The Ficha Técnica da Habitação in Portugal in 2026: A Practical Guide to the Building Datasheet Your Notary Stopped Asking For in 2024, Who Must Still Produce One, and How to Get a Copy From the Câmara

If you bought a Portuguese flat before 2024, the notary asked you for a document called the ficha técnica da habitação, checked it existed, and handed you a paper copy at the deed. If you bought after 1 January 2024, nobody asked. The paperwork got lighter and most buyers assumed the document had been abolished.

It has not been. What disappeared was the moment at which someone forced it into your hands. The obligation to produce a ficha técnica, to deposit it at the town hall and to show it to buyers and tenants before they sign is still in force, unchanged. The result is a document that is still legally required, still holds the only written record of what your home is actually made of, and which a great many owners now never receive.

This guide covers what the ficha técnica is, which properties must have one, what changed in 2024, how to get a copy if you never got one, and what it is worth having.

What the ficha técnica da habitação actually is

It is a descriptive datasheet of the technical and functional characteristics of a dwelling, drawn up by the property developer. The governing law is Decreto-Lei n.º 68/2004, de 25 de março, whose stated purpose is to strengthen consumer information rights and the protection of consumers' economic interests when buying urban property for housing, and to make the market more transparent.

The key point about its content is the reference date. Under Article 4(2), the characteristics described are those at the moment the works were completed, taken from the telas finais, the as-built drawings approved at the end of construction. It is not a description of the project as designed. It is a description of the building as it was actually put up, including the changes made along the way.

Two people have to sign for that. Article 4(3) requires both the técnico responsável pela obra (the technician responsible for the works) and the developer to certify, by a signed declaration on the ficha itself, that the information in it corresponds to the real characteristics of the dwelling.

Where a property is being sold off-plan or before completion, Article 4(4) requires a provisional version based on the architecture and engineering designs, certified by the authors of those designs.

Which properties must have one

Article 2(2) sets two exclusions, and between them they define the whole scope:

• Buildings put up before the Regulamento Geral das Edificações Urbanas came into force. The RGEU was approved by Decreto-Lei n.º 38382, de 7 de agosto de 1951, so anything older than that is outside the regime entirely.
• Buildings already standing that had a licença de utilização, or a pending application for one, when Decreto-Lei n.º 68/2004 took effect. This is the exclusion that matters in practice. It means the ficha técnica regime applies going forward, to construction, reconstruction, extension and alteration licensed from 2004 onward.

So the working rule is this: if the building or the major works on it were licensed from 2004 onward, there should be a ficha técnica. If the property is an older flat that has not been substantially rebuilt, there will not be one, and its absence is not a defect in the sale.

The obligation falls on the promotor imobiliário, defined in Article 3(1)(a) as whoever decides, drives, programmes, directs and finances the construction or reconstruction works, whether an individual or a company, private or public. Article 3(3) adds a useful catch: where there is no developer, the duty falls on whichever professional sells or otherwise transfers the property for value.

What is inside it

Article 7 is long, and it is the reason the document is worth having. It requires, among other things:

• Who built it. The builder with its registration details, the authors of the architecture and structural designs with their professional body registration numbers, the technician responsible for the works with their registration number, and the developer.
• The building. Its location, the matriz predial registration number, the number and date of the use licence, the number of floors, dwellings, lifts and resident parking spaces, accessibility arrangements for people with reduced mobility, whether there is a condominium meeting room or a porter's lodge, and the construction solutions used for the foundations, structure, external walls and roof.
• The materials. The main construction materials and products used, particularly those in direct contact with residents, with a list of manufacturers including contacts and addresses. Article 7(9) is specific: whether the walls are double or single and how they are finished, the type of protection against noise and temperature swings, the type of roof and flooring, waterproofing materials, the material and efficiency of the pipework, the window frames and blinds, and the type of front door.
• The areas. The área bruta da habitação, the área bruta do fogo, the área útil do fogo, and the usable floor area of every single compartment and of every dependency such as a balcony or a storage room.
• The systems. Water supply, waste water and rainwater drainage, gas, electricity, heating and air conditioning, ventilation and smoke extraction, and telephone and telecommunications, together with the kitchen and bathroom equipment and their manufacturers.
• The plans. Simplified, to-scale drawings of the entrance floor, of the flat itself with every compartment and fixed appliance identified, and of the utility networks running through it. These are annexed and numbered under Article 7(8). The entrance-floor plan must show fire extinguishers and emergency exits.
• The guarantee and the rules. Article 7(6) requires the terms of the guarantee on the dwelling and how to invoke it if defects appear, the condominium's operating rules and any service contracts entered into, and maintenance rules for equipment that needs special treatment.

Article 6 requires all of this to be in Portuguese, in clear and comprehensible terms, legible, and without cross-references to technical texts that presuppose specialist knowledge. Portaria n.º 817/2004, de 16 de julho, approved the model form it must follow, and specified that no part of it may be handwritten.

What changed on 1 January 2024

The Simplex-style licensing reform, Decreto-Lei n.º 10/2024, de 8 de janeiro, revoked Article 9 of Decreto-Lei n.º 68/2004 outright. Article 26(f) of the reform states plainly that the removal of the obligation to present the use authorisation and the ficha técnica da habitação at acts transferring ownership of urban property took effect on 1 January 2024.

Article 9 had done two things. Its first paragraph barred a notary from executing a public deed transferring a dwelling unless the notary had satisfied themselves that a ficha técnica existed and that it was handed to the buyer. Its second paragraph barred the completion of a purchase financed by a mortgage loan unless the lending bank ensured the ficha was delivered to the buyer. Both are gone.

What survives is everything else, and it is most of the regime:

• Article 4, the duty to draw one up, is unchanged.
• Article 5, the duty to keep an organised archive of the fichas for at least ten years and to deposit a copy at the câmara municipal handling the licensing, is unchanged. The deposit must still happen before the deed, and the municipality charges a fee set by its assembleia municipal.
• Article 11, the duty of the seller or estate agent to make a copy available at the point of sale, is unchanged.
• Article 17, the duty to give a tenant access to it before signing a lease, is unchanged.
• Article 16, the joint and several civil liability of the technician and the developer for untrue information in it, is unchanged.

The practical effect is a gap between the law and the transaction. Nobody at the deed now checks, so the document frequently does not travel with the property, even though it was supposed to have been produced and deposited.

Your rights before you sign

Article 11 is the one to quote at an estate agent. At points of sale and public-facing offices, the seller, the estate agency or whoever is marketing the property must make available documented information including:

• A copy of the ficha técnica da habitação, or of the provisional version where the final one does not yet exist.
• The price per square metre of usable floor area.
• The total price, with the taxes and other legal obligations on the purchase set out explicitly, and the proposed payment terms.

Article 11(3) goes further: they must also make available for consultation at the point of sale an authenticated copy of the complete project for the building, including all the engineering designs. Article 11(4) requires information on properties still under construction to state the construction licence number and the expected completion dates. Article 11(5) requires the existence of the ficha to be announced in a clearly visible place.

Tenants have a narrower but real right. Under Article 17, in a lease of a dwelling covered by the decree, the landlord, whether acting professionally or not, or the estate agency where one is involved, must give the tenant access to the ficha técnica before the contract is signed.

How to get a copy if you do not have one

Article 10 covers this, and it is the most useful provision in the whole decree for an owner. It places a duty on the owner to keep the ficha in good condition, and then provides the remedy: if it has been lost or destroyed, the owner may request a second copy, a segunda via, from either the developer or the câmara municipal.

The municipal route is the one that still works years later, because Article 5(2) required the developer to deposit a copy with the câmara municipal that handled the licensing. That deposit is the reason a copy should exist in a public file even when the developer has long since wound up. The câmara issues the second copy against a fee, which Article 10(3) leaves each assembleia municipal to set on its câmara's proposal, so the amount varies from one municipality to the next and has to be checked locally.

In practice, ask the câmara municipal for the area where the property sits, identify the property by its matriz predial number and the licensing process, and request the segunda via of the ficha técnica da habitação. If the property was licensed from 2004 onward and the developer complied, it is there.

One limit worth knowing: Article 7(10) provides that the parts of the document naming non-public individuals may only be given to the owner of the property. A prospective buyer's copy can legitimately be redacted in that respect.

What happens when the information is wrong

This is where the document has teeth, and it is why it is worth obtaining before rather than after a dispute.

Under Article 16, the technician responsible for the works and the developer are jointly and severally liable for damage caused to the buyer or to third parties where the declaration or the information in the ficha técnica does not correspond to the truth. That liability ceases where the owner themselves has since carried out construction, reconstruction, extension or alteration works that mean the described characteristics genuinely no longer match the building.

Separately, Article 13 makes a set of failures administrative offences. Including information in the ficha that does not fully correspond to the real characteristics of the dwelling, and false declarations by the technician about that correspondence, carry fines of 2,490 to 3,490 euros for an individual and 12,470 to 44,890 euros for a company. Failing to keep the archive, or failing to deposit the copy at the câmara on time, carry 2,490 to 3,490 euros for an individual and 7,480 to 24,940 euros for a company. Breaching the point-of-sale disclosure duties in Article 11 carries the higher company band again. Negligence is always punishable, under Article 13(6). Article 14 allows accessory sanctions in serious cases, including temporary closure of the premises or a ban on the activity for up to two years.

Enforcement is split three ways under Article 15, and the split has not been updated since 2004, so the decree still names bodies under their old titles: the consumer authority for advertising offences, the construction and real-estate regulator for the ficha and point-of-sale offences, and the câmara municipal for failures to deposit. The municipality keeps the whole of any fine it levies for a missing deposit.

What this means for you

• If you are buying and the property was licensed from 2004 onward, ask for it in writing before you sign the CPCV. Nobody will volunteer it now. Article 11 entitles you to a copy at the point of sale, and a seller who cannot produce one has told you something useful about the building's paperwork.
• If you bought after January 2024 and never received one, you are not too late. Go to the câmara municipal under Article 10(2) and request the segunda via. This is a routine municipal service, not a legal fight.
• If you are renting, you can ask too. Article 17 gives tenants a right of access before signing. For anyone worried about damp, insulation or noise, the materials section under Article 7(9) is the most informative page you will get about the building.
• If defects appear, get the document first. The joint liability in Article 16 attaches to what the ficha says. A claim about a wall, a pipe or a window frame is far stronger when there is a signed declaration describing what was supposed to be there.
• If you are renovating, understand what it does to your position. Works you commission that change the described characteristics end the developer's and technician's liability for those elements under Article 16(2). Keep your own records from the point you start.
• Do not confuse it with the other three documents. The caderneta predial is the tax record, the certidão permanente de registo predial proves who owns it, the licença de utilização says it may lawfully be lived in, and the certificado energético rates how much energy it wastes. The ficha técnica is the only one that tells you what the building is made of.

The 2024 reform removed a checkpoint, not a right. The ficha técnica da habitação is still the single best record of your home's construction, it still carries signed liability behind every line of it, and a copy of it is still sitting in a municipal file waiting to be asked for.

Sources

This guide is written from official Portuguese and EU sources.

• Diário da República, Decreto-Lei n.º 68/2004, de 25 de março, consolidated text (Portuguese only)
• Diário da República, Decreto-Lei n.º 68/2004, de 25 de março, original text (Portuguese only, carries the pre-2024 wording of Article 9)
• Diário da República, Portaria n.º 817/2004, de 16 de julho (Portuguese only)
• Diário da República, Decreto-Lei n.º 10/2024, de 8 de janeiro (Portuguese only, PDF)