Rules for business premises in Spain
Electrical installation certificate (CIE)
The electrical installation certificate (CIE), known in Spain as the ‘boletín’, is the document the installation firm signs when it finishes, extends or alters a low-voltage installation. It is filed with the autonomous community and, without the stamped copy, the distribution company cannot connect the premises.
Also known asCIE · boletín eléctrico · electrical certificate · installer's certificate
What it is exactly
It is governed by the REBT, the Spanish low-voltage electrical regulation (Royal Decree 842/2002). When the work is finished, the installation firm “shall issue an Installation Certificate, signed by a low-voltage installer belonging to the firm” (ITC-BT-04, 5.4), and files it with the competent body of the autonomous community together with the design or the technical design report and, where the installation requires one, the certificate of the initial inspection by an inspection body. The supply company may not connect the installation unless it receives its copy of the certificate “duly stamped” (art. 18.3).
What the holder of the premises keeps (REBT, art. 19, and ITC-BT-04, 5.5):
- the stamped certificate: two paper copies for the owner, one to keep and one for the electricity company, or an electronic copy if it was filed online;
- instructions for use and maintenance including, at the very least, the single-line diagram and a sketch of the cable routes;
- if the installation is subject to inspection, the OCA's certificate with the defects noted.
An example: a clothes shop enlarges its shop window and adds a new circuit in the distribution board. If an installation firm does the work, it ends with that firm's certificate; if someone without a firm does it, nobody can sign it off, and the alteration clashes with art. 20 of the REBT, which requires the holder not to alter the installation on their own.
Worth knowing
The boletín is not the inspection. The installation certificate is signed by whoever does the work; the inspection certificate by an independent OCA, and only for premises that the REBT requires to be inspected. The word ‘boletín’ does not appear in the regulation, the certificate does not expire and the REBT does not require a new one when the occupier changes: if someone demands one when you take over the premises, that requirement does not come from the REBT. What does fall due is the periodic low-voltage inspection for the premises on the list.
Which documents a town hall asks for before you open is set by its by-laws and by the law of its autonomous community, not by the REBT: check the self-declaration or the activity licence that applies to you.
Sources
Related terms
- Activity licence (licencia de actividad)The licencia de actividad is the prior municipal licence to run a business from premises in Spain. Today it is the exception: Ley 12/2012 bans it for retail and the services in its annex up to 750 m², where a self-declaration is enough, and outside that annex the region and the town hall decide.
- Accredited inspection body (OCA)An OCA is an inspection body (organismo de control): an accredited, independent organisation that checks that an installation complies with its Spanish industrial safety regulation. It carries out, for example, the periodic inspections of a business's low-voltage wiring, lifts and fire protection.
- Authorised maintenance companyAn authorised maintenance company (empresa mantenedora) is one entitled to maintain regulated installations, such as fire protection (RIPCI) or heating, cooling and hot water (RITE). It files a declaration with the regional government, but the owner of the premises remains responsible for the maintenance being done.