets/properties for this period. All other advice on how best to prepare a 'demande de regularisation' is also greatly appreciated!
Many thanks in advance.
I am not sure that there is a chance to find your house imagery for the 1989-1991 period as the number of observation satellites was limited and primarily used by military. However there is a good chance to find the free or commercial image of your house before 2002!
Option 1:
Get Google Earth (GE) installed on your PC: https://www.google.com/earth/
Start GE and zoom in to see your house.
Tag View/Historical Imagery from the top menu.
You will get the timeline selector in the top left corner.
Scale back to the date you need - there is a chance that your house was pictured before your purchase date.
Option 2:
There is a more advanced online tool here: https://browse.digitalglobe.com/imagefinder/main.jsp?
You can click "Modify Filter" on the right to browse only the imagery before 2002 (may take some time to find the right satellite/image). Otherwise you can just call them, provide your house coordinates and see what they can offer.
Option 3 (last resort):
Finally, you can browse this article for alternative options: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Earth_observation_satellites
I have a book 'AeroAtlas Vlaams-Brabant en Brussel' published by Lannoo of Tielt in 1996 though there is no indication when the pictures were taken.
The ISBN is 9 789020 927108.
There is also a reference in the book to Luchtfotografie Aerodata BVBA - presumably the company which took the actual aerial photgraphs.
The scale of the printed book is not great enough to show the detail that you need but the original photos may show greater detail.
Also, my wife had an aerial photo of a previous house that she owned. From memory of what she told me, everyone in the neighbourhood was offered a photo of their house. I don't have any more detail but clearly at least one company has been taking aerial photos en masse of the region.
Was an estate agent involved when you bought your home? If so, can they offer any help? And how come that the notaris who acted for you did not notice that they were dealing with a property which had been modified beyond the original specification?
I have a friend who had a similar issue which she discovered a few years after purchase. Upon doing some renovations discovered the floor joist weren't adequate. Checked her plans non existent. Then went to the commune ask for their set for that extension, told these are none existent. They went to the police and filed a declaration of some sort about that. They informed commune and had to get new plans drawn and lodged. I think that's all they did.
Turned out the notaire who sold it was friends of the vendors and stupidly my friend hadn't check all plans were present.
Do you not have any photographs from when you moved in that you sent people?
Common issue. Our neighbor's attic conversion got delayed several months because the existing veranda extension didn't have planning permission.
Some communes apparently have an annual area survey done to pick up this sort of thing.
Retrospective planning a
Retrospective planning almost certainly won't be a problem - you'll just need to go through the motions and cough up.
I'd recommend Alex as architect, who's been beyond helpful with tricky belgian permits, it's my understanding you'd need to measure and introduce the plans to the commune. He's insured and licensed (on the board of architects)so no worries there, plus he's nice and does great work. Good luck!
